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From a8c-design
Add a new skill to the a8c-design plugin. Use when you've built a Claude Code skill and want to contribute it to the shared Automattic a8c-design plugin — handles finding the repo, creating a branch, scaffolding files, updating metadata, and opening a PR.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/a8c-design:add-skillThis skill is limited to the following tools:
The summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Contribute a new skill to the shared `a8c-design` plugin. This workflow handles the full contribution: finding the repo, branching, scaffolding, updating all metadata, and opening a draft PR.
Contribute a new skill to the shared a8c-design plugin. This workflow handles the full contribution: finding the repo, branching, scaffolding, updating all metadata, and opening a draft PR.
Look at $ARGUMENTS:
If it's a file path (contains / or ends in .md):
name and description from YAML frontmatter<name> — <description>. Ready to contribute this?"If it's a description or empty:
Ask the user: "What should we call this skill? (kebab-case, e.g. my-skill-name)"
Ask: "One sentence: what does it do?"
Draft a minimal SKILL.md together with the user:
---
name: <name>
description: <description>
argument-hint: "[...]"
---
# <Title>
<Body — at least a paragraph describing what the skill does and how>
## Task
$ARGUMENTS
Show the draft and ask: "Does this look right? I'll use this as the skill content."
Validate before continuing:
name must be kebab-case (lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens only — no spaces, no underscores)description must be present and non-empty$ARGUMENTSIf any validation fails, explain the issue and ask the user to fix it before continuing.
Check these locations in order:
ls ~/Documents/GitHub/design-skills/plugins/a8c-design/.claude-plugin/plugin.json 2>/dev/null
ls ~/Source/design-skills/plugins/a8c-design/.claude-plugin/plugin.json 2>/dev/null
ls ~/code/design-skills/plugins/a8c-design/.claude-plugin/plugin.json 2>/dev/null
If found: Tell the user — "Found the repo at <path>. Using that." and set REPO to the repo root.
If not found: Ask the user:
"I couldn't find the
design-skillsrepo locally. Where is it? (Paste the path, or press Enter and I'll clone it)"
If they provide a path: use it as REPO.
If they press Enter (empty): clone the repo:
git clone [email protected]:Automattic/design-skills.git ~/Documents/GitHub/design-skills
Then set REPO=~/Documents/GitHub/design-skills.
Before continuing: Check that a skill with this name doesn't already exist:
ls "$REPO/plugins/a8c-design/skills/<skill-name>" 2>/dev/null
If it exists, tell the user and stop: "A skill named <name> already exists. Rename your skill and try again."
cd "$REPO"
git checkout main && git pull
git checkout -b add/<skill-name>
Tell the user: "Created branch add/<skill-name> from latest main."
Create the directory and write the skill file:
$REPO/plugins/a8c-design/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
5a. plugin.json — $REPO/plugins/a8c-design/.claude-plugin/plugin.json
Read the current file. Add "./skills/<skill-name>" to the skills array. Bump the version: increment the MINOR version (e.g. 1.0.0 → 1.1.0, 1.1.0 → 1.2.0). Write the updated file.
5b. marketplace.json — $REPO/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
Read the current file. Find the a8c-design entry in the plugins array. Add "./skills/<skill-name>" to its skills array. Update its version to match the version set in 5a. Write the updated file.
5c. CHANGELOG.md — $REPO/plugins/a8c-design/CHANGELOG.md
Prepend a new section at the top (after the header):
## [<new-version>] - <today's date YYYY-MM-DD>
### Added
- `<skill-name>` skill — <description>
5d. README.md — $REPO/plugins/a8c-design/README.md
Add a new skill section following the existing pattern. Insert it in the ## Skills section, before the ## Getting help section, separated from other skills by a --- rule:
### `/a8c-design:<skill-name>` — <description>
<One paragraph describing what this skill does and when to use it.>
**How to use it:**
1. Type `/a8c-design:<skill-name>` and press `Enter`
2. <Describe what to type or provide as input>
3. Press `Enter` and Claude will <describe the output>
---
If the number of skills grows large enough to warrant grouping (e.g. 6+), consider proposing a restructure into themed sections (### Copy & writing, ### Design systems, ### Contribution tools) as part of the PR.
Stage and commit:
cd "$REPO"
git add plugins/a8c-design/ .claude-plugin/marketplace.json
git commit -m "feat: add <skill-name> skill"
Push and open a draft PR:
git push -u origin add/<skill-name>
gh pr create --draft \
--title "feat: add <skill-name> skill" \
--body "## What
Adds the \`<skill-name>\` skill to the \`a8c-design\` plugin.
**Skill:** \`<skill-name>\`
**Description:** <description>
## Why
<Ask the user before this step: 'One sentence: why is this skill useful for other designers?'>
## Checklist
- [x] SKILL.md written and validated
- [x] plugin.json updated
- [x] marketplace.json updated
- [x] CHANGELOG.md updated
- [x] README.md updated"
Return the PR URL to the user.
Done. Tell them:
"Your skill is ready for review. Share the PR link in
#designso other designers can weigh in."
$ARGUMENTS
Guides creation, editing, and verification of skills for AI coding agents using test-driven development with subagent scenarios. Use when authoring or debugging skills.
npx claudepluginhub automattic/design-skills --plugin a8c-design