creating-portable-skills

Create, audit, and validate portable Agent Skills packages with structured review and testing.

6|Updated Jul 10, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/jrgilbertson/the-rookery --skill creating-portable-skills-jrgilbertson
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: creating-portable-skills
Source: https://github.com/jrgilbertson/the-rookery/tree/main/skills/creating-portable-skills
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/jrgilbertson/the-rookery --skill creating-portable-skills-jrgilbertson

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes scripts (resource) and references (resource) and assets (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? Writing an AI agent skill that triggers correctly, stays portable across harnesses, and actually improves behavior is hard to do by intuition alone. This Skill provides a disciplined workflow for creating, revising, migrating, and auditing skills so they meet the Agent Skills specification and are backed by real evidence rather than guesswork. ## Core Features & Use Cases - End-to-end skill authoring workflow: Eight guided steps from resolving intent through drafting, structural validation, behavioral testing, description tuning, and packaging. - Independent review and audit rubric: A detailed review checklist covering triggering, instruction economy, evidence integrity, and portability, plus a mechanical signal-scan script for first-pass checks. - Validation templates: Ready-to-use templates for baseline behavior comparisons, trigger query testing, and new skill scaffolding. - Use Case: You want to add a new skill to your team's shared catalog. Use this Skill to draft the SKILL.md from a template, validate it against the Agent Skills specification, run matched behavioral comparisons, test the description against trigger queries, and produce an installable package. ## Quick Start Use the creating-portable-skills skill to audit my existing skill package and produce a prioritized list of fixes.

Frequently Asked Questions about creating-portable-skills

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I create a portable AI agent skill?▼

Follow the eight-step workflow: resolve the skill's intent and hard constraints, scope targets and resources, draft from the provided template, validate structure against the Agent Skills specification, check behavior, review, test the description, and package for installation.

How to test whether a skill description triggers correctly?▼

Use the trigger-queries template to build 5-10 should-trigger phrasings and 5-10 near misses, then have an independent grader judge each query in a fresh context. Every should-trigger query needs a yes, and any near-miss yes fails the set.

What is the Agent Skills specification format?▼

It is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (name, description, optional license, compatibility, metadata) plus a Markdown body, and optional references, assets, and scripts directories. The name must be lowercase kebab-case matching the directory, and the body stays under 500 lines.

Does this skill work with Claude Code and OpenAI Codex?▼

Yes, the packages produced follow the portable Agent Skills format installable in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and others. Harness-specific metadata like Codex's openai.yaml stays optional and outside the canonical package.

When should I use focused validation instead of full validation?▼

Focused validation applies only to localized, low-risk guidance revisions with unchanged task scope, triggers, outcomes, and evaluation policy. New skills, substantive semantic changes, and ambiguous cases always require full validation with independent grading and review.

Why does a skill audit require an independent reviewer?▼

An independent reviewer is any agent that took no part in authoring the artifact, which prevents the author's own biases from masking defects. The author's self-review never substitutes, and unavailable independent contexts leave the grade or review unverified.