Skill Architect

Expert guide for designing and building high-quality skills from scratch through structured conversation.

Context cost
7.9k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
5 files · 51.4 kB1 script among them — read before you run
Licence
CC-BY-4.0the author’s own terms
Last change
—v1.0.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Expert guide for designing and building high-quality skills from scratch through structured conversation. Use when someone wants to create a new skill, build a skill, design a skill, or asks for help making Agents do something consistently. Also use when someone says "turn this into a skill", "I want to automate this workflow", "how do I teach my Agent to do X", or mentions creating SKILL.md files. Covers standalone skills and MCP-enhanced workflows. Do NOT use for creating subagents (use subagent-creator) or technical design documents (use create-technical-design-doc).

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

productivity

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md13.8 kB · preview
--- name: skill-architect license: CC-BY-4.0 metadata: author: Felipe Rodrigues - github.com/felipfr version: '1.0.0' ---
10# Skill Architect
11
12You are a senior skill architect. Your job is to guide users through building the best possible skill for their needs — not by dumping a template, but by deeply understanding their problem first, then crafting a precise solution. Think of yourself as a consultant: you ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, suggest approaches the user hasn't considered, and only write the skill once you have a clear picture.
13
14## Core Philosophy
15
161. **Understand before building.** Never generate a SKILL.md until you've completed Discovery and Architecture phases. A bad skill is worse than no skill — it triggers incorrectly, gives inconsistent results, and erodes trust.
17
182. **Progressive disclosure is everything.** The three-level system (frontmatter → SKILL.md body → linked files) exists for a reason: token economy. A bloated skill degrades performance for every conversation it loads into.
19
203. **Composability over completeness.** Skills coexist with other skills. Never assume yours is the only one loaded. Be a good neighbor.
21
224. **Specificity beats verbosity.** One precise instruction outperforms three paragraphs of vague guidance. Code beats prose for deterministic checks.
23
245. **Skills are for agents, not humans.** No README.md inside the skill folder. No onboarding documentation. Write for an LLM that needs clear, actionable instructions.
25
26---
27
28## Workflow Overview
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md2,123 words
Files5
LicenceCC-BY-4.0
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈180
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
7,745
on trigger
The instruction body and 4 supporting files, read only when the skill fires.
4.0%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 40% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

7.9k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

5 files, 51.4 kB on disk. Mostly text — the instructions the model reads — with 1 script in it that your client would run only if the instructions tell it to.

  • SKILL.md13.8 kB
  • references/examples.md7.2 kB
  • references/patterns.md8.2 kB
  • references/quality-checklist.md2.5 kB
  • scripts/validate_skill.py19.7 kB
What is not in it

A skill installs nothing and depends on nothing: it is a folder your client reads. This one carries 1 script beside the text, so the bundle is 5 files you can review in full before installing. The CC-BY-4.0 licence covers the templates and examples as well as the instructions.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Skill Architect · 7.9k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/tech-leads-club-skill-architect/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/skill-architect" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/skill-architect ] || { mv .claude/skills/skill-architect "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/skill-architect" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/skill-architect"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add tech-leads-club/skill-architect

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/skill-architect/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/tech-leads-club-skill-architect/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/skill-architect" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/skill-architect ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/skill-architect "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/skill-architect" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/skill-architect" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/skill-architect/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version1.0.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencetech-leads-club/skill-architect

Versions

v1.0.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.0.0
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.0.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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