What is a skill?

A reusable instruction file that teaches your agent how to do a task the way you'd want it done — and when to reach for it.

• Not a one-off prompt. A file you keep, share, and reuse.
• The how = instructions, format, guardrails.
• The when = the description your agent reads to decide to use it.

A skill is just a Markdown file

Four parts. That's the whole anatomy — remember these and you can read (or write) any skill.

description + instructions are the spec. Format & guardrails are conventions that make skills reliable.

→ The format spec: Agent Skills · agentskills.io

The skill I stole — then got stolen from me

submit-pr-review — turns a diff into a PR review request, drafted the way I'd write it.

• In my environment we don't have automated Copilot PR reviews — so I set out to build my own.
• Then I found Matt Pocock's skills repo, took his, and made it mine.
• Two weeks later my teammates got envious — they wanted to see how I made it, and how to use it.
• I stole and adapted — exactly what I'm telling you to do. Then it happened to me.

The output isn't perfect — it's ready to edit and send.

Four parts, in the wild

---
name: submit-pr-review
description: Turns a code review into an approved GitHub
  PR review and submits it only after human approval.   # ← WHEN
  Use when the user wants to post or submit a review...
allowed-tools: Read Grep Glob Bash                          # ← GUARDRAIL
---

# Submit PR Review                                        # ← HOW (instructions)
Identify the PR. Run the review. Turn findings into a
draft. Do not post anything until the human approves      # ← GUARDRAIL
the exact review body.

## Write the Review                                       # ← FORMAT
1. Must fix before merge
2. Should verify before merge
3. Suggestions and notes

This one has nothing to do with code

grill-me — interviews you about a plan until it's sharp. Same four parts. No diff, no repo.

How far does this go?

teach — a stateful skill that generates whole HTML lessons, cheat sheets, and a learning plan.

• Not single-shot — it's a persistent system across sessions.
• The point: skills scale way up… but you don't start here.

You don't even write it by hand

write-a-skill — a skill whose whole job is interviewing you and writing the skill for you.

So the barrier isn't skill.
It's picking the one task.

None of these made me faster.

They removed the friction that stopped me from doing the thing at all.

Your Monday assignment

The repo link is in the chat. Try it once. That's all it takes.

Questions?

Deck + skills repo: github.com/fpigeonjr/ai-guild-talk