create-skill skill

[!CAUTION] Read and follow the shared safety rules before any action. Preview local writes and obtain explicit approval. Git and GitHub writes require their own approval and are outside this skill.

Create Skill

Create one complete skill and register every repository surface without guessing. The workflow plans first, fails closed on ambiguous conventions, and applies one approved change set.

Commands

Command	Purpose
create-skill <name>	Create and register a new skill with deterministic placeholder art.
create-skill art <name>	Preview and create or ingest thumbnail art for an existing skill.
create-skill register <name>	Preview and register an existing complete skill without replacing its authored files.
create-skill check <name>	Validate the skill shape and thumbnail parity without writing.
create-skill fixture --input <json> --repo-root <path>	Deterministically create a validated fixture skill without interview prompts.

Every mutating command starts with --dry-run. Apply the unchanged plan only after the user approves its single-use hash.

Workflow

1. Resolve the request

Collect only missing values:

1. Skill name in lowercase-dash form.
2. A one-sentence summary.
3. Specific USE FOR phrases that users will type.
4. Specific DO NOT USE FOR boundaries and the sibling workflow that should win.
5. Copyright holder, when repository conventions do not identify one.
6. Art choice: Azure OpenAI GPT Image 2, OpenAI Images, custom workflow, or placeholder.

Search installed and repository skills for overlapping triggers before creation. If another skill already owns the same job, stop and propose extending it.

2. Discover the repository

Run from the target repository, not this installed skill directory.

1. Prefer the nearest skills-repo.config.json.
2. Validate managed identity and settings before deriving canonical repository paths.
3. Without managed config, discover the existing populated skills/ directory and known registration surfaces.
4. Stop before any write when multiple skill roots or catalog surfaces are plausible.

See repository discovery for the exact contract.

3. Preview creation

Invoke this script by absolute path while keeping the target repository as the working directory:

node <skill-dir>/scripts/create-skill.mjs <name> \
  --summary "<summary>" \
  --use-for "<trigger phrases>" \
  --do-not-use-for "<boundaries>" \
  --author "<holder>" \
  --dry-run

Show the complete JSON preview and approval token. The preview includes every skill file and every registration surface. Ask the user to approve that exact hash once.

4. Apply creation

Repeat the same command and replace --dry-run with --approve <hash>. Do not alter any input between preview and apply. The tool rejects a stale hash, existing skill directory, symlinked destination, missing locked Vally toolchain, ambiguous registration, or invalid PNG.

Creation includes:

• SKILL.md with name, description, and metadata.version frontmatter.
• README.md, LICENSE, package.json, and package-lock.json.
• .vally.yaml, deterministic tests, and evals/<name>/eval.yaml.
• thumbnail.png as the tracked source for catalog synchronization when a catalog is present.
• Marketplace, plugin, README, eval workflow, Dependabot, and catalog registration when present.
• Prompt and non-secret provenance in docs/thumbnail-prompts.md when present.

5. Choose art

The initial placeholder is deliberate and deterministic. Replace it only when requested.

Built-in providers

Preview the exact action:

node <skill-dir>/scripts/create-skill.mjs art <name> \
  --provider azure-openai \
  --prompt "<exact prompt>" \
  --dry-run

Supported choices:

• azure-openai: Azure OpenAI GPT Image 2 at the exact configured https://<resource>.openai.azure.com origin.
• openai: OpenAI Images at the exact https://api.openai.com origin.
• placeholder: deterministic local PNG with no network or billed call.

The placeholder and check commands run on bare Node. Before a network provider, run npm ci --ignore-scripts in the installed create-skill directory so its locked SDKs are available.

Show provider, exact endpoint, model, prompt, targets, billing status, one attempt, and no fallback. Ask for approval of the single-use action hash. Then repeat with --approve <hash>.

Built-in requests disable redirects and SDK retries. Never retry automatically. Never switch providers after a timeout, redirect, rate limit, service error, invalid response, or rejected PNG. Report the failure and ask the user what to do.

Custom provider or delivery workflow

Ask: "Describe any provider and delivery workflow you want me to use for the thumbnail."

The answer is open-ended. It may name an API, MCP tool, browser flow, local application, uploaded attachment, shared storage location, human handoff, or another delivery mechanism. Never reduce the choice to a local command.

Convert the answer into an exact action preview containing:

1. Provider and destination.
2. Exact prompt and non-secret data sent.
3. Exact tool calls, API origin, browser actions, or human handoff steps.
4. Billing or external side effects.
5. One attempt and no fallback.
6. How the final PNG will arrive in the target repository workspace.
7. The skill and catalog paths that will receive the validated bytes.

Show that preview and obtain explicit single-use approval before taking the custom action. Execute only the approved steps once. Never place credentials in the preview or provenance.

After delivery, save the result as a repository-relative regular file and ingest it:

node <skill-dir>/scripts/create-skill.mjs art <name> \
  --provider custom \
  --custom-description "<approved provider and delivery steps>" \
  --custom-provider "<provider name>" \
  --custom-model "<model or method>" \
  --delivery "<delivery method>" \
  --input "<repository-relative PNG>" \
  --dry-run

Approve the displayed hash, then repeat with --approve <hash>. The CLI never executes a custom command. It accepts the delivered PNG only after the same strict validation used for built-in art. See art and provenance.

6. Validate

Run:

node <skill-dir>/scripts/create-skill.mjs check <name>
npm test
npm run eval:lint

Run vally lint <skill-dir>, skill-doctor, and registration parity checks when available in the target repository. Do not run the full capability eval unless the user accepts its agent usage.

7. Generate a deterministic fixture

Repository generators may create functional example skills through the stable fixture contract:

node <skill-dir>/scripts/create-skill.mjs fixture \
  --input "<fixture.json>" \
  --repo-root "<target-repository>" \
  --dry-run

Parse the JSON preview, obtain or propagate approval for its hash, then repeat the unchanged command with --approve <hash>. Fixture mode is always noninteractive. It accepts only the version 1 schema, deterministic built-in placeholder art, and the normal repository registration path. It never bypasses dry-run, approval, validation, atomic writes, or provenance.

Read fixture mode for the exact payload and exit contract.

Repository generators use create-skill register create-skill --dry-run, followed by the unchanged command with --approve <hash>, after catalog staging. This registers the bundled authoring skill through the same atomic path without rewriting its skill files.

Safety

1. Dry-run never writes files or calls an image provider.
2. Approval binds the exact inputs and target paths. Changed inputs require a new preview.
3. Provider requests make one attempt with no retry, redirect, or fallback.
4. Custom workflows require an exact preview and approval before any external action.
5. Provider output is untrusted until the complete PNG validator accepts it.
6. The validated skill thumbnail is the tracked source; catalog builds generate public copies.
7. Secrets never enter prompts, previews, logs, generated files, or provenance.
8. Existing files are preserved when planning fails. Apply uses staged sibling files and rollback.
9. No git staging, commit, push, issue, pull request, or repository setting change is part of this skill.

Exit Criteria

• New skills declare metadata.version as a quoted SemVer string. Preserve existing skill versions during registration; use the repository's version helper to bump a release and synchronize plugin listings when available.

• The skill has every required file and only portable SKILL.md frontmatter keys.

• Every discovered or configured registration surface includes the skill.

• The tracked skill thumbnail passes strict PNG validation; catalog builds generate the public copy.

• Prompt and non-secret provenance are recorded when that repository surface exists.

• Deterministic tests and Vally lint pass.

• The final report lists exact changed files, commands, results, and any blocked work.