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/skill-creator

@59533a2 official
by openaiopenai/skills28k stars
1,891

Guide for creating effective skills. This skill should be used when users want to create a new skill (or update an existing skill) that extends Codex's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations.

Ask your Agent

Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/openai/skills/skill-creator

This session only. Nothing lands on disk.

referencesopenai_yaml.md

≈533 tokens on demand. Your agent reads this file only when SKILL.md points to it.

openai.yaml fields (full example + descriptions)

agents/openai.yaml is an extended, product-specific config intended for the machine/harness to read, not the agent. Other product-specific config can also live in the agents/ folder.

Full example

interface:
  display_name: "Optional user-facing name"
  short_description: "Optional user-facing description"
  icon_small: "./assets/small-400px.png"
  icon_large: "./assets/large-logo.svg"
  brand_color: "#3B82F6"
  default_prompt: "Optional surrounding prompt to use the skill with"

dependencies:
  tools:
    - type: "mcp"
      value: "github"
      description: "GitHub MCP server"
      transport: "streamable_http"
      url: "https://api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/"

Field descriptions and constraints

Top-level constraints:

  • Quote all string values.

  • Keep keys unquoted.

  • For interface.default_prompt: generate a helpful, short (typically 1 sentence) example starting prompt based on the skill. It must explicitly mention the skill as $skill-name (e.g., "Use $skill-name-here to draft a concise weekly status update.").

  • interface.display_name: Human-facing title shown in UI skill lists and chips.

  • interface.short_description: Human-facing short UI blurb (25–64 chars) for quick scanning.

  • interface.icon_small: Path to a small icon asset (relative to skill dir). Default to ./assets/ and place icons in the skill's assets/ folder.

  • interface.icon_large: Path to a larger logo asset (relative to skill dir). Default to ./assets/ and place icons in the skill's assets/ folder.

  • interface.brand_color: Hex color used for UI accents (e.g., badges).

  • interface.default_prompt: Default prompt snippet inserted when invoking the skill.

  • dependencies.tools[].type: Dependency category. Only mcp is supported for now.

  • dependencies.tools[].value: Identifier of the tool or dependency.

  • dependencies.tools[].description: Human-readable explanation of the dependency.

  • dependencies.tools[].transport: Connection type when type is mcp.

  • dependencies.tools[].url: MCP server URL when type is mcp.

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 alert16d5 checks · Risk CRITICAL
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub16d

    This skill acts as a guidelines and blueprint creator tool for development environments. Analysis confirms that the configuration files and python helper scripts match their stated behavior and present no security risks.

  • Socket16d

    No alerts

  • Snyk16d

    Risk: LOW · No issues

  • Runlayer7mo

    7/7 files flagged

  • ZeroLeaks5mo

    Score: 93/100 · 2 sections analyzed

Provenance

Signed by skilld at 59533a2. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub 2 months ago.

Activeupdated 8 months ago

Capability

metadata
{
  "short-description": "Create or update a skill"
}

Topics

  • Documentation
  • skill-creation
  • guidelines
  • workflows
  • ai-agents
  • modular-design
  • context-management
  • procedural-knowledge

README badge

README badge for openai/skills/skill-creator

What it does

Provides guidance and templates for creating skills—modular instruction sets that extend an AI agent's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, and tool integrations. Use this skill when building a new skill or updating an existing one to ensure proper structure, context efficiency, and bundled resources.

Generated from the current SKILL.md.

Frequently asked

What is a skill?
A skill is a modular, self-contained folder that extends an AI agent's capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, and tool integrations. It consists of a required SKILL.md file and optional bundled resources like scripts, references, and assets.
How much should I put in SKILL.md versus reference files?
Keep SKILL.md body under 500 lines with only essential procedural instructions and workflow guidance. Move detailed reference material, schemas, and examples to separate reference files in a references/ folder, linking to them from SKILL.md so the agent loads them only when needed.
When should I include scripts versus just instructions?
Include scripts in scripts/ when the same code is being rewritten repeatedly or deterministic reliability is critical. Use text-based instructions in SKILL.md when multiple approaches are valid and decisions depend on context.
Do I need to include README.md or other documentation files?
No. Skills should only contain essential files that directly support functionality: SKILL.md, bundled resources (scripts/, references/, assets/), and agents/openai.yaml. Do not create auxiliary documentation files like README.md or CHANGELOG.md.
How should I structure a skill that supports multiple frameworks or domains?
Organize by variant or domain in reference files—keep SKILL.md as a navigation hub, then move framework or domain-specific details into separate files (e.g., references/aws.md, references/gcp.md) so the agent only loads relevant content.

Generated from the current SKILL.md. These answers refresh after source changes.