writing-skills

To turn process documentation into testable skills, apply a test-driven development cycle to your docs by writing baseline RED tests, creating minimal SKILL.md content to pass them (GREEN), and refactoring for clarity. This ensures your documentation is verifiable and repeatable.

The RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle for skill authoring is a test-driven development approach. RED captures the failure baseline of your process docs, GREEN writes minimal SKILL.md content to pass the test, and REFACTOR improves structure while maintaining compliance.

You structure a SKILL.md file using test-driven development by defining YAML frontmatter with required name and description fields, then adding concise trigger-based descriptions. Optional references, scripts, or assets support progressive disclosure and loading-on-demand.

Writing skills with TDD requires no external dependencies or components. It relies entirely on applying the RED-GREEN-REFACTOR cycle to your process documentation and enforcing YAML frontmatter rules within the SKILL.md structure for compliance.

To enforce discipline and prevent rule-skirting during skill deployment, use formal prompts, rationalization tracking, and red flags within your SKILL.md. This test-driven approach ensures strict adherence to the documented process.