Skill creator (framework)

Purpose: Create Agent Skills format-compliant skills for this framework, adapt documents into skills, route external-skill imports through the framework's safety pipeline, and prepare skills for other hosts. Format compatibility does not guarantee behavioral portability: scripts, links, dependencies, tools, coordination references, and deployment assumptions may require host-specific adaptation.

When to use this skill

• User wants to "create a new skill," "capture this as a skill," or "turn this into a skill."
• User wants to import an existing skill, such as one from Anthropic's repo, through LocalSetup's vetting, normalization, sandbox, and registration pipeline.
• User provides a skill or document from elsewhere and wants it adapted for this framework.
• User asks about preparing a framework skill for another host or auditing its behavioral portability.

Interoperability (design for interchange)

• Format compatibility: Skills created or adapted here conform to the Agent Skills format (required name, description; optional metadata.version, scripts/, references/, assets/). No framework-only frontmatter is required.
• Behavioral portability requires evidence: A format-compliant skill may still depend on repository-relative links, sibling skills, platform tools, runtime dependencies, coordination protocols, or LocalSetup deployment semantics. Never promise unchanged operation in another host without the export audit below.
• External-skill imports: Do not copy an external candidate into ls/skills/ from this skill. Hand the source to ls-import-external-skills, which owns discovery, duplicate handling, safety screening, and the gated path through ls-skill-security-vetting, ls-normalize-skill-format, and ls-skill-sandbox-tester before canonical copy, registration, or success confirmation.
• Design guidance: For structure and progressive disclosure, follow the Agent Skills spec and Anthropic's skill-creator. This skill adds LocalSetup authoring and export checks; it does not make framework behavior universally portable. See SKILL_INTEROPERABILITY.md.

Rule ownership

This skill owns framework skill-authoring, import handoff, and export-audit behavior. Public docs such as AGENT_SKILLS_COMPLIANCE.md, SKILL_INTEROPERABILITY.md, and SKILLS_AND_RULES.md are reference surfaces; where their direct-copy or unchanged-operation guidance conflicts with this skill's safety pipeline or export audit, this skill is authoritative. Do not add new required SKILL.md fields in those docs without also updating this skill, validation tests, and generated catalogs.

• Keep Agent Skills portability: name and description remain the only required skill frontmatter fields.
• Keep LocalSetup-only classification in ls/config/pack.yaml under extensions.skill_taxonomy; do not require taxonomy fields in every SKILL.md.
• For imports, hand off to ls-import-external-skills as the sole operational import owner. It coordinates ls-skill-security-vetting, ls-normalize-skill-format, and ls-skill-sandbox-tester; do not embed or bypass those workflows here.

Capturing completed work

When the user requests capture of a completed setup, configuration, repair, or operational procedure, use ls-skill-capture-handoff for the completion offer, standalone package, and optional full-source contribution handoff. This skill continues to own authoring and export checks; the importer continues to own incoming skills. Capturing or installing a skill does not authorize publication or adoption of global completion policy. Reuse existing explicit authorization for each requested stage instead of asking twice.

Inputs you can accept

1. Free-form description - User describes the workflow or behavior. Infer purpose, steps, and trigger scenarios; ask one or two clarifying questions if needed. Draft a spec-compliant skill using concise instructions, appropriate degrees of freedom, and progressive disclosure.
2. Existing document - A local Markdown path or content to adapt into a newly authored skill. For pasted content or a remote single-document URL, follow SKILL_IMPORTING.md: preserve the exact bytes in a temporary path and pass skill_importer_scan before adapting the screened path here. Content represented as an existing external skill instead belongs entirely to ls-import-external-skills through canonical copy and registration.
3. Existing skill (import) - Directory or URL of a skill from any source. Load ls-import-external-skills and hand it the source and user intent. The importer must complete its collision decision and return passing vetting, normalization, and sandbox evidence before any canonical copy, registration, deployment, or success claim.

Framework skill requirements (spec-compliant)

• Spec: Every skill must satisfy the Agent Skills format contract. Required: name (matches directory, 1-64 chars, lowercase, hyphens), description (1-1024 chars, what + when to use). Optional: metadata.version, license, compatibility; optional dirs: scripts/, references/, assets/. Behavioral support still depends on the target host.
• Name (framework convention): ls-<trigger-keywords> for a capability skill and ls-wf-<trigger-keywords> for a workflow. Choose the three to five most useful keywords from the circumstances or requests that should activate it, such as sudo, merge conflict, failing tests, or dependency advisory. Prefer concrete task language to abstract outcomes; omit redundant type words and filler. The directory name must equal name per spec.
• Location (source): ls/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. This is the canonical skill; deploy maps to each platform's configured adapter skills root per ls/docs/PLATFORM_REGISTRY.md and ls/config/platforms.yaml.
• Frontmatter: name, description (required). Include metadata.version: "1.0" so our hook can auto-bump. Lead the description with natural requests, symptoms, commands, file types, or error conditions that should activate the package, then state its behavior and scope limits. Put related phrases and exclusions in the description rather than stuffing the name. Use third person; keyword relevance is a LocalSetup discovery policy, not a guarantee that every host will select the package.
• Body: Start with a Purpose line; clear sections (##). Keep under ~500 lines; use progressive disclosure; link to references/ or ls/docs/ as needed. Follow Anthropic's skill-creator for structure and what to put in scripts/references/assets; keep host-specific dependencies explicit.

Registration (required for discoverability)

After creating the skill, register it in its owning metadata and regenerate the shared catalogs so clients can discover it when the task matches.

Canonical registration contract: Read PLATFORM_REGISTRY.md, section "Skill registration (new skills)", and complete its metadata, smoke-matrix, generation, and validation requirements. Do not maintain a separate registration list in this skill.

Keep the current task description in package frontmatter. Platform templates route to that metadata and the generated catalogs; do not add duplicate per-skill lists to each template.

Workflow (agent steps)

If importing an existing skill:

1. Hand off to the import owner - Load ls-import-external-skills and provide the candidate directory or URL plus the user's intended LocalSetup name and purpose. Do not duplicate its acquisition, collision, copy, or registration procedure here.
2. Require the complete safety pipeline - Keep ls-import-external-skills as the active coordinator. Its completion result must include passing evidence from ls-skill-security-vetting, ls-normalize-skill-format, and ls-skill-sandbox-tester, in that order, under the repository's onboarding contract. If the importer cannot produce all three results, stop: no candidate may enter ls/skills/, registration, deployment, or a success claim.
3. Accept only verified completion - Confirm import success only after the importer reports the canonical copy and registration plus passing vetting, normalization, and sandbox evidence. Deployment remains a separate action.

If creating from scratch or from a doc:

1. Gather input - Use a user-authored description or a local document path. For pasted content or a remote single-document URL, first preserve its exact bytes in a temporary path and pass the path-based skill_importer_scan required by SKILL_IMPORTING.md; adapt only the screened path. Existing external skills remain entirely in the import workflow.
2. Decide name and triggers - Derive ls-<trigger-keywords> from representative user requests and activation circumstances before drafting the procedure. Use ls-wf-<trigger-keywords> for a workflow under the workflow standard. Check that a matching request can recognize the name and description, and that nearby unrelated requests are excluded. Preserve published selectors through the owning alias mechanism when intentionally renaming a package; keep source, registration, callers and generated provenance aligned.
3. Public skill discovery (recommended) - Load ls-find-public-skills with the proposed purpose and description. Consume its returned candidates and user choice without refreshing or re-ranking its index or reproducing its interaction procedure here. If the user chooses a public skill or adaptation, hand that candidate to ls-import-external-skills; otherwise continue authoring.
4. Duplicate, overlap, and namespace check - For this newly authored skill only, list existing ls/skills/ names and descriptions. If the proposed name already exists or its purpose and triggers strongly overlap, warn and offer Keep existing, Replace existing, Merge, or Create as new. Get explicit user choice. Imported candidates never use this step; their decision belongs exclusively to ls-import-external-skills.
5. Draft SKILL.md - Use spec-compliant frontmatter and body. Follow the Agent Skills specification and Anthropic's skill-creator for structure; avoid unnecessary framework-only behavior and document every required host capability.
6. Create file - Write ls/skills/<name>/SKILL.md or the user-approved alternative. Deploy maps it to each platform's configured adapter skills root; manual adapter copy is optional when needed.
7. Register - Complete the registration and generated-catalog checks in PLATFORM_REGISTRY.md under "Skill registration (new skills)."
8. Confirm - Confirm the skill is created, spec-compliant, and registered. Before claiming it works in another Agent Skills host, complete the export audit below and adapt any host-specific behavior.

Duplicate and overlap for new authoring

• The creation workflow owns collision and overlap choices only for newly authored skills. Every imported candidate's collision and overlap decision belongs exclusively to ls-import-external-skills; do not pre-check or repeat it here.

Quality checks

• Skill is Agent Skills-compliant: name matches directory, description is present and under 1024 characters, and optional directories follow the specification.
• For framework use: name follows the ls-* convention, metadata.version is present, and registration is complete per PLATFORM_REGISTRY.md.
• Description includes what the skill does and when to apply it. Body has clear sections; committed content contains no personal data or machine-specific paths.
• Registration metadata and generated catalogs satisfy PLATFORM_REGISTRY.md. Imports additionally require passing vetting, normalization, and sandbox evidence before canonical copy or registration.

Using our skills in another host (export)

Agent Skills format compliance permits another compliant host to parse the skill; it does not prove unchanged behavior. Before export:

1. Audit every SKILL.md, references/, scripts/, and asset reference for repository-local or absolute paths, sibling-skill handoffs, LocalSetup-specific commands, adapter paths, and deployment assumptions.
2. Inventory runtime and package dependencies, required executables, environment or secret providers, MCP/platform tools, network capabilities, and coordination protocols. Confirm the target host provides compatible equivalents.
3. Replace or document unsupported references and host-specific semantics, then validate links and execute the skill's real smoke scenario in the actual target host.
4. Copy the reviewed skill directory and rename its directory and name only when the target host requires it. Report any retained host assumptions; never describe format compatibility alone as behavioral portability.

See SKILL_INTEROPERABILITY.md for the broader interchange contract.

Reference

• Agent Skills specification - Format and interchange.
• Anthropic's skill-creator - Design, anatomy (scripts/references/assets), progressive disclosure.
• SKILL_INTEROPERABILITY.md - Import external skills; export our skills; full interchange steps.
• SKILL_DISCOVERY.md - Public registries and discovery; use ls-find-public-skills when creating to recommend similar public skills.
• PLATFORM_REGISTRY.md - Registration file list.
• SKILLS_AND_RULES.md - How skills are loaded and platform paths.