A structured course that takes you from knowing nothing about AI agent skills to authoring production-quality SKILL.md files. Each module builds on the last. Estimated time: 5-6 hours total.
- Basic familiarity with Markdown
- Access to an AI coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, or similar)
- This repository cloned locally
Module 1: What Are Skills? (30 min) -- Foundation + dissect 3 real skills
Module 2: The SKILL.md Format (30 min) -- Spec mastery + build and validate a skeleton
Module 3: Writing Descriptions (40 min) -- The #1 failure point + 5 progressive challenges
Module 4: Progressive Disclosure (30 min) -- Token economics + right-sizing labs
Module 5: Patterns That Work (40 min) -- 8 patterns + scenario-based matching exercise
Module 6: Anti-Patterns (30 min) -- 14 mistakes + 3 broken skills to debug
Module 7: Your First Skill (45 min) -- 3 guided tracks: beginner/intermediate/advanced
Module 8: Advanced Techniques (40 min) -- Meta-skills, composition + instinct writing lab
Module 9: Multi-Host Compatibility (30 min) -- Ship everywhere + portability audit lab
Module 10: Maintaining a Skill Library (30 min) -- Living systems + full maintenance loop
Module 11: Using the Skill Maker (30 min) -- Capstone: guided skill creation with the Skill Maker
Each module is a standalone markdown file. Read them in order. Every module includes:
- Concepts with real examples from top repos (700K+ stars analyzed)
- Try It labs with step-by-step instructions and sample problems
- Before/after examples showing broken skills and their fixes
- Checkpoints to verify understanding before moving on
- Links to wiki articles for deeper reading
- Read-only: Read the modules, study the examples, answer the checkpoints
- Hands-on: Do every Try It lab, build real skills, run the validator
- Guided creation: Use the Skill Maker (Module 11) for interactive, AI-guided skill creation
- Prompt decomposition: Use the Prompt Decomposer to break an existing large prompt into modular skills -- great for learning by refactoring
After finishing the 11 modules, the Skill Factory offers three powerful tools you can use anytime:
- Skill Maker -- Interactive 7-phase skill creation with forcing questions and wiki-backed best practices
- Prompt Decomposer -- Paste a big system prompt or instruction set and extract reusable skills from it. Evaluates each section for skill-worthiness, suggests names, and routes approved candidates into the Skill Maker
- Authoring Meta-Skill -- Wiki-backed review, gap analysis, and rewriting for existing skills
To access all of these through a single entry point, tell your agent to read the root SKILL.md and pick from Routes A through D.
Start with Module 1: What Are Skills?