设计与多媒体

Skill Design Guide

试用

Design better AI skills with proven architecture patterns. Helps you decide Workflow vs Agent, pick the right pattern (Prompt Chaining, Routing, Parallelization, Orchestrator-Workers, Evaluator-Optimizer), write clean SKILL.md files, and catch common mistakes with a governance-aware quality checklist. Based on design principles from Anthropic, OpenAI, and LangChain.

它能做什么

Design better AI skills with proven architecture patterns. Helps you decide Workflow vs Agent, pick the right pattern (Prompt Chaining, Routing, Parallelization, Orchestrator-Workers, Evaluator-Optimizer), write clean SKILL.md files, and catch common mistakes with a governance-aware quality checklist. Based on design principles from Anthropic, OpenAI, and LangChain.

技能文档

Skill Design Guide

30-Second Test: If you're writing a SKILL.md or your skill "works but feels messy", load this guide.

🆚 What This Is (and Isn't)

ToolPurpose
skill-creatorHOW to structure a SKILL.md file
THIS GUIDEWHY behind design decisions — Workflow vs Agent, which pattern

This guide answers WHY, not HOW. See references/agent-design-research.md for full industry research background.

✅ 3 Usage Modes

ModeTriggerOutput
New Design"I want to build a [X] skill"Architecture blueprint (pattern + structure)
Skill Review"Review this skill" / "Check quality"Report via checklist
Pattern Selection"Should I use X or Y?"Pattern recommendation with rationale

Hard Rules

These cannot be violated. They override all other considerations.

  1. Simplicity first. Start with a single SKILL.md. Add complexity only when simpler solutions fail.
  2. Brain ≠ Hands. LLM decides what to do (SKILL.md). Deterministic code does it (scripts/). Never mix them.
  3. No full preload. References are loaded on-demand. Never dump everything into context at once.
  4. Every skill must have: triggers, steps tagged [Deterministic]/[LLM], Hard Rules, Failure Handling, Output Format.

Principle Zero: Simplicity First

Start simple. Add complexity only when simpler solutions fall short.

Practical checklist:

  • Single SKILL.md before multiple files
  • Deterministic code before LLM
  • Fixed workflow before dynamic Agent
  • Ship MVP, iterate from output quality

Principle One: Brain / Hands / Session

LayerRoleFile
BrainDecision logic, workflow definitionSKILL.md
HandsDeterministic executionscripts/
SessionKnowledge base, config, templatesreferences/, assets/

Your skills already follow this: data-ai-daily-brief (scripts fetch data), benjie-model (Session layer for other skills).


Step 1: Workflow or Agent?

One question: Are the task steps predetermined?

TypeWhen
WorkflowSteps are clear and predictable → choose this (faster, cheaper, debuggable)
AgentSteps uncertain, need dynamic planning → choose this (flexible but costly)

Most things are workflows. Don't pick Agent because it sounds advanced.


Step 2: Pick a Pattern

Five workflow patterns. Full details in references/pattern-details.md.

PatternBest For
Prompt ChainingSequential steps with checkpoints
RoutingClear input types → different paths
ParallelizationIndependent subtasks
Orchestrator-WorkersUnpredictable subtasks (sparingly!)
Evaluator-OptimizerGenerate→Evaluate→Repeat until pass

Step 3: Skill Structure

Required

ComponentContent
SKILL.mdYAML frontmatter (name, description, read_when) + workflow + Hard Rules + Failure Handling + Output Format

Optional

ComponentWhen
references/Domain knowledge (loaded on demand)
scripts/Deterministic steps
assets/Templates, configs

SKILL.md Template

---
name: my-skill
description: One sentence. Trigger keywords: a, b, c.
version: 1.0.0
read_when:
  - "trigger phrase 1"
  - "trigger phrase 2"
---

# Skill Name

Overview paragraph.

## Workflow

### Step 1: [Deterministic] Confirm Input
- Validate input exists
- If missing, stop and report

### Step 2: [Deterministic] Load Materials
- Read `references/xxx.md` (only needed files)

### Step 3: [LLM] Core Execution
- Generate output following these rules:
  - Rule 1
  - Rule 2

### Step 4: [LLM] Self-Check
- Verify output meets criteria → fix → re-output

### Step 5: [Deterministic] Save Output

## Hard Rules

> These cannot be violated.

1. Rule 1
2. Rule 2

## Failure Handling

| Scenario | Action |
|----------|--------|
| Source file not found | Stop, report missing file |
| Output 50% over limit | Compress and rewrite |

## Output Format

[Define exact format and fields]

Step 4: Quality Checklist

After completing a skill, run the full governance-aware checklist. Load references/quality-checklist.md for details.

Structure ✓ | Principles ✓ | Tools ✓ | Guardrails ✓ | Observability ✓


Anti-Patterns

Anti-PatternFix
Over-engineeringStart with single SKILL.md
Full preloadLoad references on-demand only
God SkillSplit duties — one skill, one thing
All-LLMScripts for deterministic steps
No guardrailsAdd Hard Rules + Failure Handling
Vague outputDefine exact format and fields
Publishing dirtyBefore publishing, run skill-publish to audit and clean

After Design: Publishing

When the skill is ready to share on ClawHub/GitHub, use skill-publish to audit and publish. It handles: personal data scanning, frontmatter validation, content cleanup, bilingual enforcement, file separation (local vs published), and dual-platform push.


Failure Handling (for this guide itself)

ScenarioAction
User asks for code, not designRedirect to skill-creator
Pattern comparison ambiguousLoad references/pattern-details.md
Review request without skill detailsAsk: "Show me your SKILL.md or describe what the skill does"
User wants to publish a completed skillRedirect to skill-publish

References (on-demand)

NeedLoad
25-point checklistreferences/quality-checklist.md
Pattern deep divereferences/pattern-details.md
Platform-specific configreferences/platform-compatibility.md
Industry research backgroundreferences/agent-design-research.md
Anthropic tool designreferences/anthropic-tool-design.md
Publishing to ClawHub/GitHubUse skill-publish (separate skill)

v1.4.6 | Based on Anthropic/OpenAI/LangChain design principles | 2026-08-02

Changelog:

  • v1.4.6: Published merged content to the correct slug skill-design-guide-skill — restores 9 metadata.openclaw.tags (discoverability) + 1.4.4 governance-aware checklist / Governance & Continuity checks. (Prior 1.4.5/1.4.6 attempts landed on a stray skill-design-guide slug by mistake; that duplicate should be deleted.)
  • v1.4.5: Restored metadata.openclaw.tags (9 discoverability tags) dropped in the 1.4.4 sync; no content change beyond 1.4.4 governance additions
  • v1.4.4: Added governance checks for single source of truth, private-data separation, secret scanning, retry/re-run, external-action gates, and persistent task continuity
  • v1.4.3: Restored display name "Skill Design Guide"
  • v1.4.2: Consolidated reference/ + references/ into a single references/ dir; fixed all reference paths
  • v1.4.1: Fixed display name
  • v1.4.0: Refactored for progressive disclosure — split checklist/patterns/platform into references/; added Hard Rules + Failure Handling; reduced SKILL.md from 13K to ~5K chars
  • v1.3.0: Added usage scenarios, Chinese version (SKILL_zh.md)
  • v1.2.0: Platform-agnostic rewrite, added Credits

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