creating-skills

To create a Claude Code Skill, you use template-driven generation to produce a standardized SKILL.md file. The tool scaffolds the necessary directory structure, including references and workflows, based on your target domain and desired skill type.

Simple skills contain a single SKILL.md file for direct tasks, while router-pattern skills use a routing structure to dispatch logic across multiple specialized references. Router-patterns enable progressive disclosure for complex domain knowledge capture.

You validate YAML frontmatter and XML structure using built-in inline validation hooks. These hooks enforce frontmatter validity and pure XML structure during the skill creation process to ensure alignment with skill-patterns.

The best way to capture domain knowledge is through guided extraction into a references directory. This approach uses progressive disclosure, keeping the main SKILL.md concise while storing detailed workflow guidance and domain data in separate reference files.

No, you do not need existing workflows to begin. You provide the skill type, target domain, and desired workflows, and the tool generates a ready-to-edit SKILL.md along with scaffolded references, workflows, and assets to start from scratch.