Guide for creating new skills in Kai's personal AI infrastructure. Use when user wants to create, update, or structure a new skill that extends capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations. Follows both Anthropic skill standards and PAI-specific patterns.
Productivity
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Updated Jan 19, 2026, 04:39 AM
Why Use This
This skill provides specialized capabilities for aiskillstore's codebase.
Use Cases
Developing new features in the aiskillstore repository
Refactoring existing code to follow aiskillstore standards
Understanding and working with aiskillstore's codebase structure
---
name: create-skill
description: Guide for creating new skills in Kai's personal AI infrastructure. Use when user wants to create, update, or structure a new skill that extends capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, or tool integrations. Follows both Anthropic skill standards and PAI-specific patterns.
---
# Create Skill - Skill Creation Framework
## When to Activate This Skill
- "Create a new skill for X"
- "Build a skill that does Y"
- "Add a skill for Z"
- "Update/improve existing skill"
- "Structure a skill properly"
- User wants to extend Kai's capabilities
## Core Skill Creation Workflow
### Step 1: Understand the Purpose
Ask these questions:
- **What does this skill do?** (Clear, specific purpose)
- **When should it activate?** (Trigger conditions)
- **What tools/commands does it use?** (Dependencies)
- **Is it simple or complex?** (Determines structure)
### Step 2: Choose Skill Type
**Simple Skill** (SKILL.md only):
- Single focused capability
- Minimal dependencies
- Quick reference suffices
- Examples: fabric-patterns, youtube-extraction
**Complex Skill** (SKILL.md + CLAUDE.md + supporting files):
- Multi-step workflows
- Extensive context needed
- Multiple sub-components
- Examples: development, website, consulting
### Step 3: Create Directory Structure
```bash
# Simple skill
${PAI_DIR}/skills/[skill-name]/
└── SKILL.md
# Complex skill
${PAI_DIR}/skills/[skill-name]/
├── SKILL.md # Quick reference
├── CLAUDE.md # Full context
└── [subdirectories]/ # Supporting resources
```
### Step 4: Write SKILL.md (Required)
Use this structure:
```markdown
---
name: skill-name
description: Clear description of what skill does and when to use it. Should match activation triggers.
---
# Skill Name
## When to Activate This Skill
- Trigger condition 1
- Trigger condition 2
- User phrase examples
## [Main Content Sections]
- Core workflow
- Key commands
- Examples
- Best practices
## Supplementary Resources
For detailed context: `read ${PAI_DIR}/skills/[skill-name]/CLAUDE.md`
```
### Step 5: Write CLAUDE.md (If Complex)
Include:
- Comprehensive methodology
- Detailed workflows
- Component documentation
- Advanced usage patterns
- Integration instructions
- Troubleshooting guides
### Step 6: Add to Global Context
Update `${PAI_DIR}/global/KAI.md` available_skills section to include the new skill so it shows up in the system prompt.
### Step 7: Test the Skill
1. Trigger it with natural language
2. Verify it loads correctly
3. Check all references work
4. Validate against examples
## Skill Naming Conventions
- **Lowercase with hyphens**: `create-skill`, `web-scraping`
- **Descriptive, not generic**: `fabric-patterns` not `text-processing`
- **Action or domain focused**: `ai-image-generation`, `chrome-devtools`
## Description Best Practices
Your description should:
- Clearly state what the skill does
- Include trigger phrases (e.g., "USE WHEN user says...")
- Mention key tools/methods used
- Be concise but complete (1-3 sentences)
**Good examples:**
- "Multi-source comprehensive research using perplexity-researcher, claude-researcher, and gemini-researcher agents. Launches up to 10 parallel research agents for fast results. USE WHEN user says 'do research', 'research X', 'find information about'..."
- "Chrome DevTools MCP for web application debugging, visual testing, and browser automation. The ONLY acceptable way to debug web apps - NEVER use curl, fetch, or wget."
## Templates Available
- `simple-skill-template.md` - For straightforward capabilities
- `complex-skill-template.md` - For multi-component skills
- `skill-with-agents-template.md` - For skills using sub-agents
## Supplementary Resources
For complete guide with examples: `read ${PAI_DIR}/skills/create-skill/CLAUDE.md`
For templates: `ls ${PAI_DIR}/skills/create-skill/templates/`
## Key Principles
1. **Progressive disclosure**: SKILL.md = quick reference, CLAUDE.md = deep dive
2. **Clear activation triggers**: User should know when skill applies
3. **Executable instructions**: Imperative/infinitive form (verb-first)
4. **Context inheritance**: Skills inherit global context automatically
5. **No duplication**: Reference global context, don't duplicate it
6. **Self-contained**: Skill should work independently
7. **Discoverable**: Description enables Kai to match user intent