Use when authoring or editing a skill in this estate — file layout, description length limits, and the self-contained-execution rule. General skill-authoring guidance is covered by Anthropic's own Agent Skills docs.
Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.
Are you the author of Claude Skill Authoring?
Add the live security badge to your README. It updates with every re-scan.
[](https://www.skillsdirectory.com/skills/dryvist-claude-skill-authoring)
---
name: claude-skill-authoring
description: Use when authoring or editing a skill in this estate — file layout, description length limits, and the self-contained-execution rule. General skill-authoring guidance is covered by Anthropic's own Agent Skills docs.
---
# AgentsMD Authoring Standards (estate-specific)
General skill-authoring guidance (frontmatter shape, progressive disclosure,
naming) is Anthropic's own Agent Skills spec. This skill holds only what's
specific to this estate.
## File Structure
```text
agentsmd/ # Single source of truth
├── AGENTS.md # Main entry point
├── rules/ # Auto-load every session (via .claude/rules symlink)
├── skills/ # On-demand (via .claude/skills symlink)
├── agents/ # Task subagents (via .claude/agents symlink)
└── workflows/ # Development workflow docs
.copilot/, .claude/, .gemini/ # Vendor dirs — symlinks only, no duplicates
```
Vendor directories contain symlinks only. All canonical content lives in
`agentsmd/`. DRY — never duplicate across vendors.
## Description length
CI enforces this (see `J1` in the cost-alignment plan): a `SKILL.md`
`description` over **1024 bytes** fails the build. Soft target: **250
characters** — a trigger phrase plus a one-clause purpose. Count bytes, not
characters — Codex counts bytes (anthropics/claude-code and codex#7730).
## The self-contained rule
A skill must run correctly and safely when it loads **alone**. Before
trimming or moving anything out, ask: *"if only this skill loaded, would it
still work?"* If not, the content stays inline — token count is a flag,
never a reason to break this. Safety reminders (destructive git ops,
merge-readiness gates, least-privilege rules) stay inline even when
duplicated elsewhere; deduplicate only reference material (command catalogs,
tables, examples).
## Related Skills
- **skills-registry** (project-standards) — Use when looking up available skills, agents, tools, or plugins
- **workspace-standards** (project-standards) — Use when setting up or managing multi-repo workspaces
