Meta-Skill Pattern
Summary
A technique for bootstrapping agent capabilities by building a “skill that builds skills” — a meta-skill that takes a description of a desired workflow and generates a properly structured skill folder (instruction file, templates, validation scripts). Instead of hand-authoring each new skill from scratch, you create one factory skill and then use it to produce domain-specific skills consistently and quickly.
The underlying insight is composability: agent skills aren’t just endpoints — they can invoke and build on each other. A meta-skill is the simplest expression of this, but the pattern extends to any skill that orchestrates or generates other skills.
How to Apply
When to use: When you need to create multiple skills and want consistency in structure, metadata, and quality. Especially useful when onboarding a team to skill-based workflows — the meta-skill encodes your conventions so each team member produces well-formed skills without memorizing the spec.
When not to use: For a single, one-off skill, the overhead of building a meta-skill isn’t justified. Just create the skill directly.
Steps:
- Create a
create_skill(or similar) folder containing aSKILL.mdthat instructs the agent how to generate a new skill — including folder structure conventions, YAML metadata requirements, and template files to include - Optionally include a validation script (e.g.,
validate_skill.py) that checks YAML formatting, file references, and content structure. This bundles quality assurance into the generation process itself - Open your skills directory in an AI-native editor or start Claude Code in that directory — the agent auto-discovers the meta-skill from the filesystem
- Prompt the agent: “Use the create_skill skill to create a skill for [your workflow]”
- The agent reads the meta-skill instructions, generates the new skill folder, and (if validation is bundled) runs the validation script automatically
- Review the generated skill, adjust the instruction file for tone/format, and iterate
For AI PMs: This pattern is relevant beyond personal productivity. It demonstrates how to scale agent capability creation across a team: instead of relying on one person to author all skills, you distribute a meta-skill that encodes your quality standards. The meta-skill becomes an onboarding tool — new team members can generate skills that meet your conventions from day one.
Sources
From: 2026-02-14 Claude Skills Explained Reusable AI Agents
Key quote: “Instead of relying on Claude’s built-in creator, I decided to build my own. I started a chat with Cursor’s AI and gave it the official Anthropic Skills Documentation as context.” Attribution: Claire Vo What this source adds: Vo demonstrates the full cycle: building a meta-skill in Cursor (~3 minutes), then using it via Claude Code to generate a changelog-to-newsletter skill. The meta-skill auto-generated a Python validation script alongside the instruction file — showing that skills can bundle executable tooling, not just natural language instructions. The article also surfaces a practical contrast: Claude’s built-in skill creator over-generates (12 files when 5 suffice), while a hand-crafted meta-skill produces exactly what you specify. Links: Original | Archive
Related
- Stepwise Task Execution — another agent management technique from the same source ecosystem (ChatPRD)