Skill Builder
Create, repair, audit or export one canonical skill package, or turn supported expertise into a small authoring proposal.
Decide whether to create anything
Apply these before any creation step, including when the request already names the new skill or file it wants:
- Find the existing owner. Search skills, references, checklists and instruction files for one that already handles the behavior. Extend that owner rather than adding a root.
- Count independent occurrences. A new skill, gate, library or workflow needs three independently evidenced real occurrences and a successful reapplication to a source case without missing context. Fewer occurrences support only a narrow note in an existing owner; one incident is an observation, not a skill. An authoritative source supports only a faithful statement of that source.
- Name the consumer of every new artifact. A proposed process artifact (a report, ledger, counter, dashboard or tracker) needs a concrete consumer, the decision it informs, the observed defect it answers and a retirement condition. If any is missing, leave it out; code written only to consume it is no consumer.
- No action is a valid result, and so is a short addition to an existing owner. Say what the evidence supports before drafting, build only what the caller then authorizes, and return a proposal inline unless a durable one was requested.
- A built package proves no benefit. Route behavioral benefit to Skill Eval and acceptance judgment to Validate.
Choose the requested operation
| Need | Entry point |
|---|---|
| Create a source package | scripts/build.sh with from-scratch, from-template or absorb-external |
| Check package structure | scripts/heal.sh --check [--strict] skills/<slug> |
| Repair owned projections | scripts/heal.sh --fix skills/<slug> |
| Inspect audit evidence | `scripts/audit.sh [--profile canonical |
| Merge overlapping skills | Consolidate |
| Export to another platform | Conversion |
| Make repeated expertise reusable | Distill expertise |
Run only the selected operation. Skills remain optional tools within the native caller's authorized outcome; this skill does not add execution phases, own work, operate Git, validate a software candidate, or decide delivery and retries. Inputs, report destinations, exit codes and recovery from partial creation are in build and check mechanics.
Create and maintain
Treat external skills as structural signals only. Clean-room output must not
copy their names, prose, prompts, scripts or examples. from-template reuses
metadata defaults; absorb-external <slug> --from <path> verifies an input and
creates a blank source package. Neither imports another skill's content.
scripts/build.sh creates one incomplete source package containing only
SKILL.md with metadata.authoring_state: scaffold; helpers, references and
assets are conditional on the actual behavior. Replace the placeholders and
state applicability, inputs, authority, result, completion and failure in the
layout that makes them clear. An ending such as "hand off" or "then stop" can
end the caller's turn when the skill runs inline; read
endings
before writing one. Remove the scaffold state only after authoring the
behavior; strict source checks reject it. Removing it is an author assertion,
not proof of semantic completeness.
Before editing a skill after a miss or a review finding, read changing existing text; it decides when text stays unchanged, when a list stays explicit, and what to check before cutting a line.
Edit skills/<slug>/ as the source owner. Check the completed source with
scripts/heal.sh --check --strict skills/<slug>, then regenerate its owned
projections through the repository's owning commands. Inspect the generated
diff; hand-edit no projection. A clean check says nothing about behavior: when
an edit changes when the skill routes, what it asks, when it stops, what it
commits or publishes or how it degrades, or cuts a line that recorded
provenance protects, report that behavior as unmeasured unless a
Skill Eval result measured that behavior, and name
what was missing (a runner, a host or the caller's authorization). Typo, path
and formatting edits need no such note.
Creation is staged, not atomic. If a later stage fails, keep the created source and any report, capture the exit and diagnostic, and report source creation separately from projection and check completion. Never call a partial result a completed package or delete it to rerun creation. Missing required scripts, references or runtime support block only their dependent operation; name that resource and continue work that does not depend on it.
Check mode is read-only; fix mode regenerates owned projections for explicit
targets and invents no source behavior. The default audit reports static
conformance, located effects, behavioral evidence and non-gating authoring
suspicions separately, with no total, rating or aggregate verdict. Effects and
behavior stay NOT_PROVEN because the audit runs no skill or trial. Exact checks,
exit codes and the opt-in legacy schema live in audit checks,
authoring doctrine and
Codex parity.
Consolidate
Merge only when two skills own the same behavior; a shared passage or two is a
cross-link, not a merge. Apply the decision rules above, then pick one owner:
keep the skill with the stronger contract (clearer applicability, authority,
result and failure path) and move into it only the rules the other has and it
lacks. Before retiring the other name, search skills, references, goal prompts,
workflows and docs for callers that invoke it by name and point each at the
owner, then record the retired name and its new owner in docs/MIGRATION.md.
Keep a skill that other skills or goals call by name until its retirement adds
the slug to REMOVED_SKILLS in scripts/check-cathedral-cut-conformance.py,
which fails if the skill comes back; never delete it without that tombstone.
A merge can move routing, so report as unmeasured whether the requests the
retired skill caught now reach the owner unless a routing or
Skill Eval result measured it.
Conversion
Use bash skills/skill-builder/scripts/converter/convert.sh <skill-dir> <target> [output-dir] for an explicit out-of-tree export. Targets are codex, cursor
and test; --all selects all source packages, and --codex-layout inline
selects the legacy inline Codex layout. Read
SkillBundle when format details
matter. Parse the source once, render the target, then validate resource parity
and target format. Report layout and any omitted Cursor references.
The default export is .agents/projections/converter/<target>/<skill-name>/.
The exporter clean-writes its output directory, so use only the explicit derived
target: refuse a source package, its ancestor, or the repository root. Preserve
the source unchanged and fix the source or adapter instead of editing output.
A parse, write, format or required-resource failure leaves an incomplete export.
Every runtime, Codex included, loads skills/ directly; this ad-hoc exporter
never produces a shipped tree.
Distill expertise
When the caller wants a reusable rule, apply the decision rules above, then begin with cited occurrences or a named authoritative source. State the trigger, desired behavior, inputs, outputs, negative example and limits. Preserve short source excerpts or command results with resolvable citations. Use Research's pattern mode when the claim needs exemplars and a holdout before packaging. Show a negative or holdout case and how the proposed rule returns the right decision. Minimal recovery state needs a named evidence-loss or corruption risk.
Respect Memory's source and destination rules for mined material. Evidence cannot publish itself as policy. A proposal-only request ends with the proposal. Repair ordinary known defects within existing authority; tool failures remain explicit facts for the native caller, not an automatic helper chain.
For an actual package edit, use the source template for required fields and context density guidance when deciding which prose earns a place. Neither requires adding a new skill.
