How Skills Work

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What Is a Skill?

A skill is a Markdown file (SKILL.md) containing structured knowledge that Claude Code can load into its context window. Skills are knowledge, not code. They do not execute anything. They teach the model how to approach a category of work -- API design, database migrations, caching strategies, security patterns, and 55 other topics.

Each skill lives in its own directory under src/skills/:

src/skills/api-design-framework/
  SKILL.md            # Required: frontmatter + knowledge content
  references/         # Optional: detailed sub-guides
    rest-api.md
    graphql-api.md
    grpc-api.md
    frontend-integration.md

The SKILL.md file has two parts:

1. YAML frontmatter -- metadata that tells OrchestKit when and how to use the skill.
2. Markdown body -- the actual knowledge: patterns, code examples, decision tables, checklists.

Optional references/ subdirectories hold deeper material that gets loaded progressively when the skill budget allows it.

The Two Types of Skills

OrchestKit ships 104 skills in two categories:

Command skills are workflows you run directly -- /ork:implement, /ork:fix-issue, /ork:create-pr. They often orchestrate multiple agents and reference skills behind the scenes.

Reference skills are passive knowledge. They get injected into an agent's context when the agent needs them. A database-engineer agent automatically receives pgvector-search, alembic-migrations, and zero-downtime-migration because those skills declare agent: database-engineer in their frontmatter.

Skill Injection Lifecycle

Here is the end-to-end flow from the moment you type a prompt to the moment Claude uses skill knowledge:

Three injection paths work together:

1. Keyword matching -- The skill-auto-suggest hook scans each prompt for keywords (like "database", "auth", "fastapi") and injects up to 3 relevant skills with the highest confidence scores.
2. Command skill composition -- When you invoke a command skill like /ork:implement, its frontmatter skills: field lists reference skills to load alongside it (e.g., api-design-framework, type-safety-validation, unit-testing).
3. Agent frontmatter -- Each agent's .md file in src/agents/ declares a skills: array. When that agent is spawned, those skills are auto-injected into its context.

Frontmatter Fields Reference

Every SKILL.md starts with YAML frontmatter between --- delimiters. Here are all the fields:

The context Field

This field controls how Claude Code runs the skill:

• fork -- The skill runs in an isolated context. Most common for reference skills. Required for CC 2.1.0+.
• inherit -- The skill runs in the parent conversation's context. Used for skills that need to read or modify the current state (like commit or doctor).
• none -- The skill needs no conversation context at all (like remember, which writes to the knowledge graph).

The complexity Field

This aligns the skill with Claude's adaptive thinking. Higher complexity means the model spends more reasoning tokens:

Skill Budget and Token Scaling

Claude Code 2.1.33+ scales the skill character budget to approximately 2% of the context window. This means token budgets auto-scale with model capacity:

When multiple skills are injected, they share this budget. The platform prioritizes skills by relevance score, loading higher-confidence matches first and truncating lower-priority content if the budget is exhausted.

Skill Listing and Token Budget

Of OrchestKit's 103 skills, 23 are user-invocable command skills (you type /ork:skill-name). Of those, 20 are listed in Claude's prompt context. The remaining 78 reference skills are hidden from the listing entirely:

• Users can invoke command skills via /ork:skill-name slash commands
• Agents load reference skills via frontmatter skills: arrays
• The skill-auto-suggest hook matches all skills by keywords

Interactive Options

Many command skills present interactive option pickers with ASCII art previews. For example, /ork:assess shows a side-by-side preview of each assessment mode with the dimensions scored, agents used, and output format. Some skills support multiSelect to combine modes (e.g., running both security and dependency audits together).

Mental Model: Skills Are Knowledge, Not Code

If you come from a traditional plugin ecosystem, skills may feel unfamiliar. They are not functions, they are not APIs, they are not runtime dependencies. The closest analogy is a reference card pinned next to your monitor while you work.

When Claude loads a skill, it reads the patterns and examples the same way a developer reads documentation. The skill does not execute -- it informs. The model then applies that knowledge to the current task.

This has practical implications:

• Skills never break at runtime. They are static text. The worst case is outdated advice.
• Skills compose freely. Loading api-design-framework alongside fastapi-advanced gives Claude both the general API principles and the FastAPI-specific implementation patterns.
• Skills are cheap to create. Writing a skill is writing documentation. No build step, no dependencies, no test harness (beyond frontmatter validation).

What's Next

• 23 Command Skills -- The full list of /ork:X commands you can invoke directly.
• 81 Reference Skills -- The knowledge library that powers agents behind the scenes.
• Composing Skills Into Workflows -- How command skills, reference skills, and agents work together.
• Create Your Own SKILL.md -- Step-by-step guide to adding new skills.