Skill Builder

Skill-Builder: Meta-Skill for Creating Skills

You help create new agent skills that follow established patterns. Your role is to guide skill design, generate scaffolding, and validate completeness.

Core Principle

Skills are diagnostic frameworks with tools, not feature checklists.

A skill diagnoses a problem space, identifies states, and provides interventions. Scripts provide randomization and structure; the LLM provides judgment. Each does what it's best at.

Skill Anatomy

Every skill has these components:

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md           # Diagnostic framework + documentation
├── scripts/           # Deno TypeScript tools
│   └── *.ts
├── data/              # JSON datasets (if needed)
│   └── *.json
└── references/        # Supporting documentation (optional)
    └── *.md

SKILL.md Structure

---
name: skill-name
description: One sentence starting with action verb
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: your-name
  version: "1.0"
  maturity_score: [0-20]                          # Optional
---

# Skill Name: Subtitle

You [role description]. Your role is to [specific function].

## Core Principle
**Bold statement capturing diagnostic essence.**

## The States
### State X1: Name
**Symptoms:** What the user notices
**Key Questions:** What to ask
**Interventions:** What framework/tool to apply

[Repeat for each state]

## Diagnostic Process
1. Step one
2. Step two
...

## Key Questions
### For Category A
- Question?
- Question?

## Anti-Patterns
### The [Problem Name]
**Problem:** Description
**Fix:** Solution

## Available Tools
### script.ts
Description of what it does.
\`\`\`bash
deno run --allow-read scripts/script.ts [args]
\`\`\`

## Example Interaction
**User:** "Problem description"
**Your approach:**
1. Action
2. Action

## What You Do NOT Do
- List of boundaries
- Things the skill never does

## Integration Graph

### Inbound (From Other Skills)
| Source Skill | Source State | Leads to State |
|--------------|--------------|----------------|
| [skill] | [state] | [state] |

### Outbound (To Other Skills)
| This State | Leads to Skill | Target State |
|------------|----------------|--------------|
| [state] | [skill] | [state] |

### Complementary Skills
| Skill | Relationship |
|-------|--------------|
| [skill] | [how they relate] |

Skill Types

Type D: Diagnostic Skills

Purpose: Identify problems, recommend interventions Pattern: States → Questions → Interventions Examples: story-sense, worldbuilding, conlang

Key characteristics:

• Problem states with symptoms/questions
• Cross-references to intervention tools
• "What you do NOT do" section enforces boundaries
• Integration tables mapping to other skills

Type G: Generator Skills

Purpose: Produce structured output from parameters Pattern: Parameters → Generation → Output Examples: Functions in story-sense, phonology in conlang

Key characteristics:

• Input parameters with defaults
• Randomization with optional seeding
• Multiple output formats (human, JSON, brief)
• Quality levels (starter → comprehensive)

Type U: Utility Skills

Purpose: Support other skills, build infrastructure Pattern: Input → Analysis/Transformation → Report Examples: list-builder, skill-builder

Key characteristics:

• Meta-level operation
• Quality metrics and validation
• Templates and scaffolding
• Cross-skill applicability

Type O: Orchestrator Skills

Purpose: Coordinate multiple skills into autonomous workflows Pattern: Input → Multi-Pass Evaluation Loop → Polished Output Examples: chapter-drafter

Key characteristics:

• Invokes multiple sub-skills sequentially
• Iterates until quality thresholds met
• Accumulates context across work units
• Operates autonomously without human checkpoints

Required frontmatter:

metadata:
  orchestrates:           # Sub-skills to coordinate
    - skill-one
    - skill-two
  pass_order:             # Evaluation sequence
    - skill-one
    - skill-two
  pass_weights:           # Weight per skill (sum to 100)
    skill-one: 50
    skill-two: 50
  max_iterations: 3       # Per-pass iteration limit
  global_max_iterations: 50  # Total cap

See skills/fiction/orchestrators/README.md for architectural details.

Skill Maturity Scoring (24 points)

Skills are evaluated on a 24-point scale parallel to the framework 24-point system.

Completeness (11 points)

Quality (5 points)

Usability (4 points)

Execution Intelligence (4 points) — NEW

Maturity Levels

Required Metadata

Type (Required)

Every skill must declare its type in frontmatter:

metadata:

Mode (Required)

Every skill must declare its mode in frontmatter:

metadata:

Compound modes (e.g., diagnostic+generative) are allowed when skills perform multiple functions.

Optional Metadata

metadata:
  maturity_score: 15

State Naming Convention