---

name: example-skill description: Use when working with examples, tutorials, or skill documentation. Invoke when the user asks about skill configuration, manifest structure, or creating new skills. allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep

Example Skill

This is an example skill demonstrating the SKILL.md format.

What Skills Provide

Skills are instructions and context injected into the agent's system prompt. They help the agent understand:

• When to use certain techniques or tools
• Project-specific conventions and patterns
• Domain knowledge and best practices

What Skills Do NOT Provide

Skills are not for:

• CLI tools (use package managers or plugins)
• MCP servers (use plugins with plugin.json)
• Hooks (use plugins)
• Slash commands (use plugins)

For those capabilities, create a full Claude Code plugin with .claude-plugin/plugin.json.

SKILL.md Format

Skills are defined by a single SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: When to use this skill...
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash
---

# My Skill

Instructions and documentation here...

Required Frontmatter Fields

Field	Description
name	Skill identifier (kebab-case, 1-64 chars)
description	Critical - tells Claude when to invoke the skill

Optional Frontmatter Fields

Field	Description
allowed-tools	Comma-separated or YAML array of allowed tools

Discovery

The description field is crucial for skill discovery. Claude uses it to decide when to invoke the skill.

Good descriptions:

• "Use when managing git branches, resolving merge conflicts, or reviewing commit history"
• "Use when working with React components, hooks, or state management"

Bad descriptions:

• "Git utilities" (too vague)
• "React helper" (won't trigger reliably)

Example Use Cases

This skill covers:

1. Explaining skill structure and format
2. Helping users create new skills
3. Demonstrating best practices for skill documentation