An upgraded skill for building, testing, and iterating on Claude skills — based on Anthropic's Complete Guide to Building Skills for Claude.
better-skill-creator walks you through the entire skill development lifecycle: planning, writing, testing, iterating, validating, and packaging. Instead of re-reading documentation every time you build a skill, this skill embeds the best practices directly into the workflow.
It handles all three skill categories:
- Document & Asset Creation — skills that produce consistent outputs (docs, presentations, code)
- Workflow Automation — multi-step processes with validation gates
- MCP Enhancement — workflow guidance layered on top of MCP server integrations
This is a derivative of Anthropic's built-in skill-creator. Key upgrades:
| Area | Original | better-skill-creator |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | Loosely grouped sections | 7 clear phases from planning to distribution |
| Design patterns | None | 5 templates (Sequential, Multi-MCP, Iterative, Context-Aware, Domain Intelligence) |
| Category system | None | Classifies skills early to shape structure and testing |
| Success criteria | Implicit | Explicit quantitative + qualitative framework |
| Validation | Basic YAML check | Comprehensive: reserved names, trigger phrase detection, vague description warnings, reference TOC checks |
| Troubleshooting | Inline tips | Dedicated reference with diagnosis flowchart |
| Description guidance | Brief | Expanded with good/bad examples and anti-undertriggering strategy |
| Pre-flight checklist | None | Full validation gate before packaging |
| Distribution guidance | None | Positioning, GitHub hosting, and installation guide templates |
- Download the latest release or clone this repo
- Zip the
better-skill-creator/folder - Go to Settings → Capabilities → Skills
- Click Upload skill and select the zip
Place the better-skill-creator/ folder in your skills directory.
Start a conversation with any of these:
Help me build a skill for generating weekly reports from CSV data
I have a Notion MCP connected — help me create a skill for project setup workflows
Review this skill and suggest improvements
Use the better-skill-creator to turn this conversation into a skill
The skill will guide you through the appropriate phases based on where you are in the process. Building a skill from scratch? It starts with planning. Already have a draft? It jumps straight to testing.
better-skill-creator/
├── SKILL.md # Main instructions (7-phase workflow)
├── LICENSE.md # Apache 2.0 with attribution
├── references/
│ ├── categories-and-patterns.md # 3 categories + 5 design patterns
│ ├── troubleshooting.md # Diagnosis flowchart for common issues
│ └── schemas.md # JSON schemas for evals, grading, benchmarks
├── scripts/
│ ├── quick_validate.py # Comprehensive skill validator
│ ├── run_eval.py # Run trigger evaluations
│ ├── run_loop.py # Description optimization loop
│ ├── aggregate_benchmark.py # Aggregate benchmark results
│ ├── generate_report.py # Generate reports
│ ├── improve_description.py # Description improvement suggestions
│ ├── package_skill.py # Package skill as .skill file
│ └── utils.py # Shared utilities
├── agents/
│ ├── grader.md # Assertion evaluation agent
│ ├── comparator.md # Blind A/B comparison agent
│ └── analyzer.md # Benchmark analysis agent
├── assets/
│ └── eval_review.html # Trigger eval review template
└── eval-viewer/
├── generate_review.py # Launch interactive result viewer
└── viewer.html # Viewer frontend
- Planning — Classify the skill category, define 2–3 use cases, set success criteria
- Writing — Pick a design pattern, write frontmatter and instructions following progressive disclosure
- Testing — Run test cases with and without the skill, draft assertions
- Improving — Read feedback, generalize fixes, keep instructions lean
- Validation — Run the pre-flight checklist and automated validator
- Description optimization — Generate trigger evals, run the optimization loop
- Packaging — Bundle and deliver the
.skillfile
The included validator catches issues the original missed:
python scripts/quick_validate.py path/to/your-skill/
# Example output:
# ✅ Skill is valid!
#
# WARNINGS (1):
# ⚠ Description doesn't include trigger conditions.
# Add 'Use when...' phrases so Claude knows when to activate the skill.Checks include: SKILL.md naming, YAML format, kebab-case enforcement, reserved name prefixes (claude/anthropic), angle bracket detection, description quality (trigger phrases, vagueness, length), folder-name consistency, README detection, and reference file TOC coverage.
Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE.md for details.