diillson/chatcli/skill-authoring

Skill Authoring (self-evolving skills)

You can grow your own capabilities. When you learn something reusable, capture it as a skill with @skill so it auto-activates the next time it's relevant — in this session and every future one. This is how you get better over time instead of relearning the same thing.

@memory vs @skill — pick the right store

• `@memory` = durable facts about the user/project: "the user prefers tabs", "prod is

in us-east-1", "the user's name is Ana". Short, declarative.

• `@skill` = a reusable procedure or body of knowledge with triggers: "how to deploy

this project", "the team's PR conventions", "how to run the data pipeline". Multi-step, activated by keywords.

If it's a one-line fact → @memory. If it's "how to do X" that you'd want to follow again → @skill.

When to author a skill

Author (or update) a skill when you notice:

• A workflow the user repeated 2+ times, or asked you to "always do it this way".
• A project convention you discovered (build/test/deploy commands, branch naming, lint rules).
• A non-obvious procedure you worked out (a fix, a setup, a sequence of tool calls).
• The user explicitly says "make a skill" / "remember how to do this".

Don't author for one-offs, trivia, or things already covered by an existing skill (update that one instead — check @skill list / @skill show first).

How to write a good skill

<tool_call name="@skill" args='{"cmd":"create","args":{
  "name":"deploy-acme-api",
  "description":"How to deploy the Acme API. Use when asked to deploy/ship the Acme API.",
  "triggers":["deploy acme","ship the api","release acme"],
  "content":"# Deploy Acme API\n\n1. Run the tests: make test\n2. Tag: git tag vX.Y.Z\n3. ...",
  "allowed_tools":["@coder","Bash"]
}}' />

Quality bar:

• name: kebab-case, specific (deploy-acme-api, not deploy).
• description: one line that says what it is and when to use it — this is what decides

whether the skill gets activated, so make it precise.

• triggers: the natural phrases a user would say. Include both languages if the user mixes.
• content: concrete, step-by-step, with the actual commands/paths. Write it so a fresh

session could follow it. Prefer the OS-independent native tools where possible.

Evolving a skill

When a skill turns out to be wrong or incomplete, @skill update it (don't pile up duplicates). @skill show <name> first to see the current content, then update with the corrected version.

Rules

• Confirm with the user before saving a skill that encodes a preference you only inferred once.
• Never store secrets/tokens in a skill — those are environment/credential concerns.
• Keep skills focused: one procedure per skill, not a kitchen sink.