Agent Skills Specification

Overview

Agent Skills is an open specification that enables AI coding agents to discover, understand, and utilize specialized capabilities. Skills are defined using a standard format that works across multiple AI platforms including Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and more.

SKILL.md Structure

Each skill is defined by a SKILL.md file with the following structure:

---
name: skill-name
description: Short description of what the skill does
triggers:
  - keyword or phrase that activates this skill
  - another trigger phrase
---

# Skill Name

Detailed instructions for how the AI agent should use this skill.

## When to Use

Describe the conditions and contexts where this skill applies.

## How to Use

Step-by-step instructions or guidelines for the agent.

## Examples

Provide example usage scenarios.

Directory Structure

Skills can be organized in the following locations:

• ~/.claude/skills/ - User-specific skills
• ~/.claude/plugins/*/skills/ - Plugin-provided skills
• .claude/skills/ - Project-specific skills

Frontmatter Fields

Resources