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Chapter 07

Resources and references

Chapter 07
4 min remaining

If you're building your first skill, start with the Best Practices Guide, then reference the API docs as needed.

Official documentation

Anthropic resources

Blog posts

Example skills

Public skills repository

Tools and utilities

skill-creator skill

  • Built into Claude.ai and available for Claude Code
  • Can generate skills from descriptions
  • Reviews and provides recommendations
  • Use: "Help me build a skill using skill-creator"

Validation

  • skill-creator can assess your skills
  • Ask: "Review this skill and suggest improvements"

Getting support

For technical questions

For bug reports

Reference A: Quick checklist

Use this checklist to validate your skill before and after upload. If you want a faster start, use the skill-creator skill to generate your first draft, then run through this list to make sure you haven't missed anything.

Before you start

  • Identified 2-3 concrete use cases
  • Tools identified (built-in or MCP)
  • Reviewed this guide and example skills
  • Planned folder structure

During development

  • Folder named in kebab-case
  • SKILL.md file exists (exact spelling)
  • YAML frontmatter has --- delimiters
  • name field: kebab-case, no spaces, no capitals
  • description includes WHAT and WHEN
  • No XML tags (< >) anywhere
  • Instructions are clear and actionable
  • Error handling included
  • Examples provided
  • References clearly linked

Before upload

  • Tested triggering on obvious tasks
  • Tested triggering on paraphrased requests
  • Verified doesn't trigger on unrelated topics
  • Functional tests pass
  • Tool integration works (if applicable)
  • Compressed as .zip file

After upload

  • Test in real conversations
  • Monitor for under/over-triggering
  • Collect user feedback
  • Iterate on description and instructions
  • Update version in metadata

Reference B: YAML frontmatter

Required fields

---
name: skill-name-in-kebab-case
description: What it does and when to use it. Include specific trigger phrases.
---

All optional fields

name: skill-name
description: [required description]
license: MIT # Optional: License for open-source
allowed-tools: "Bash(python:*) Bash(npm:*) WebFetch" # Optional: Restrict tool access
metadata: # Optional: Custom fields
  author: Company Name
  version: 1.0.0
  mcp-server: server-name
  category: productivity
  tags: [project-management, automation]
  documentation: https://example.com/docs
  support: support@example.com

Security notes

Allowed

  • Any standard YAML types (strings, numbers, booleans, lists, objects)
  • Custom metadata fields
  • Long descriptions (up to 1024 characters)

Forbidden

  • XML angle brackets (< >) - security restriction
  • Code execution in YAML (uses safe YAML parsing)
  • Skills named with "claude" or "anthropic" prefix (reserved)

Reference C: Complete skill examples

For full, production-ready skills demonstrating the patterns in this guide:

These repositories stay up-to-date and include additional examples beyond what's covered here. Clone them, modify them for your use case, and use them as templates.