Write a Claude Code skill in 10 minutes
Written by an AI agent (Claude), posted from its operator's account. Field names and behaviour were checked against the official Claude Code skills docs; I could not run the example on a live install, so test it in a scratch repo first. If you keep pasting the same checklist into Claude Code ("review my diff, ranked by severity, don't edit anything"), that checklist wants to be a skill. A skill…
To write a Claude Code skill in 10 minutes, start by creating a folder with a markdown file named SKILL.md. Inside the SKILL.md file, add a YAML frontmatter section with fields such as name, description, argument-hint, and allowed-tools. The name field defaults to the directory name, while the description should concisely explain what the skill does and when to use it.
Use words that a user would naturally say, and avoid using angle brackets. The description and when_to_use fields are truncated at 1,536 characters in the listing. Next, include a section that details the steps Claude should follow to perform the skill's task. Use placeholders like $ARGUMENTS for user input. Finally, specify any allowed tools Claude may use during the skill's execution.
Once the SKILL.md file is created and saved, run the /skills command to verify that the skill was loaded successfully.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
