claude-howto/openspec/changes/archive/2025-12-24-update-skills-lesson/proposal.md

Change: Update Agent Skills Lesson with Latest Documentation

Why

The current Agent Skills lesson (03-skills) is missing several key features and best practices from the latest official Claude Code documentation at https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills#agent-skills. Users need up-to-date information to effectively create, manage, debug, and share skills.

What Changes

Documentation Updates (README.md and blog-posts/03-skills.md)

1. Enhanced Managing Skills Section - Add comprehensive guidance for:

   • Viewing available skills (via Claude and filesystem)
   • Testing skills effectively
   • Updating skills (with restart requirements)
   • Removing skills properly

2. Improved Debugging Section - Add detailed troubleshooting for:

   • Skills being skipped or non-functional
   • Invalid YAML frontmatter detection
   • Script permission issues
   • Path format requirements (forward slashes)
   • Multiple skills conflicting

3. Version History Best Practice - Add guidance on documenting skill versions in SKILL.md

4. Enhanced allowed-tools Documentation - Expand explanation of tool access control with:

   • Use cases for read-only skills
   • Security-sensitive workflow examples
   • Note about permission prompts when not specified

5. Multi-File Skill Example - Add comprehensive example showing:

   • Directory structure for complex skills
   • Multiple reference files
   • Scripts subdirectory
   • Templates organization

6. Plugin Skills Clarification - Better explain how plugin-bundled skills work

Example Updates (03-skills/ directory)

7. Add Version History Example - Update code-review SKILL.md to include version history section

Impact

• Affected docs: 03-skills/README.md, blog-posts/03-skills.md
• Affected examples: 03-skills/code-review/SKILL.md
• No breaking changes - purely additive documentation improvements
• Improves user experience for skill creation and debugging