writing-skills

Standardize skill discovery metadata by using structured frontmatter templates containing name and description. This ensures markdown documentation is consistently discoverable across projects by providing standardized patterns for drafting SKILL.md files.

Structuring a SKILL.md file requires frontmatter with name and description fields, followed by the skill's guide sections. This markdown body structure ensures written skills are discovered by future sessions rather than just read.

Optional resource directories like scripts, references, and assets are not required but supported. Writing skills provides implementation guidance for these optional directories to help organize supplementary materials alongside the main SKILL.md.

Frontmatter improves skill design by embedding structured discovery metadata directly into markdown files. This enforces best practices by ensuring skills contain required name and description fields before any guide sections are written.

Existing markdown documentation requires modification to fit skill standards. You must add frontmatter containing name and description fields, and restructure the markdown body into guide sections to meet the discovery requirements.

Create a skill when you have proven techniques and patterns that future sessions need to find and apply. Skills are reference guides designed for discovery, whereas standard documentation is typically read linearly without structured discovery metadata.