Hello World Skill

This is a minimal, working example skill. Copy this folder, rename it, and edit the frontmatter + body to build your own.

Anatomy of a skill

A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file:

skills/
└── my-skill/
    ├── SKILL.md          # required — frontmatter + instructions
    ├── references/       # optional — extra docs the skill can read on demand
    └── scripts/          # optional — helper scripts the skill can run

Frontmatter (required)

---
name: my-skill            # kebab-case, must match the folder name
description: One sentence. THIS is what Claude matches against to decide
             whether to load the skill. Be specific — include trigger words.
---

The description is the single most important line: Claude reads only the name + description of every skill, and uses the description to decide when to pull in the full SKILL.md. A vague description means the skill never fires.

Body

Everything below the frontmatter is the instruction set. It loads into context only when the skill is invoked, so it can be long and detailed.

When this skill would trigger

This hello-world skill is intentionally inert — it just teaches structure. A real skill's description should name concrete situations and trigger phrases, e.g. "Use when the user asks to generate a changelog, mentions 'release notes', or runs /changelog."

Where skills live

See docs/skills-guide.md for the full guide.