andreaswasita/copilot-agents-dojo/writing-skills

Writing Skills (meta) Skill

Walks the agent through producing a new SKILL.md that conforms to spec/copilot-skills-spec.md and passes scripts/verify.sh spec. Covers intent capture, folder layout, frontmatter, canonical body sections, and the test loop. Does NOT auto-register the new skill in skills.md — that is the regen script's job.

When to Use

• The user explicitly asks to create or amend a skill.
• A tasks/lessons.md pattern has ≥3 occurrences and should graduate to a skill.
• The dojo curator (see self-improvement) flags a candidate skill to formalize.
• Team adapts the dojo for a new domain.
• NOT for one-off rules — those live in tasks/lessons.md until they recur.

Prerequisites

• spec/copilot-skills-spec.md and template/SKILL.md exist (this skill is parasitic on them).
• The view, edit, and powershell Copilot tools.
• scripts/verify.sh available on the path (or git bash on Windows).
• Decision recorded for which tier the new skill belongs in.

How to Run

1. Capture intent — what, when, what good looks like, what mistakes to prevent.
2. Pick the tier (core / practical / optional) and folder destination.
3. Copy `template/SKILL.md` to `<tier-dir>/<skill-name>/SKILL.md`.
4. Fill frontmatter; ≤60-char description with period; no marketing words.
5. Walk the canonical body sections in order.
6. Run `bash scripts/verify.sh spec` until the new skill is clean.
7. Hand off to the regen script (Phase 5.1) to update `skills.md`.

Quick Reference

Procedure

Step 1: Capture Intent

Answer four questions before touching files:

1. What behavior does this skill teach?
2. When should it trigger? (keywords, contexts)
3. What does good output look like?
4. What mistakes does it prevent?

If lesson-driven, open tasks/lessons.md and read every entry with the same error_type to extract the pattern.

Step 2: Pick Tier and Folder

Create the folder:

mkdir -p skills/<skill-name>          # core or practical
mkdir -p optional-skills/<skill-name> # optional

Step 3: Copy the Template

Use edit to read template/SKILL.md and edit to write <folder>/<name>/SKILL.md. Replace every placeholder. Do NOT introduce sections outside the canonical seven.

Step 4: Frontmatter

---
name: my-new-skill
description: <single sentence ≤60 chars ending with a period>.
tier: practical
category: workflow
created_by: human
platforms: [windows, macos, linux]
tags: [keyword1, keyword2]
author: Real Name (@handle)
---

Forbidden description words (marketing — flagged by verify.sh):

powerful  comprehensive  seamless  advanced
robust    cutting-edge   intelligent  revolutionary

Step 5: Body — Canonical Sections

Write each section in order. The Verification section MUST be a checklist whose items are testable — not aspirations.

In prose, reference Copilot tools by name in backticks (view, edit, grep, glob, powershell, web_fetch, task). Do NOT instruct the agent to call bare shell utilities — verify.sh warns on these:

cat  sed  awk  find  head  tail

Step 6: Run the Spec Gate

bash scripts/verify.sh spec

Iterate until the new skill produces no errors and no warnings.

Step 7: Smoke Test

Open a fresh session. Use a trigger phrase the skill claims to handle. Observe whether it activates and whether the output reflects the procedure. Iterate description and triggers as needed.

Pitfalls

• DO NOT invent new body sections. Seven canonical, in fixed order.
• DO NOT write a description over 60 chars or without a period — the gate will reject it.
• DO NOT use marketing adjectives in the description.
• DO NOT instruct the agent to call bare shell utilities. Use Copilot tool names.
• DO NOT register the skill manually in skills.md — let the regen script do it.
• DO NOT ship a skill without verifying it actually triggers on its claimed contexts.

Verification

• [ ] bash scripts/verify.sh spec produces no errors for the new skill.
• [ ] No warnings on the new skill (banned shell utilities, etc.).
• [ ] Frontmatter complete with all required keys.
• [ ] Body sections present in canonical order.
• [ ] Smoke test in a fresh session confirms the skill activates as claimed.
• [ ] If created from a lesson, the originating tasks/lessons.md entry references the new skill.