writing-great-skills
Author a high-quality Agent Skill (SKILL.md) that an AI reliably triggers and executes well — strong frontmatter, a sharp description with trigger phrases, a clear output contract, quality checks, and anti-patterns. Use when asked to write a skill, create a SKILL.md, improve a skill, review a skill for quality, or contribute to a skills library. Produces a complete, SkillCheck-passing SKILL.md plus a short rationale for the key choices.
npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill writing-great-skills --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Writing Great Skills Skill A skill is a promise: *given this kind of request, produce this kind of professional output, every time.* The best SKILL.md files win on two things — the model **triggers** them at the right moment, and once triggered it **produces the right artifact** without hand-holding. This skill helps you write one that does both. ## Working from a brief Given a rough idea ("a skill for writing changelogs"), **produce the full SKILL.md anyway** — infer the deliverable, inputs, and structure, and mark genuinely open choices. Never hand back a skeleton with `<!-- TODO -->` left in; fill them. ## Required Inputs Ask for (if not already provided), else infer and label: - **What the skill should do** and the **concrete artifact** it produces - **When it should trigger** (the phrasings a user would actually type) - **The inputs** it needs from the user - Any **framework or standard** it encodes (for attribution) ## The anatomy of a great SKILL.md ### 1. Frontmatter (this is what gets your skill *found*) ```yaml --- name: kebab-case-name # matches the folder; short, specific description: "<one rich sentence>" --- ``` The **description is the most important line in the fi
- Working from a brief
- Required Inputs
- The anatomy of a great SKILL.md
- 1. Frontmatter (this is what gets your skill found)
- 2. One-line value statement
- 3. Working from a brief
- 4. Required Inputs
- 5. Output Format / Structure
- 6. Quality Checks
- 7. Anti-Patterns
- Process
- Output Format
- Deeper Materials
- Scoring Rubric (0–40)
What does the writing-great-skills skill do?
Author a high-quality Agent Skill (SKILL.md) that an AI reliably triggers and executes well — strong frontmatter, a sharp description with trigger phrases, a clear output contract, quality checks, and anti-patterns. Use when asked to write a skill, create a SKILL.md, improve a skill, review a skill for quality, or contribute to a skills library. Produces a complete, SkillCheck-passing SKILL.md plus a short rationale for the key choices.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills --skill writing-great-skills --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From mohitagw15856/pm-claude-skills, a repository with 1,255 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.