Creating Your First Skill

This quickstart walks you from zero to a published skill in under 10 minutes.

Prerequisites

A GitHub account
Basic familiarity with YAML and markdown

Step 1 — Create the directory structure

Each skill lives in its own directory. The directory name becomes the skill’s identifier.

mkdir my-skills/
mkdir my-skills/hello-world/
touch my-skills/hello-world/SKILL.md

Step 2 — Write the frontmatter

Open SKILL.md and add the required frontmatter:

---
name: hello-world
title: "Hello World"
description: "Greets the user with a friendly message."
version: "1.0.0"
author: "your-github-handle"
trigger: "Use when the user says hello, hi, or asks for a greeting."
tags:
  - utility
  - beginner
license: MIT
---

All required fields are listed in the Frontmatter Reference.

Step 3 — Write the skill body

Below the frontmatter, add the instructions the agent will follow:

# Hello World

Greet the user warmly. Use their name if known. Keep the greeting to one or two sentences.

Always include:
- A friendly opening
- An offer to help with something specific

Example output:
> "Hello! I'm Hordago. What can I help you build today?"

Step 4 — Validate locally

Before submitting, validate your SKILL.md against the schema:

npx @hordago/skill-validator ./my-skills/hello-world/SKILL.md

Expected output:

✓ Frontmatter valid
✓ Required fields present
✓ Trigger description is specific enough
✓ bc7score estimate: 72 / 100

Skill is ready to publish.

If validation fails, fix the reported errors and re-run.

Step 5 — Push to GitHub

Push your skill directory to a public GitHub repository:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "feat: add hello-world skill"
git remote add origin git@github.com:your-handle/my-skills.git
git push -u origin main

Step 6 — Submit to the marketplace

Go to hordago-labs.com/marketplace/submit and paste your repository URL. The auto-scorer will run within a few minutes and open a review PR if your skill scores above the minimum threshold.

See Publishing for details on the review process.