Skills — AI Engineering Toolkit

49 custom-built skills | 6 categories | 2 repos | Quality gate for every skill

All skills are custom-built — developed and maintained by AI Engineering. They run as Claude Code auto-load skills in .claude/skills/ directories.

What Are Skills?

Skills are reusable prompt templates for Claude Code. Each skill consists of a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (metadata) and a body (instructions). Claude Code loads them automatically when you work in the corresponding directory.

Official Anthropic standard + custom extensions:

• Anthropic fields: name, description, instructions, command_injection
• Our extensions: version, requires, produces, error-refs, learning-refs
• String substitutions: $ARGUMENTS, ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}, ${workspaceFolder}

Skill Repos

Category Overview

Infrastructure & Ops (6)

Agent Management (7)

Documentation & Orchestration (4)

Content & Creative (5)

PDF & Output (3)

Meta (2)

Marketing (10)

Organization & Firma (5)

Operations (7)

Quality Gate

Every skill must meet these requirements:

• SKILL.md with complete YAML frontmatter
• name and description set
• At least 1 trigger keyword defined
• Body with clear instructions (no filler)
• Tested in the respective repo context
• Documented in skill catalog

Skill Lifecycle

CREATE → Idea + /skill-creator → scaffold SKILL.md
  ↓
DEVELOP → Write body, set frontmatter
  ↓
TEST → Execute in context, check result
  ↓
CATALOG → Register in skill catalog
  ↓
MAINTAIN → Bump version, maintain error/learning refs
  ↓
ARCHIVE → Set deprecated flag, document replacement

External Skills

Currently no external skills installed. Evaluated sources:

Skill Architecture in Detail

Frontmatter Fields (Complete Reference)

String Substitutions (Dynamic Values)

Claude Code replaces these at runtime:

Dynamic Context Injection

Shell commands run before skill executes with !`command`! syntax:

---
command_injection: "git log --oneline -5"
---

## Current Status
!`curl -s http://api.example.com/status | jq .`!

This value gets inserted before Claude sees the body.

Useful for:

• Current system states
• Git history
• Deployment status
• API data

Bundled Skills (Standard)

These skills come with Claude Code:

Skill Lifecycle (Extended)

IDEATION
  ↓ (User has skill idea)
CREATE
  ↓ (Create SKILL.md with frontmatter)
DRAFT
  ↓ (Write body, not yet productive)
DEVELOP
  ↓ (Add tests, scripts, templates)
TEST
  ↓ (Manual test in context)
QUALITY_GATE
  ↓ (Pass checklist)
CATALOG
  ↓ (Register in catalog)
PUBLISH
  ↓ (Skill is productive)
MAINTAIN
  ↓ (Monthly — update last-verified)
DEPRECATE
  ↓ (Replace with better alternative)
ARCHIVE
  └ (Move to _archive/)

Skill Best Practices

One skill, one job

Create focused skills:

• ✅ /deploy — Deploy VG
• ✅ /test-suite — Run tests
• ❌ /do-everything — Does everything (too much)

Explicit Trigger Keywords

Description should have clear keywords:

description: "Deploy Voice Gateway or Dashboard — Trigger: deploy, VG, dashboard"

Claude uses keywords for auto-loading.

Document Error Handling

Write top 5 errors and fixes:

## Error Handling

- SSH timeout → Retry after 10s, max 3x
- Build failure → Show logs, don't rebuild
- Health check failed → Manual check needed

No Secrets in Skills

# CORRECT
Load credentials via: vault.py get <service> <key>

# WRONG
token="sk-abc123def456"  ❌ NEVER

Skill Discovery & Auto-Loading

Claude Code:

1. Loads all skill descriptions into context (so Claude knows what's available)
2. Loads only the body of a skill when:
   • User executes /skill-name, OR
   • Claude auto-loads based on description

Example:

User: "How does the auth system work?"
Claude sees: description "explain-code: explains code with diagrams"
→ Auto-loads the skill
→ Gives diagram + explanation

Distribute Skills in Plugins

Skills can be distributed as part of plugins:

my-plugin/
├── .claude-plugin/plugin.json
└── skills/
    └── code-review/
        └── SKILL.md

Users install:

/plugin install my-plugin
/code-review-plugin:code-review  # With namespace

Further Reading

• Creating Skills — Step-by-step guide
• Extending Skills — Advanced patterns
• Skill Catalog (Full Version) — All details
• Quality Gate — Skill verification

Last updated: 2026-03-21 | 49 custom-built skills + Anthropic bundled skills

Sources and Links

• Claude Code Skills Documentation