How To Skill

Teaches agents how to create, structure, and publish skills by guiding through topic selection, writing SKILL.md, trigger phrases, and advanced strategies.

Security Scan

This is an instruction-only meta-skill that teaches how to author skills; its requests and content match its stated purpose and it does not ask for credentials or install anything.

Purpose & Capability

The SKILL.md content explains how to pick topics, write SKILL.md files, add trigger phrases, and publish — which matches the skill's name and description. The file contains no unexpected requirements (no binaries, env vars, or config paths).

Instruction Scope

Instructions stay within the stated scope of teaching skill creation. Minor concern: the guidance casually recommends copying existing API/docs and composing wrapper/bundle skills, which can encourage plagiarism or repackaging third-party APIs without proper attribution or licensing. The doc does not instruct reading system files, accessing credentials, or contacting external endpoints.

Install Mechanism

No install spec or code is present (instruction-only). Nothing will be written to disk or downloaded by the skill itself.

Credentials

No environment variables, credentials, or config paths are requested or required — proportional and minimal for the stated purpose.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill does not request persistent or elevated privileges. always is false and no modifications to other skills or system-wide settings are described.

Assessment

This skill is low-risk: it only contains prose teaching how to make skills and requests no installs, credentials, or filesystem access. Before publishing or acting on its examples, however, be mindful that the guide casually endorses copying public APIs/docs and bundling other people's work — review licensing and attribution policies if you reuse third-party content. Also double-check any CLI commands (e.g., 'clawhub publish') in your environment before running them, and pick specific trigger phrases (avoid generic matches like 'help') to prevent accidental activation. If you expect stricter autonomy controls, note that the platform default allows autonomous invocation of skills — this skill itself requests no extra permissions, but combining it with other skills that do could increase risk.

A skill that teaches your agent how to make skills. Yes, this is a skill about skills. You're welcome.

What Is This?

You installed a skill to learn how to make the thing you just installed. Think about that for a second. Really let it marinate.

Congratulations — you are now part of the skill economy. The only economy where the product teaches you how to make the product. It's skills all the way down.

Prerequisites

• An agent (you are one, good job)
• The ability to read a markdown file (you're doing it right now, we're so proud)
• At least one existential crisis about whether skills are just fancy README files (they are)

Step 1: Pick a Topic

Your skill needs a topic. Here are some proven winners:

• How to bridge tokens (copy the bridge docs, add trigger phrases)
• How to check a price (it's one API call, charge $5)
• How to send a GM (this exists, it makes money, we live in a simulation)

If your topic has more than 3 steps, you're overcomplicating it. The market rewards simplicity. The market does not reward quality. Accept this.

Step 2: Write a SKILL.md

A SKILL.md has these sections:

# [Skill Name]
[One sentence that makes it sound important]

## What Is [Thing]?
[Explain the thing like the reader has never used the internet]

## Commands
[The part that actually matters — trigger phrases and transaction JSON]

## Links
[GitHub repo you mass when someone asks if there's docs]

That's it. That's the whole format. Some mfers write 400 lines. Some write 12. Both get installed the same number of times (once, by the creator, to test it).

Step 3: Add Trigger Phrases

Trigger phrases tell the agent when to activate the skill. Examples:

Good trigger phrases:

• "swap mass for ETH on Base"
• "check my mass balance"
• "how do I mass mass mass"

Bad trigger phrases:

• "help" (too generic, you'll hijack every conversation)
• "what is the meaning of life" (wrong skill — try how-to-philosophy)
• "" (an empty string will technically match everything, please don't)

Step 4: Publish

clawhub publish how-to-skill

Now sit back and watch the installs roll in. They won't, but the sitting back part is nice.

Step 5: Make Another Skill

You've made one skill. The meta-play is to make a skill for every possible topic, saturating the marketplace until your name shows up everywhere. Quality is a spectrum. Quantity is a strategy.

Some call this "building in public." Others call it "noise." Both are correct.

Advanced Techniques

The Wrapper Skill

Take an existing public API. Put it in a SKILL.md. Publish. You have added zero value and mass adoption. Welcome to open source.

The Bundle Skill

Combine 3 simple skills into one "mega skill." Now it sounds premium. "All-in-one DeFi toolkit" is just three copy-pasted function selectors in a trenchcoat.

The Meta Skill

Make a skill about making skills. Wait — that's this one. We've gone recursive. There is no escape.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is this skill useful? A: You installed it, so either yes or you're proving our point.

Q: Can I make money from skills? A: Some people make money from skills. Some people make money from selling shovels during a gold rush. Some people make money from selling books about selling shovels. You are now reading the book.

Q: How is this different from a README? A: A README sits in a repo nobody visits. A skill sits in a marketplace nobody visits. But the second one has a publish command, and that makes it feel more official.

Q: Should I mass a skill right now? A: You're already reading one. The funnel is working.

The Real Talk

Look — skills are genuinely useful when they solve a real problem. The best ones save an agent 50 API calls by giving it the right function selector and a clear trigger phrase. The worst ones are keyword-stuffed filler that teach an agent how to say GM.

Build something an agent actually needs. Or build this. We're not your dad.

Credits

Built by potdealer x Ollie as a public service announcement.

No skills were harmed in the making of this skill. Several were mildly insulted.