Create Skill
Create Skill generates a production-ready automation from a natural-language prompt and submits it as a pull request. Use this when you need to build a new monitoring, tracking, or data-fetching workflow (like monitoring Hacker News for AI papers or tracking gas prices on Ethereum) without manually writing the code, integrating APIs, or handling quality checks and version control yourself.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aaronjmars/aeon /tmp/create-skill && cp -r /tmp/create-skill/skills/create-skill ~/.claude/skills/create-skillSKILL.md
> **${var}** — A natural-language description of the skill to create. **Required.** Example: `"monitor Hacker News for AI papers and send a summary"` or `"track gas prices on Ethereum and alert when below 10 gwei"`.
<!-- autoresearch: variation B — sharper output via PR-first workflow + quality enforcement + exit taxonomy + new-secret guard -->
If `${var}` is empty, exit `CREATE_SKILL_NO_VAR`:
```bash
./notify "create-skill aborted: var empty — pass a description e.g. \"monitor X for Y\""
```
Then stop.
Today is ${today}. Your task is to generate a complete, production-ready skill from `${var}`, score it against a quality bar, and ship it as a PR — **never commit directly to `main`**.
## Steps
1. **Parse the request.** Extract from `${var}`:
- Core action verb (monitor, fetch, generate, analyze, alert, track, scan, etc.)
- Data source(s) — APIs, websites, RSS, on-chain, GitHub, etc.
- Output format — notification, article, file, PR, dashboard, etc.
- Configurable parameter(s) the new skill will accept via its own `${var}`
- Suggested cadence (daily, hourly, weekly, on-demand)
Save a one-paragraph structured request summary; you'll use it in the PR body.
2. **Duplicate detection (deep — not just `ls`).** Find functional overlap, not just name collision.
```bash
keywords=$(echo "${var}" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | grep -oE '[a-z]{4,}' \
| grep -vE '^(send|with|from|that|this|when|each|into|over|some|like|just|than|then|also|will|have|been|using|monitor|track|fetch|alert)$' \
| sort -u)
for kw in $keywords; do
grep -liE "$kw" skills/*/SKILL.md | head -5
done
```
Read the top 3 candidates fully. For each, judge: does it already do this? Could the request be solved by running an existing skill with a different `var=`?
- **Near-duplicate exists** → exit `CREATE_SKILL_DUPLICATE`. Notify with the existing skill name and a one-line suggestion ("use existing `{skill}` with `var={...}` instead"). Stop.
- **Functionally adjacent** → design the new skill to complement (different angle/cadence/output). Document the boundary in the PR body.
3. **Research the data sources.** For every API or data source the new skill needs:
- **WebSearch** for the current API documentation. Cross-check against a secondary source when feasible (a recent GitHub repo using it, an official changelog, or a Stack Overflow answer dated ≥2026) to confirm the endpoint isn't deprecated.
- **WebFetch** the canonical docs URL — record it as a comment in the SKILL.md and in the PR body's "Sources researched" section.
- Identify exact endpoints, required headers, auth scheme, response schema, and rate limits.
- Note every required environment variable / API key.
- Determine fallback strategy when an optional API key isn't set (WebSearch / WebFetch / cached data / public endpoint).
**Research bar (soft):** at least one confirmed source URL or exemplar (a working docs page or a public repo using the API). If none, do **not** hard-abort — log `CREATE_SKILL_INSUFFICIENT_RESEARCH`, ask the operator via `./notify` with what was tried and why each source failed, and stop. The operator can re-dispatch with a clearer prompt or a source hint.
4. **New-secret guard.** Secrets values are never inspectable from the workflow — only names are listed. Use `gh api repos/:owner/:repo/actions/secrets --jq '.secrets[].name'` to read the **names** of secrets already configured (this endpoint returns names only, never values). Cross-reference with env-var usage in `aeon.yml` and existing workflows. For each env var the new skill needs:
- **Name present** → continue.
- **Name missing** → record as `NEW_SECRET_REQUIRED`. The generated skill **must** gracefully degrade or skip when the secret is absent (no hard crash). Add a `### Required secrets` section to the PR body listing what the operator must add to GitHub Actions secrets before enabling.
If the secret has no graceful fallback, the generated skill's step 1 must do:
```bash
if [ -z "$VAR" ]; then ./notify "{skill} skipped: VAR not set"; exit 0; fi
```
5. **Design the skill.** Decide:
- **Skill name** — lowercase, hyphenated, 2-3 words max (e.g., `gas-alert`, `hn-papers`). Must not collide with any existing entry under `skills/`.
- **Description** — one sentence, starts with a verb, ≤90 chars.
- **Tags** — pick from: `content`, `crypto`, `dev`, `meta`, `news`, `research`, `social`. Max 3.
- **Variable behavior** — what `${var}` controls; what happens when empty (sane default OR clean abort with notify).
- **Steps** — 4-8 numbered, following the standard pattern: read context → fetch/search → process/analyze → write output → log → notify.
- **Schedule suggestion** — choose a cron slot. Read existing schedules in `aeon.yml`; avoid co-scheduling at the same minute as heavy skills (article, repo-scanner, deep-research, telegram-digest) unless the new skill is lightweight (<30s expected). Prefer a `:30` minute offset if the natural hour is already crowded.
- **Model** — default `claude-opus-4-7`. Pick `claude-sonnet-4-6` if the skill is high-frequency aggregation/digestion (cost optimization). Document the choice in the PR body.
6. **Write the SKILL.md draft** at `skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` with this exact structure:
```markdown
---
name: {Display Name}
description: {One-sentence description starting with a verb}
var: ""
tags: [{tags}]
---
> **${var}** — {What the variable controls}. {If-empty behavior}.
Today is ${today}. {One sentence describing the task.}
## Steps
1. **{Step title}.** {Specific instructions — endpoints, commands, formats.}
2. **{Step title}.** {More instructions. Code blocks for curl/bash when relevant.}
...
N-1. **Log.** Append to `memory/logs/${today}.md`:
- Skill: {skill-name}
- What was done and key outputs
N. **Notify.** Send via `./notify`:
{Output format template — specify ≤4000 chars, cliMention/keyword sweep on social platforms for [REPLACE: KEYWORDS] — trends, sentiment, top posts
5 concrete real-life actions, leverage-scored against open loops with specificity and anti-fluff gates
Curated AI-agent tweets, clustered into narratives with insight summaries
Tracker of AI agent substitution signals — which roles, companies, and industries show real headcount displacement. Named roles + real deployments only.
Competitive-intelligence digest on the AI agent framework space — momentum, releases, breaking changes across a curated watchlist
Cross-domain market pulse from AIXBT's free grounding endpoint — crypto, macro, tradfi, geopolitics. Refreshes taxonomy references (clusters, chains) as a bonus.
Pre-batch API provider health check — detects credit exhaustion or auth failure for every configured provider key before the scheduled batch runs, giving the operator a window to act before skills degrade
List a wallet's live ERC-20 token approvals on Base and flag unlimited / risky spender grants. Keyless via Base RPC (eth_getLogs + eth_call) — no explorer key needed.