create-ultimate-skill

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Create, review, and iterate on Claude Code skills using Anthropic's official best practices and latest API documentation. Use when creating skills, reviewing existing skills, writing skill descriptions, designing skill architecture, or when user says "create a skill", "review my skill", "skill best practices", "skill description help". Do NOT use for creating plugins, commands, agents, or hooks - use plugin-dev skills for those.

17installs

Sourcehenkisdabro/wookstar-claude-code-plugins

Added on2026-02-26

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add henkisdabro/wookstar-claude-code-plugins create-ultimate-skill

SKILL.md Content

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Create Ultimate Skill

Creation Workflow

When creating a new skill based on user's request: $ARGUMENTS

Phase 1: Define Use Cases

Ask the user:

Use cases: "Describe 2-3 specific scenarios where you'd want this skill to activate. What would you say to Claude, and what should it do?"
Non-use cases: "What should this skill NOT be used for?" (defines negative triggers)

Phase 2: Choose Archetype and Scope

Ask the user:

Archetype (see Archetypes section below)
Triggers: What phrases should activate this skill?
Scope: What's in scope vs out of scope?

Phase 3: Fetch Latest Documentation

Fetch the latest official skill documentation to verify current fields and constraints:

WebFetch: https://markdown.new/https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills.md

Phase 4: Choose Save Location

Use AskUserQuestion:

Personal (home folder):
```
~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/
```
- available in all projects
Project folder:
```
.claude/skills/<skill-name>/
```
- project-specific
Existing plugin: ask which plugin, then
```
plugins/<plugin-name>/skills/
```

Phase 5: Create the Skill

Scaffold with init_skill.py or create manually:

bash

python .claude/skills/create-ultimate-skill/scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <location>

Then write SKILL.md applying all rules below. Review with the checklist before presenting to user.

Phase 6: Summary

When complete, provide:

Skill location and how to trigger it
What it does
Suggestions for improvement
Testing prompts the user can try

Frontmatter Hard Rules

```
description
```
MUST be a single-line plain string. NEVER use YAML multi-line indicators (
```
>-
```
,
```
|
```
,
```
>
```
,
```
|-
```
). Multi-line descriptions break frontmatter parsing.
```
allowed-tools
```
MUST be a single-line comma-separated string (e.g.
```
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit
```
). NEVER use YAML list syntax.

Required Fields

Field	Constraints
`name`	Max 64 chars, `[a-z0-9-]` only, no "anthropic"/"claude"
`description`	Max 1024 chars, non-empty, no XML tags

Optional Fields

Field	Purpose	Example
`allowed-tools`	Limit tool access	`Read, Grep, Glob`
`model`	Override model	`sonnet` , `opus`
`context`	Isolation	`fork`
`agent`	Subagent type	`Explore` , `Plan`
`hooks`	Lifecycle events	`PreToolUse` , `PostToolUse` , `Stop`
`user-invocable`	Slash menu visibility	`false` to hide
`disable-model-invocation`	Block Skill tool	`true`

See references/api-reference.md for full field documentation.

Archetypes

Archetype	Best For	Structure
CLI Reference	Tool documentation	Commands grouped by function, minimal prose
Methodology	Workflows, processes	Philosophy + THE EXACT PROMPT + examples
Safety Tool	Validation, security	Threat model + risk tiers + rules
Orchestration	Multi-agent coordination	Quick start + APIs + integrations

See references/archetypes.md for templates.

Description Rules

Third person always ("Processes files" not "I help you")
Include WHAT it does AND WHEN to trigger
Specific trigger phrases users would say
Add negative triggers ("Do NOT use for...") to prevent over-triggering
Max 1024 characters

Template:

yaml

description: [What it does]. Use when [triggers]. Do NOT use for [exclusions].

Examples:

yaml

description: Extract text and tables from PDF files, fill forms, merge documents. Use when working with PDF files or when user mentions PDFs, forms, or document extraction.

description: Process and transform CSV data files. Use when working with CSV imports, exports, or data cleaning. Do NOT use for Excel files (.xlsx) or database queries.

SKILL.md Body Rules

Imperative voice ("Extract the data", "Run validation")
Never second person ("You should...")
Concise - challenge each line: "Does Claude need this?"
Under 500 lines, under 5,000 words (~2,000 ideal)
Put critical instructions at the top of the file
Use scripts for validation where possible - code is deterministic, language interpretation is not
"Take your time to do this thoroughly" is more effective in user prompts than in SKILL.md

Structure Rules

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md              # Core guidance only
├── references/           # Detailed docs (on-demand)
├── examples/             # Working code samples
└── scripts/              # Executable utilities

References ONE level deep only - no chains
Long files (>100 lines): include TOC
Never include README.md in skill folder (SKILL.md IS the readme)
Forward slashes only (no Windows paths)

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Fix
Vague descriptions	Specific triggers + negative triggers
Deeply nested references	One level deep
README.md in skill folder	Delete it - SKILL.md IS the readme
`>-` or `	` in description
YAML list for allowed-tools	Comma-separated string

Testing

Define success criteria before building:

Quantitative: Trigger rate >90% of relevant queries, correct tool sequence, task completes without user intervention
Qualitative: Output matches expected format, no hallucinated commands, consistent across sessions

Debug technique: Ask Claude "When would you use the [skill name] skill?" - the response reveals how Claude interprets the description.

Test three areas:

Triggering: Direct trigger phrases, paraphrased requests, and edge cases that should NOT trigger
Functional: Run each use case end-to-end, check output format and accuracy
Performance: Compare skill-assisted vs manual - does the skill save time and improve quality?

Pro tip: Iterate on a single challenging task until Claude succeeds, then extract the winning approach into the skill. This grounds design in proven patterns rather than theory.

Iteration Signals

Signal	Fix
Skill never activates	Add more trigger phrases to description
Wrong skill activates	Add "Do NOT use for..." negative triggers
Output is wrong	Refine SKILL.md instructions, add examples
Output is inconsistent	Reduce degrees of freedom, be more prescriptive

Utility Scripts

init_skill.py

bash

python .claude/skills/create-ultimate-skill/scripts/init_skill.py <skill-name> --path <location>

Creates SKILL.md with template, plus scripts/, references/, assets/ directories.

package_skill.py

bash

python .claude/skills/create-ultimate-skill/scripts/package_skill.py <path/to/skill> [output-dir]

Validates and creates distributable zip. Checks frontmatter, naming, ensures no TODOs remain.

Skill Review Mode

When reviewing an existing skill (triggered by

--review

or "review my skill"):

Read SKILL.md frontmatter, body, and supporting directories
Categorise issues by severity:
- Critical: Won't trigger or wrong output (missing description, vague triggers, broken refs)
- Major: Significantly reduces effectiveness (>5,000 words, no progressive disclosure)
- Minor: Polish (inconsistent terminology, missing TOC, no negative triggers)
Generate structured review report:

markdown

## Skill Review: [skill-name]

### Summary
[Assessment, word counts, structure]

### Description Analysis
**Current:** [description]
**Issues:** [with severity]
**Suggested:** "[improved version]"

### Issues by Severity
#### Critical ([count])
- [File]: [Issue] - [Fix]
#### Major ([count])
- [File]: [Issue] - [Fix]
#### Minor ([count])
- [File]: [Issue] - [Suggestion]

### Rating: [Pass / Needs Improvement / Needs Major Revision]

### Priority Fixes
1. [Highest impact]
2. [Second]
3. [Third]

Review Checklist

Use cases: 2-3 concrete scenarios defined
name: lowercase, hyphens, ≤64 chars
description: single-line plain string, third person, specific triggers, ≤1024 chars
description: negative triggers if needed
SKILL.md body: <500 lines, <5,000 words
No README.md in skill folder
References: one level deep
Forward slashes only
Examples concrete, not abstract

Latest Documentation

Before finalising any skill's frontmatter, fetch the latest official documentation to check for new fields, changed constraints, or updated rules:

WebFetch: https://markdown.new/https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills.md

create-ultimate-skill

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Create Ultimate Skill

Creation Workflow

Phase 1: Define Use Cases

Phase 2: Choose Archetype and Scope

Phase 3: Fetch Latest Documentation

Phase 4: Choose Save Location

Phase 5: Create the Skill

Phase 6: Summary

Frontmatter Hard Rules

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Archetypes

Description Rules

SKILL.md Body Rules

Structure Rules

Anti-Patterns

Testing

Iteration Signals

Utility Scripts

init_skill.py

package_skill.py

Skill Review Mode

Review Checklist

Latest Documentation

Further Reading