Skill Specification

Formal contract for SKILL.md files in the TAUSIK framework.

File Structure

Every skill is a directory skills/{name}/ containing SKILL.md.

Required Format

---
name: skill-name
description: "Trigger description for Claude Code skill discovery."
---

# /skill-name — Human Title

Brief description. Always respond in the user's language.

## Algorithm

### 1. First Step
Instructions...

### 2. Second Step
Instructions...

Frontmatter (Required)

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Kebab-case slug matching directory name
description	string	Trigger phrase list for Claude Code's skill matcher

The description field is critical — Claude Code uses it to decide when to invoke the skill. Include trigger phrases: "Use when user says 'X', 'Y', 'Z'."

Body Sections

Section	Required	Purpose
# /name — Title	Yes	H1 heading with slash command and human title
## Algorithm	Yes	Step-by-step execution instructions
## Rules	No	Constraints and invariants
## Context	No	Auto-loaded shell data (via ! prefix)

Skill Categories

The canonical list lives in .tausik/config.json under bootstrap.core_skills and bootstrap.extension_skills. As of v1.4:

Category	Skills	Bootstrap Handling
Core (11)	start, end, task, plan, checkpoint, commit, explore, review, test, ship, debug	Always copied, not selectable
Core (conditional)	brain	Copied when Notion is configured (brain.enabled = true)
Extension	docs (and any names added under bootstrap.extension_skills)	Selected via --include-official or tausik skill install <name>
Vendor / bundle	20 skills under skills-official/registry.json, grouped into 6 bundles	Pulled per-skill or per-bundle via tausik skill bundle install <name>

init was removed in v1.4 (replaced by python bootstrap/bootstrap.py --init). The five legacy skills /go, /next, /diff, /onboard, /init were removed in the same release — see skill-bundles-migration.md.

Conventions

1. References over inline: Large tables and protocols → extract to a sibling reference file inside the skill dir and link
2. Shared patterns: Use skill-patterns.md for cross-skill patterns (handoff, CLAUDE.md update, etc.)
3. CLI reference: Always link to docs/en/cli.md (or docs/ru/cli.md), never duplicate CLI syntax
4. Parallel batching: Explicitly mark independent tool calls for parallel execution
5. Token budget: Keep SKILL.md under 300 lines; extract reference data to separate files
6. Language: Skills respond in the user's language (detect from conversation)

Creating a New Skill

1. Create harness/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md following the format above
2. Add the slug to .tausik/config.json under bootstrap.extension_skills (or bootstrap.core_skills for always-deployed)
3. Run python bootstrap/bootstrap.py to copy to .claude/skills/
4. Claude Code discovers it automatically by SKILL.md presence

Template

---
name: my-skill
description: "Brief purpose. Use when user says 'trigger1', 'trigger2'."
---

# /my-skill — My Skill Title

One-line description. Always respond in the user's language.

**CLI Reference:** [`docs/en/cli.md`](cli.md)

## Algorithm

### 1. Gather Context
Describe what to read/search before acting.

### 2. Execute
Core logic steps.

### 3. Output
What to show the user.

## Rules
- Rule 1
- Rule 2