The Anatomy of a SKILL.md

Every skill has one required file: SKILL.md. It opens with YAML frontmatter (a small metadata block between two lines of three dashes), followed by the instructions themselves in Markdown.

---
name: commit-helper
description: Use when writing a git commit message so it follows the team's conventional-commit format.
---

# Commit helper

When the user asks for a commit message:
1. Read the staged diff.
2. Pick a type: feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore.
3. Write `<type>(<scope>): <summary>` under 72 chars.
4. Add a body only if the change needs explanation.

The two fields that decide everything

• name: a short, stable identifier for the skill (kebab-case).
• description: the single most important line, the one Claude reads to decide whether to load the skill at all.

The body below the frontmatter is only read once the description has earned the load. We will spend a whole lesson on writing descriptions that trigger reliably. For now, just recognize the shape.