Create or improve skills for Codewhale by defining their scope, writing clear activation descriptions and workflows, organizing supporting files, and checking discovery. It also helps decide when an external integration or automatic event handler is more appropriate.
Create or improve codewhale skills. Use when the user wants a new skill, wants to update an existing skill, or needs guidance on when a skill should be a skill versus MCP, hooks, tools, or a plugin scaffold.
Review the instructions the agent will receive before you install.
Use this skill to create small, useful codewhale skills that match the runtime this repository actually ships.
A skill is a local folder with a SKILL.md file. Codewhale reads the skill name
and description during discovery, then loads the body only when the user or task
matches the skill.
Discovery paths, in precedence order:
<workspace>/.agents/skills<workspace>/skills<workspace>/.opencode/skills<workspace>/.claude/skills<workspace>/.cursor/skills<workspace>/.codewhale/skills~/.agents/skills~/.claude/skills~/.codewhale/skillsUse skills for model instructions, workflows, and lightweight conventions. Use
MCP for live external APIs or durable tools. Use hooks for automatic local
events. To distribute a skill through a plugin bundle, give the bundle a
plugin.json whose net.codewhale extension points skills.path at a
directory holding <name>/SKILL.md folders; each skill then loads namespaced
as <plugin>:<skill> after review, trust, and enablement. A bare SKILL.md
directory is discoverable on the skills paths above but is not a plugin
bundle and cannot be installed through /plugin install.
my-skill/
`-- SKILL.md
---
name: my-skill
description: Use when Codewhale should follow this specific workflow.
---
# My Skill
Instructions for the agent.
Frontmatter parsing is intentionally simple. Keep name and description as
plain single-line values. Use lower-case hyphen-case names.
description action-oriented and trigger-specific. It is the main
signal Codewhale sees before loading the body.references/ and mention exactly when to open them.scripts/ only for deterministic helpers that are worth maintaining.assets/ only for templates, fixtures, examples, or files reused by the
workflow.<skill-name>/SKILL.md.name and description./skills or by running the relevant
skill discovery tests if editing this repository.SKILL.md starts with ---.name matches the directory name unless there is a deliberate reason.description says when to use the skill, not just what it is.No reviews yet. Tell others what you thought.
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Split a large goal into clearly bounded tasks that can run in parallel. Coordinate existing agent and worktree tools, then combine and verify the results. The skill starts only when explicitly requested.
Generate independent options for design, implementation, explanations, or debugging, then compare them using one shared rubric. Code candidates use separate working copies and undergo independent verification before a winner is presented for review.
Check Codewhale release readiness through ordered tests, builds, version checks, and manual terminal checks. Record command results and observed behavior, including responsiveness, route isolation, and follow-up input handling, while explicitly identifying any skipped checks.
Operate desktop apps and isolated browsers on registered computers by inspecting interface controls, entering information, and checking results. The skill also covers screenshots and recording, with separate routing for the user's signed-in Chrome through Chromewhale.
Check a local Codewhale checkout before contributing: inspect branch and sync status, build the CLI, and run the repository’s CI checks. Present recent commits and changelog entries from local files, with clear status for each step.
Builds and installs Codewhale with a source revision identifier, then verifies the installed version in a fresh shell. It guides hands-on runtime checks for interface behavior, routing, approvals, and other changes that automated tests may miss.