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. Activate on keywords: create skill, review skill, skill
Why this skill is useful
Adds 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 6k 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 Encode real domain expertise, not just surface-level instructions. Focus on 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 (use domain skills) 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 (run validator) → Should be fewer than 500 lines 4. Remove dead files → Delete unreferenced scripts/references 5. Test activation → Questions that should/shouldn't trigger it What Makes a Great Skill Great skills are progressive disclosure machines that: 1. Activate precisely - Specific keywords + NOT clause 2. Encode shibboleths - Expert knowledge that separates novice from expert 3. Surface anti-patterns - "If you see X, that's wrong because Y, use Z" 4. Capture temporal knowledge - "Pre-2024: X. 2024+: Y" 5. Know their limits - "Use for A, B, C. NOT for D, E, F" 6. Provide decision trees - Not templates, but "If X then A, if Y then B" 7. Stay under 500 lines - Core in SKILL.md, deep dives in /references Core Principles Progressive Disclosure Phase 1 (~100 tokens): Metadata - "Should I activate?" Phase 2 (<5k tokens): SKILL.md - "How do I do this?" Phase 3 (as needed): References - "Show me the details" Critical: Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines. Split details into /references. …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills erichowens/skill-coach