---
name: createskill-85ccfc932d21
metadata:
  short-description: "Create, edit, validate, test, and improve LifeOS skills, intents, tools, and descriptions. Use CreateCLI for standalone TypeScript CLIs."
evals:
  deterministic:
    - command: "bun LIFEOS/TOOLS/SkillHygieneGate.ts --skill CreateSkill"
      falsifier: "the hygiene gate exits nonzero for a forbidden skill-body token"
    - command: "bun LIFEOS/TOOLS/IntentLint.ts skills/CreateSkill --strict"
      falsifier: "the lint exits nonzero when SKILL.md or any intent here breaks the intent standard"
  manual:
    reason: "a maintainer judges whether generated skill instructions are useful and correctly scoped"
    falsifier: "the maintainer rejects the reviewed generated skill artifact"
version: 1.2.4
description: "Mandatory orchestrator for all LifeOS skill work: scaffold, edit, validate, canonicalize, test, and improve any skill; handrolling skill files is forbidden. USE WHEN create skill, new skill, make a skill, build a skill, set up a skill, private skill, make a X skill, add an intent, add a tool, edit/change/update/rename a skill, skill frontmatter, validate skill, check skill, canonicalize, scaffold skill, test skill, improve skill, optimize description, skill not triggering, overtriggering. NOT FOR TypeScript CLI generation (CreateCLI)."
---

# CreateSkill

**Contents:** Ideal State · Intent Routing · Data & Config · Gotchas · Examples

CreateSkill is the one door for skill work in LifeOS: it creates, edits, validates, canonicalizes, tests, improves and retires skills, and every skill it touches leaves written to the intent standard in `~/.claude/LIFEOS/DOCUMENTATION/Skills/SkillSystem.md` § Intent anatomy. An intent is a small ISA. It opens with `## Ideal State` (testable outcomes of the deliverable) and `## Anti-criteria` (what must never happen), then carries only Inputs, Safety gates, Tool contract, Gotchas, Output format, Examples and References. Choreography of the model's reasoning is cut, never relocated; the four keep-classes (safety gate, verified gotcha with provenance, tool contract, output-format contract) are the only legitimate how (`LIFEOS/RULES/Philosophy.md` § Ideal-State Prompting, `skills/Prompting/Standards.md`). This skill (`CreateSkill/SKILL.md` and its intents) is written to the standard it teaches and is the exemplar to copy.

Shared facts the intents rely on:

- Intents and skills are born from the template through `Tools/Scaffold.ts`, never `touch` or a hand-typed skeleton.
- The checks are code first: `LIFEOS/TOOLS/IntentLint.ts` (the standard), `LIFEOS/TOOLS/IntentPreserve.ts` (nothing load-bearing lost), `LIFEOS/TOOLS/SkillHygieneGate.ts` (publishable-clean), `LIFEOS/TOOLS/SkillCoverage.ts` (does this skill already exist). Judgment covers only what code cannot decide.
- An intent's Ideal State and Anti-criteria are also its grading criteria: Assay checks a run against them (`Proof.ts run --intent`) and builds a skill suite's rubric from them. Lanes and when suites run follow the one progressive contract, `skills/Assay/References/Progressive.md`.

## Ideal State

- Every skill CreateSkill touches opens with a purpose paragraph, a skill-level `## Ideal State` and an `## Intent Routing` section that reaches every intent and reference file in one hop, and every file over 100 lines with two or more H2s, outside directories routed as `Dir/`, carries its contents line.
- Every intent it writes or edits states done as testable Ideal State and Anti-criteria bullets and keeps only the four kinds of how, so a smarter model loses nothing by reading it.
- Nothing load-bearing is lost on the way: IntentLint, IntentPreserve, SkillHygieneGate and the skill's own tests pass, and the report shows each result.

## Intent Routing

### Structure

| Intent | Trigger | File |
|--------|---------|------|
| **CreateSkill** | "create a new skill" | `Intents/CreateSkill.md` |
| **ValidateSkill** | "validate skill", "check skill" | `Intents/ValidateSkill.md` |
| **UpdateSkill** | "update skill", "add intent" | `Intents/UpdateSkill.md` |
| **CanonicalizeSkill** | "canonicalize", "fix skill structure" | `Intents/CanonicalizeSkill.md` |
| **Retire** | "retire skill", "absorb skill", "delete a skill", "this skill is dead" | `Intents/Retire.md` |

### Effectiveness

| Intent | Trigger | File |
|--------|---------|------|
| **TestSkill** | "test skill", "does this skill work", "skill not working" | `Intents/TestSkill.md` |
| **ImproveSkill** | "improve skill", "skill quality", "fix skill instructions" | `Intents/ImproveSkill.md` |
| **OptimizeDescription** | "optimize description", "skill not triggering", "trigger accuracy" | `Intents/OptimizeDescription.md` |

### References

| File | Read when |
|------|-----------|
| `References/Conventions.md` | naming, public/private boundary, folder structure, SKILL.md shape, skill types, writing guidance, evals contract, versioning |
| `References/IntentTemplate.md` | the templates `Tools/Scaffold.ts` fills, and the standard bullets for common intent shapes |

## Data & Config

User customizations live at `<configRoot>/LIFEOS/USER/CUSTOMIZATIONS/SKILLS/CreateSkill/` (`configRoot` is `$CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` when set, else `~/.claude`). When that directory exists, its PREFERENCES.md, configurations and resources apply and override the defaults here, including install-specific commands and paths for versioning; when it is absent, the defaults stand.

## Gotchas

- **No hook enforces "no handrolling" any more.** `SkillCreationGuard` (retired 2026-10-24) used to block a `Write` that created a new `skills/<Name>/SKILL.md` without a `CreateSkill` call in the session transcript, and it never saw Edit, MultiEdit, Bash creation (`cat >`, heredoc, `tee`), or new intents and tools. Today `/ic` catches a hand-rolled skill after the fact, and the rest is on you.
- **Reading these intents and working from them without the `Skill("CreateSkill")` call is handrolling.** `skills/CLAUDE.md` requires invoking the skill. The skill that mandates Gotchas sections went without one until 2026-06-13; the standard applies to this skill too.
- **A new SKILL.md reaches the AlgorithmNudge skill index without a writer bump.** The hook's fallback (`checkAndBumpSkillGenerationIfChanged` in `hooks/AlgorithmNudge.hook.ts`) walks `skills/*/SKILL.md` mtimes on each run and bumps the generation itself, so nothing here calls `bumpSkillGeneration()` (read 2026-10-09; this replaces the old note asking for the call to be wired).
- **`bun test <bare relative path>` drops every child process's stdout and stderr** (Bun 1.3.6). Always prefix: `bun test ./skills/<Skill>`.
- **Parallel rewrites inside one skill break its cross-file pointers.** In a skill-quality pilot, parallel rewrite units in one skill broke each other's cross-file § pointers and left sibling templates inconsistent. Rewrite SKILL.md first, then the intents, then make one pass over the whole skill for cross-file consistency.

## Examples

**Example 1: Create a new skill from scratch**
```
User: "Create a skill for managing my recipes"
→ CreateSkill intent
→ SkillCoverage record (ROUTE / ABSORB / NET-NEW), then Scaffold.ts writes SKILL.md and intents from the template
→ Intents filled with Ideal State and Anti-criteria; IntentLint --strict and SkillHygieneGate both exit 0
→ Announcement offers TestSkill against a no-skill baseline
```

**Example 2: Fix an existing skill that's not routing properly**
```
User: "The research skill isn't triggering - validate it"
→ ValidateSkill intent
→ IntentLint, SkillHygieneGate and the structural checks report exit codes; judgment covers only what they cannot decide
→ COMPLIANT / NON-COMPLIANT verdict with file:line evidence, OptimizeDescription suggested for the trigger
```

**Example 3: Bring a legacy step-by-step skill to the standard**
```
User: "Canonicalize my legacy Recipes skill"
→ CanonicalizeSkill intent
→ Each Step 1..N intent becomes Ideal State + Anti-criteria + keep-class sections, voice block removed
→ IntentLint zero errors, IntentPreserve zero missing tokens, skill tests pass as before
```


---
Source attribution: danielmiessler
Original project: https://github.com/danielmiessler/Personal_AI_Infrastructure/blob/b7efec97d8c3885feee285bee468c35602fb0606/LifeOS/install/skills/CreateSkill/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Daniel Miessler

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.


# Mega AI Hub resource metadata

Creator / publisher: danielmiessler
Original project: https://github.com/danielmiessler/Personal_AI_Infrastructure/blob/b7efec97d8c3885feee285bee468c35602fb0606/LifeOS/install/skills/CreateSkill/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Content & Media, Product Management, Project & Program Management
Roles: Technical Writer, Product Manager, Project Manager
Specialties: Specialty not specified
Tools: Claude
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source category, role and specialization labels
Instruction SHA-256: a91490830cf5ab211f6c6837190bcb984c0e22d8b9e2e0f12dfc8f06958bea19