How to Design and Create Agent Skills with Dify's skill-creator
Have you ever wanted to give an AI agent specialized knowledge for a specific domain? General-purpose AI often falls short when you need domain-specific workflows or tool integrations.
This article explains how to design and create effective Agent Skills using the skill-creator skill from the Dify repository.
What This Skill Does
skill-creator guides you through the entire Agent Skill creation process. It provides:
- Design principles and structural guidance for skills
- SKILL.md writing instructions with frontmatter requirements
- Progressive Disclosure patterns for context-efficient skills
- Organization of scripts, references, and assets
- Packaging and distribution workflows
This skill is suited for developers building reusable workflows for their teams or embedding project-specific knowledge into AI agents.
Installation
Prerequisites
- Claude Code installed
- Access to the GitHub repository
Install Command
Run the following in Claude Code:
claude mcp add github.com/langgenius/dify/tree/main/.claude/skills/skill-creator
Usage
Basic Usage
To create a new skill, instruct Claude Code:
I want to create a new skill
skill-creator automatically triggers and guides you through:
- Scope understanding - Clarifying concrete use cases
- Resource planning - Designing scripts/references/assets
- Initialization - Scaffolding via
init_skill.py - Editing - Implementing SKILL.md and resources
- Packaging - Creating distributable
.skillfiles
Skill Structure
Skills follow this directory layout:
skill-name/
├── SKILL.md # Required: metadata and instructions
├── scripts/ # Executable code
├── references/ # Documentation for context loading
└── assets/ # Templates and output resources
The SKILL.md frontmatter requires name and description fields. The description is critical as it determines when the skill triggers.
Important Considerations
Context Window is a Shared Resource
Skill content consumes the context window. Avoid repeating information the AI already knows. Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines and split details into references/ files.
Description Drives Triggering
The SKILL.md body loads only after triggering. All "when to use" information must be in the description field.
Use Progressive Disclosure
Manage information in three tiers: metadata (always loaded) → SKILL.md body (on trigger) → bundled resources (on demand) for optimal context efficiency.
Summary
skill-creator provides guided workflows for designing and distributing Agent Skills. By following its context-aware design principles, you can effectively package team or personal workflows into reusable skills.
For full specifications, visit the skill detail page.