skills.rest
vellum-ai
vellum-aiOFFICIAL
Explore all skills by this author →
Website𝕏@vellum_aiGitHub

vellum-skill-authoring

Review and author first-party Vellum skills with isolation and portability constraints.

1.2k|166|Updated Feb 7, 2026
Search Tags:#packaging#skill.md#tool contracts#vellum#Code review#SKILL authoring#Isolation
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant --skill vellum-skill-authoring
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: vellum-skill-authoring
Source: https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant/tree/main/.cursor/skills/vellum-skill-authoring
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant --skill vellum-skill-authoring

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve?

Authoring first-party Vellum skills requires enforcing strict isolation boundaries, portability rules, and packaging steps that are easy to miss, leading to broken skill registration or cross-module coupling.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Isolation Enforcement: Ensures skills/ never imports from assistant/ and vice versa, keeping first-party skills portable.
  • SKILL.md Quality Bar: Provides a checklist for concise, operational skill instructions with generic examples and no hidden local state.
  • Tool and Script Review: Guides verification of tool input/output contracts, error handling, and focused tests for parsing and failure cases.
  • Use Case: When adding a new bundled skill, use this Skill to confirm the catalog, manifest, and bundled registry entries are updated so the skill is actually available to users.

Quick Start

Review my new skill under the skills directory and verify its SKILL.md, tool contracts, and catalog registration follow Vellum authoring rules.

Frequently Asked Questions about vellum-skill-authoring

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

FAQPage Schema
How do I author a first-party Vellum skill?▼

Create a SKILL.md with concise operational instructions, keep the skill portable and isolated, and register it in the relevant catalog, manifest, or bundled registry. A SKILL.md file alone does not make the skill available to users.

What isolation rules apply to Vellum skills?▼

The skills/ directory must not import from assistant/, and assistant/ must not import from skills/. Prefer skill processes and supported contracts over new daemon tool registrations to preserve portability.

Does a SKILL.md file alone register a skill?▼

No. When adding or renaming skills, you must also update the relevant catalog, manifest, bundled registry, or packaging path used by the runtime, otherwise the skill will not be available to users.

What should I check when reviewing skill tools and scripts?▼

Verify tool input/output contracts are explicit, check error handling and user-facing messages, confirm scripts run in the skill process environment, and add focused tests for parsing, contract handling, and failure cases.

When should I not use this authoring guidance?▼

This guidance covers Vellum runtime skills in skills/ and bundled assistant skills only. It does not apply to Cursor Agent Skills under .cursor/skills/, which follow a different authoring model.

Related Skills

Explore More Software Engineering Skills→
generative-computinggenerative-computing
1.8k

skill-author

Create cross-platform SKILL.md files for Claude Code and IBM Bob.

Official
Advanced
1k-off1k-off
1

umbraco-bundle

Generate Umbraco bundle manifests and JavaScript entry files for backoffice extensions.

Community
Intermediate
gaiastudio-aigaiastudio-ai
2

gaia-security-review

Analyze changed files for OWASP Top 10 and secrets exposure.

Official
Intermediate
agilebydesignagilebydesign
1

deploy-skill-to-cursor

Deploy a skill from agilebydesign-skills into Cursor's global skills folder via a Windows directory junction.

Official
Intermediate