building-skills SKILL.md skillA
building-skills from ampcode/official-plugins is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add ampcode/official-plugins/building-skills@git:20261026.2f3df7fPins git:20261026.2f3df7f in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- ampcode/official-plugins
- Path
skills/building-skills/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- git:20261026.2f3df7f, committed Oct 26, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 28, 2026
- Size
- 13,473 bytes
- Repository stars
- 21
- License
- none declared
Use when creating, editing, installing, moving, pushing, or deleting any skill/agent skill/amp skill. Load FIRST—before researching existing skills or touching SKILL.md files or skill locations. Provides required structure, naming conventions, and frontmatter format.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Building Skills
Creates well-structured Agent Skills following best practices.
## Skill Structure
Every skill needs a `SKILL.md` file with YAML frontmatter:
```markdown
---
name: my-skill-name
description: Does X when Y happens. Use for Z tasks.
---
# Skill Title
Instructions go here.
```
## Frontmatter Requirements
### name (required)
- Maximum 64 characters
- Lowercase letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and hyphens only
- Must not start or end with a hyphen
- No consecutive hyphens (`my--skill` is invalid)
- Must match parent directory name exactly
- Use gerund form (verb + -ing): `processing-pdfs`, `analyzing-data`, `managing-deployments`
- Avoid vague names: `helper`, `utils`, `tools`
### description (required)
- Maximum 1024 characters (should be much shorter than 1024 characters)
- Write in third person ("Processes files" not "I process files")
- Include BOTH what the skill does AND when to use it
- Be specific with key terms for discovery
- **Quote the value** if it contains colons, special YAML characters, or "Triggers on:" patterns:
```yaml
description: "Fetches tasks from Notion. Triggers on: my tasks, show work."
```
**Good descriptions:**
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add ampcode/official-plugins/building-skills@sha256:4f81ead7d18a1e85The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261026.2f3df7f, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_ofet3oo3z3q7p7h7)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Sep 28, 2026 and Oct 26, 2026, about one every 28 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20261026.2f3df7f latest | 2026-10-26 | 2f3df7f | 13,473 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260928.0562610 | 2026-09-28 | 0562610 | 13,212 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (13473 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
ampcode/official-plugins · 21 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-11-01 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_ofet3oo3z3q7p7h7 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=ampcode/official-plugins/building-skills GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/4f81ead7d18a1e85d06ec6b6482d9f2f6af347f2b99c9a7dbf2dc06d6bcea335
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.