zlacker

>>moored+(OP)
The observation about agents not using skills without being explicitly asked resonates. In practice, I've found success treating skills as explicit "workflows" rather than background context.

The pattern that works: skills that represent complete, self-contained sequences - "do X, then Y, then Z, then verify" - with clear trigger conditions. The agent recognizes these as distinct modes of operation rather than optional reference material.

What doesn't work: skills as general guidelines or "best practices" documents. These get lost in context or ignored entirely because the agent has no clear signal for when to apply them.

The mental model shift: think of skills less like documentation and more like subroutines you'd explicitly invoke. If you wouldn't write a function for it, it probably shouldn't be a skill.

>>Soeren+1c
That does raise the question of what the value is of a "skill" vs a "command". Claude Code supports both, and it's not entirely clear to me when we should use one vs the other - especially if skills work best as, well, commands.

>>smithk+8f
IMO the value and differentiating factor is basically just the ability to organize them cleanly with accompanying scripts and references, which are only loaded on demand. But a skill just by itself (without scripts or references) is essentially just a slash command with metadata.

Another value add is that theoretically agents should trigger skills automatically based on context and their current task. In practice, at least in my experience, that is not happening reliably.