SKILL.md Template
The canonical SKILL.md template from Anthropic's official skills repo — frontmatter fields, trigger syntax, invocation patterns.
Entry verified April 20, 2026
The short answer
Anthropic's own reference. Start here before any community skill template — the spec changes, and Anthropic's repo is the source of truth.
When to use it
Before writing your first skill. When a community skill format doesn't work and you suspect it's out of date.
Setup
- 1
Clone anthropics/skills and use their SKILL.md as your template.
- 2
Keep it in sync — subscribe to the repo's releases.
- 3
Reference inline in your /skill-creator setup.
Example
[Not invocable — reference material, copy the template into your skill file.]
Source & attribution
- Author
- Anthropic
- Licence
- Apache-2.0 (core skills only; docx/pdf/pptx/xlsx are source-available, exclude from forks)
- Source
- anthropics/skills
- Type
- Official (Anthropic)
From Anthropic's official skills repository. Check their LICENSE and NOTICE files for specifics.
Caveats
Check the repo's LICENSE and NOTICE files — Anthropic distinguishes between Apache-2.0 skills and source-available ones. Only fork the Apache ones.
Browse more skills
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