Agent skill · writing content · erichowens
skill-coach
Guides creation of high-quality Agent Skills with domain expertise, anti-pattern detection, and progressive disclosure best practices. Use when creating skills, reviewing existing skills, or when users mention improving skill quality, encoding expertise, or avoiding common AI tooling mistakes. Activate on keywords: create skill, review skill, skill quality, skill best practices, skill anti-patterns. NOT for general coding advice or non-skill Claude Code features.
Why this skill is useful
Provides domain-specific best practices and anti-pattern detection for creating high-quality Agent Skills that the AI wouldn't reliably generate on its own.
What it needs
About 9k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-07-14. 180 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Skill Coach: Creating Expert-Level Agent Skills This skill helps you create Agent Skills that encode real domain expertise, not just surface-level instructions. It focuses on the shibboleths - the deep knowledge that separates novices from experts. When to Use This Skill ✅ Use for: Creating new Agent Skills from scratch Reviewing/auditing existing skills Improving skill activation rates Adding domain expertise to skills Debugging why skills don't activate ❌ NOT for: General Claude Code features (slash commands, MCPs) Non-skill coding advice Debugging runtime errors in skills (use specific domain skills) Project setup unrelated to skills What Makes a Great Skill Great skills are progressive disclosure machines that: 1. Activate precisely - Specific keywords trigger, NOT clause prevents false activation 2. Encode shibboleths - Expert knowledge that separates novice from expert approaches 3. Surface anti-patterns - "If you see X, that's wrong because Y, use Z instead" 4. Capture temporal knowledge - "Pre-2024: X. 2024+: Y. Watch for: LLMs suggesting X" 5. Know their limits - "Use this for A, B, C. NOT for D, E, F. For D use skill-name-2" 6. Provide decision trees - Not templates, but "If X then A, if Y then B, never C" 7. Stay under 500 lines - Core in SKILL.md, deep dives in /references Quick Wins Immediate improvements for existing skills: 1. Add NOT clause to description → Prevents false activation 2. Add 1-2 anti-patterns → Prevents common mistakes 3. Check line count (wc -l) → Should be <500 4. Remove dead files → Delete unreferenced scripts/references 5. Test activation → Ask questions that should/shouldn't trigger it Quick Start Creating a New Skill: 1. Define scope: What expertise? What keywords? What NOT to handle? 2. Write description with keywords and NOT clause 3. Add anti-patterns you've observed 4. Test activation thoroughly 5. Use Review Checklist below Core Principles 1. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills erichowens/after