create-skill

Skill Description

Guides users through creating effective Agent Skills for Cursor. Use when the user wants to create, write, or author a new skill, or asks about skill structure, best practices, or SKILL.md format.

Complete Skill Documentation

This skill provides comprehensive guidance on creating Agent Skills for Cursor. The complete SKILL.md contains:

• Requirements Gathering: How to collect essential information before creating a skill
• Skill File Structure: Directory layout and required files
• SKILL.md Format: Frontmatter requirements and content structure
• Writing Effective Descriptions: Critical best practices for skill discovery
• Core Authoring Principles: Including conciseness, progressive disclosure, and appropriate degrees of freedom
• Common Patterns: Template, examples, workflow, conditional workflow, and feedback loop patterns
• Utility Scripts: When and how to include executable scripts
• Anti-Patterns to Avoid: Common mistakes to prevent
• Complete Examples: Full working examples of well-structured skills

Key Highlights

Storage Locations:

Important: Never create skills in ~/.cursor/skills-cursor/. This directory is reserved for Cursor’s internal built-in skills.

Description Best Practices:

1. Write in third person (injected into system prompt)
2. Be specific and include trigger terms
3. Include both WHAT the skill does and WHEN to use it

Core Principles:

• Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines
• Use progressive disclosure for detailed content
• Only add context the agent doesn’t already have
• Match specificity to task fragility

Full Skill Content

For the complete skill documentation with all examples and detailed guidance, see the original SKILL.md file at:

~/.cursor/skills-cursor/create-skill/SKILL.md

The full content includes approximately 500 lines of detailed guidance covering all aspects of skill creation, from initial requirements gathering to final verification checklists.

Use Cases

The agent will automatically invoke this skill when you want to:

• Create a new skill
• Write or author skills
• Ask about skill structure
• Learn about best practices
• Understand SKILL.md format

Related Documentation

• Agent Skills Guide
• Skills Best Practices