Skip to content

docs: clarify that When to Use section is required for skills #11

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
raphaelsamy-quantumlends wants to merge 1 commit into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
Open

docs: clarify that When to Use section is required for skills #11

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
8 changes: 8 additions & 0 deletions skills/developing-claude-code-plugins/references/plugin-structure.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -178,6 +178,13 @@ For local testing, create in `.claude-plugin/`:

### Skills (skills/skill-name/SKILL.md)

Skills have two discovery mechanisms that work together:

1. **`description` frontmatter** — Claude reads this to decide whether to load the skill. Must include both what the skill does AND triggering conditions.
2. **`## When to Use` body section** — Once loaded, this section gives Claude specific scenarios to match against. Without it, Claude may load the skill but fail to apply it correctly.

**Both are required.** The `description` is the "should I look at this?" filter. The `## When to Use` section is the "does this actually apply?" confirmation. Omitting either one degrades skill discovery and activation.

```markdown
---
name: skill-name
Expand All @@ -194,6 +201,7 @@ What this skill does in 1-2 sentences.

- Specific scenario 1
- Specific scenario 2
- Key phrases or patterns that should trigger this skill

## Workflow

Expand Down