oriole-fdu/wisepencloud-ai/skill-creator

Skill Creator

This skill provides guidance for creating effective skills.

About Skills

Skills are modular, self-contained folders that extend Wisepen's capabilities by providing specialized knowledge, workflows, and tools. Think of them as "onboarding guides" for specific domains or tasks—they transform Wisepen from a general-purpose agent into a specialized agent equipped with procedural knowledge that no model can fully possess.

What Skills Provide

1. Specialized workflows - Multi-step procedures for specific domains
2. Tool integrations - Instructions for working with specific file formats or APIs
3. Domain expertise - Company-specific knowledge, schemas, business logic
4. Bundled resources - Scripts, references, and assets for complex and repetitive tasks

Core Principles

Concise is Key

The context window is a public good. Skills share the context window with everything else Wisepen needs: system prompt, conversation history, other Skills' metadata, and the actual user request.

Default assumption: Wisepen is already very smart. Only add context Wisepen doesn't already have. Challenge each piece of information: "Does Wisepen really need this explanation?" and "Does this paragraph justify its token cost?"

Prefer concise examples over verbose explanations.

Set Appropriate Degrees of Freedom

Match the level of specificity to the task's fragility and variability:

High freedom (text-based instructions): Use when multiple approaches are valid, decisions depend on context, or heuristics guide the approach.

Medium freedom (pseudocode or scripts with parameters): Use when a preferred pattern exists, some variation is acceptable, or configuration affects behavior.

Low freedom (specific scripts, few parameters): Use when operations are fragile and error-prone, consistency is critical, or a specific sequence must be followed.

Think of Wisepen as exploring a path: a narrow bridge with cliffs needs specific guardrails (low freedom), while an open field allows many routes (high freedom).

Protect Validation Integrity

During iteration, validate whether a skill works on realistic tasks or whether a suspected problem is real. Treat validation as an evaluation surface: the goal is to learn whether the skill generalizes, not whether the answer can be reconstructed from leaked context.

Prefer raw artifacts such as example prompts, outputs, diffs, logs, or traces. Give the minimum task-local context needed to perform the validation. Avoid passing the intended answer, suspected bug, intended fix, or prior conclusions unless the validation explicitly requires them.

Anatomy of a Skill

Every skill consists of a required SKILL.md file and optional bundled resources:

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (required)
│   ├── YAML frontmatter metadata (required)
│   │   ├── name: (required)
│   │   └── description: (required)
│   └── Markdown instructions (required)
└── Bundled Resources (optional)
    ├── scripts/          - Executable code (Python/Bash/etc.)
    ├── references/       - Documentation intended to be loaded into context as needed
    └── assets/           - Files used in output (templates, icons, fonts, etc.)

SKILL.md (required)

Every SKILL.md consists of:

• Frontmatter (YAML): Contains name and description fields. These are the only fields that Wisepen reads to determine when the skill gets used, thus it is very important to be clear and comprehensive in describing what the skill is, and when it should be used.
• Body (Markdown): Instructions and guidance for using the skill. Only loaded AFTER the skill triggers (if at all).

Wisepen AIAsset Drafts

Wisepen Skills are saved as AIAsset drafts through controlled tools, not by creating a local skill directory. Use create_skill_info for new Skills, get_skill_info to inspect existing Skills and obtain the current draft version, update_skill_info only when metadata must change, then use upload_skill_draft_asset once per text asset.

• New Skills require a display title, name, and description.
• Existing Skills require resource_id for inspection, and require resource_id, name, and description only when updating metadata.
• Upload each changed or new text file with path as the directory and name as the file name.
• Saving a draft never publishes the Skill. Unless a publishing tool is provided in the future, publication remains outside this workflow.

Bundled Resources (optional)

Scripts (scripts/)

Executable code (Python/Bash/etc.) for tasks that require deterministic reliability or are repeatedly rewritten.

• When to include: When the same code is being rewritten repeatedly or deterministic reliability is needed
• Example: scripts/rotate_pdf.py for PDF rotation tasks
• Benefits: Token efficient, deterministic, may be executed without loading into context
• Note: Scripts may still need to be read by Wisepen for patching or environment-specific adjustments

References (references/)

Documentation and reference material intended to be loaded as needed into context to inform Wisepen's process and thinking.

• When to include: For documentation that Wisepen should reference while working
• Examples: references/finance.md for financial schemas, references/mnda.md for company NDA template, references/policies.md for company policies, references/api_docs.md for API specifications
• Use cases: Database schemas, API documentation, domain knowledge, company policies, detailed workflow guides
• Benefits: Keeps SKILL.md lean, loaded only when Wisepen determines it's needed
• Best practice: If files are large (>10k words), include grep search patterns in SKILL.md
• Avoid duplication: Information should live in either SKILL.md or references files, not both. Prefer references files for detailed information unless it's truly core to the skill—this keeps SKILL.md lean while making information discoverable without hogging the context window. Keep only essential procedural instructions and workflow guidance in SKILL.md; move detailed reference material, schemas, and examples to references files.

Assets (assets/)

Files not intended to be loaded into context, but rather used within the output Wisepen produces.

• When to include: When the skill needs files that will be used in the final output
• Examples: assets/logo.png for brand assets, assets/slides.pptx for PowerPoint templates, assets/frontend-template/ for HTML/React boilerplate, assets/font.ttf for typography
• Use cases: Templates, images, icons, boilerplate code, fonts, sample documents that get copied or modified
• Benefits: Separates output resources from documentation, enables Wisepen to use files without loading them into context
• Current save-tool limit: upload_skill_draft_asset supports text assets only. Binary assets such as images, fonts, or office templates require a separate workflow.

What to Not Include in a Skill

A skill should only contain essential files that directly support its functionality. Do NOT create extraneous documentation or auxiliary files, including:

• README.md
• INSTALLATION_GUIDE.md
• QUICK_REFERENCE.md
• CHANGELOG.md
• etc.

The skill should only contain the information needed for an AI agent to do the job at hand. It should not contain auxiliary context about the process that went into creating it, setup and testing procedures, user-facing documentation, etc. Creating additional documentation files just adds clutter and confusion.

Progressive Disclosure Design Principle

Skills use a three-level loading system to manage context efficiently:

1. Metadata (name + description) - Always in context (~100 words)
2. SKILL.md body - When skill triggers (<5k words)
3. Bundled resources - As needed by Wisepen (Unlimited because scripts can be executed without reading into context window)

Progressive Disclosure Patterns

Keep SKILL.md body to the essentials and under 500 lines to minimize context bloat. Split content into separate files when approaching this limit. When splitting out content into other files, it is very important to reference them from SKILL.md and describe clearly when to read them, to ensure the reader of the skill knows they exist and when to use them.

Key principle: When a skill supports multiple variations, frameworks, or options, keep only the core workflow and selection guidance in SKILL.md. Move variant-specific details (patterns, examples, configuration) into separate reference files.

Pattern 1: High-level guide with references

# PDF Processing
 
## Quick start
 
Extract text with pdfplumber:
[code example]
 
## Advanced features
 
-**Form filling**: See [FORMS.md](FORMS.md) for complete guide
-**API reference**: See [REFERENCE.md](REFERENCE.md) for all methods
-**Examples**: See [EXAMPLES.md](EXAMPLES.md) for common patterns

Wisepen loads FORMS.md, REFERENCE.md, or EXAMPLES.md only when needed.

Pattern 2: Domain-specific organization

For Skills with multiple domains, organize content by domain to avoid loading irrelevant context:

bigquery-skill/
├── SKILL.md (overview and navigation)
└── reference/
    ├── finance.md (revenue, billing metrics)
    ├── sales.md (opportunities, pipeline)
    ├── product.md (API usage, features)
    └── marketing.md (campaigns, attribution)

When a user asks about sales metrics, Wisepen only reads sales.md.

Similarly, for skills supporting multiple frameworks or variants, organize by variant:

cloud-deploy/
├── SKILL.md (workflow + provider selection)
└── references/
    ├── aws.md (AWS deployment patterns)
    ├── gcp.md (GCP deployment patterns)
    └── azure.md (Azure deployment patterns)

When the user chooses AWS, Wisepen only reads aws.md.

Pattern 3: Conditional details

Show basic content, link to advanced content:

# DOCX Processing
 
## Creating documents
 
Use docx-js for new documents. See [DOCX-JS.md](DOCX-JS.md).
 
## Editing documents
 
For simple edits, modify the XML directly.
 
**For tracked changes**: See [REDLINING.md](REDLINING.md)
**For OOXML details**: See [OOXML.md](OOXML.md)

Wisepen reads REDLINING.md or OOXML.md only when the user needs those features.

Important guidelines:

• Avoid deeply nested references - Keep references one level deep from SKILL.md. All reference files should link directly from SKILL.md.
• Structure longer reference files - For files longer than 100 lines, include a table of contents at the top so Wisepen can see the full scope when previewing.

Skill Creation Process

Skill creation involves these steps:

1. Understand the skill with concrete examples
2. Plan reusable skill contents (scripts, references, assets)
3. Create or update Wisepen Skill info
4. Edit the skill content and upload draft assets
5. Validate the skill with static checks and realistic examples
6. Iterate based on real usage.

Follow these steps in order, skipping only if there is a clear reason why they are not applicable.

Skill Naming

• Use lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens only; normalize user-provided titles to hyphen-case (e.g., "Plan Mode" -> plan-mode).
• When generating names, generate a name under 64 characters (letters, digits, hyphens).
• Prefer short, verb-led phrases that describe the action.
• Namespace by tool when it improves clarity or triggering (e.g., gh-address-comments, linear-address-issue).
• Use the same slug consistently for the Skill name and draft metadata.

Skill Structure Patterns

Choose the structure that best fits the skill's purpose. Patterns can be mixed when the skill needs more than one shape.

Workflow-Based is best for sequential processes with clear steps. Use a structure like Overview -> Workflow Decision Tree -> Step 1 -> Step 2.