Template Skill

What Is This?

Overview

Template Skill is a foundational scaffolding component within the Happycapy Skills platform that provides a structured starting point for building custom skill definitions. It serves as a blank blueprint that developers and content architects can populate with specific instructions, behaviors, and metadata to create purpose-built skills for Claude. Rather than starting from scratch, users inherit a consistent structure that follows platform conventions from the first line of code.

The skill operates through a SKILL.md file that combines a YAML front matter block with a freeform instruction body. The front matter defines the skill name and description, while the instruction section below it shapes how Claude interprets and responds to requests within that skill context. This separation of metadata and behavior keeps skill definitions clean, readable, and easy to maintain over time.

Because Template Skill contains no predefined logic, it is entirely neutral by design. Its value lies not in what it does out of the box, but in what it enables. Teams can fork this template, rename it, and inject domain-specific instructions to produce skills tailored to content creation, data analysis, customer support, or any other workflow they need to automate or augment.

Who Should Use This

• Developers building new skills for the Happycapy platform who want a compliant starting structure
• Prompt engineers who need a consistent base format before writing detailed behavioral instructions
• Platform administrators setting up skill libraries for their organization
• Technical writers creating documentation-focused skills that require precise formatting rules
• Product teams prototyping AI-assisted workflows before committing to a finalized skill design
• Open-source contributors adding new skills to the anthropics/skills repository

Why Use It?

Problems It Solves

• Eliminates the guesswork of how to structure a valid SKILL.md file from scratch
• Prevents formatting errors in YAML front matter that can cause skill parsing failures
• Reduces onboarding time for new contributors unfamiliar with the platform's skill conventions
• Provides a shared reference point so teams maintain consistency across multiple skill definitions
• Removes the risk of missing required metadata fields that the platform depends on at runtime

Core Highlights

• Minimal, clean YAML front matter with name and description fields ready to populate
• Instruction block placeholder that accepts any plain text or structured prompt content
• Compatible with all Claude model versions supported by the platform
• Version-controllable format that works naturally with Git-based workflows
• No dependencies or external libraries required
• Serves as the canonical reference for skill file structure in the anthropics/skills repository
• Easily duplicated and renamed for rapid skill prototyping

How to Use It?

Basic Usage

To create a new skill based on this template, copy the SKILL.md file and update the front matter and instruction body.

---
name: my-custom-skill
description: Summarizes technical documentation into plain-language bullet points for non-technical stakeholders.
---

## Instructions

When the user provides a block of technical documentation, extract the key points and rewrite them in plain language. Use short sentences. Avoid jargon. Format the output as a numbered list with no more than eight items.

Specific Scenarios

Scenario 1: Content Moderation Skill A platform team needs Claude to flag potentially harmful content. They copy the template, rename it content-moderation, and write rules in the instruction block specifying categories to detect and response formats to follow.

Scenario 2: Code Review Skill An engineering team wants consistent pull request feedback. They populate the instruction block with criteria covering readability, security, and performance, then deploy the skill to their review pipeline.

Real-World Examples

A documentation team at a SaaS company uses a skill derived from this template to convert raw API reference text into structured Markdown tables. A customer support organization uses a forked version to generate empathetic, policy-compliant reply drafts from ticket descriptions.

When to Use It?

Use Cases

• Starting a new skill from zero with no existing reference file
• Standardizing skill file structure across a multi-team organization
• Teaching new contributors the correct format through a concrete example
• Auditing existing skills against a known-good baseline structure
• Rapid prototyping of experimental skill ideas before formal review
• Creating template libraries for specific departments or use case categories
• Onboarding documentation that demonstrates platform conventions

Important Notes

Requirements

• A valid name field in the YAML front matter using lowercase letters and hyphens only
• A populated description field that accurately reflects the skill's intended behavior
• At least one instruction or behavioral directive in the body section below the front matter