Writes and revises agent skills so they trigger at the right moments and give usable instruction when they do. Use this when creating a new skill, editing an existing one, diagnosing a skill that fires too often or never fires, or reviewing a set of skills for overlap. Also use before adding to a skill library, to check the capability is not already covered.
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
# Skill authoring
A skill is judged twice: on whether it loads at the right moment, and on whether it helps once
loaded. Most fail the first test.
## The description does the triggering
It is the only part read when deciding whether to load. Write it for that job:
- Lead with **what the skill does**, in one clause.
- Then **when to reach for it** — the situations, in the words someone would actually use, including
the oblique ones ("why isn't this converting" as well as "CRO audit").
- Name the **edge cases that should still trigger it**, and where useful, what should *not*.
Vague descriptions produce two failures at once: the skill misses cases it should catch, and fires
on cases it cannot help.
## The body does the work
Write for someone competent who has not thought about this problem today. That means:
- **Method over exhortation.** "Be thorough" is noise. An ordered procedure is instruction.
- **State the failure behind each rule.** A rule with no failure attached gets optimized away by the
next reader.
- **Be specific enough to be wrong.** Guidance too hedged to contradict is too vague to follow.
…
The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260916.e72e404, 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.
A 17 of 17 checks passed. Fixed automatic checks with no AI involved, so the same checks give the same answer every run.
pass: Frontmatter block present
pass: Frontmatter declares a name
pass: Frontmatter declares a description
pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (3062 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
GitHub
cbrock84/headcount · 2,076 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-18 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_zhu7w7n67q364eqa
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=cbrock84/headcount/skill-authoring
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/83b9322b7d1bd7d7f72a1bbc0d257f938ce7c53ddae08f89728afd3940bd6bd0
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.
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/chief-strategy-officer/SKILL.md · Owns where the business plays and how it wins over a multi-year horizon — portfolio choices, corporate development…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/market-entry/SKILL.md · Decides whether and how to enter a new market — sizing demand from the bottom up rather than from a market report…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/portfolio-strategy/SKILL.md · Decides where capital and attention go across business lines, products, and markets — what to fund, hold, harvest, or…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/scenario-planning/SKILL.md · Plans under genuine uncertainty — building scenarios, identifying which assumptions are load-bearing, setting…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/corporate-strategy/skills/strategic-alliances/SKILL.md · Structures partnerships that change what the business can do — technology integrations, channel and reseller…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/customer-experience/skills/chief-customer-officer/SKILL.md · Owns the customer's experience after the sale — support, success, escalation, and the feedback loop back into product…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/customer-experience/skills/customer-onboarding-and-implementation/SKILL.md · Takes a new customer from signature to working — setting a definition of live that both sides agreed before the…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/customer-experience/skills/customer-success-management/SKILL.md · Runs the ongoing relationship with accounts after the sale — segmenting coverage against account value, building a…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/customer-experience/skills/escalation-management/SKILL.md · Handles customer situations that have exceeded normal support — severity assessment, incident communication, executive…
cbrock84/headcount · plugins/customer-experience/skills/self-service-and-knowledge/SKILL.md · Builds the help center, in-product guidance, and knowledge base that let customers resolve problems without contacting…
nyldn/claude-octopus · .claude/skills/skill-authoring/SKILL.md · Principles for writing skills that behave the same way every run — use when adding, editing, or reviewing a skill in…
nyldn/claude-octopus · skills/skill-authoring/SKILL.md · Principles for writing skills that behave the same way every run — use when adding, editing, or reviewing a skill in…
athola/claude-night-market · plugins/abstract/skills/skill-authoring/SKILL.md · Guide creating Claude Code skills with TDD and persuasion principles. Use for new skill development.
microsoft/github-copilot-for-azure · .github/skills/skill-authoring/SKILL.md · Guidelines for writing Agent Skills that comply with the agentskills.io specification. WHEN: "create a skill", "new…
