/references/skill-archetypes.md

Skill Archetypes

Use these archetypes to decide what kind of skill you are building before you decide how many files or gates to add.

Scaffold

Purpose:

• quick packaging for a real but still exploratory workflow

Default assets:

• SKILL.md
• agents/interface.yaml

Use when:

• reuse is plausible but not proven
• failure cost is low
• the workflow is still changing

Production

Purpose:

• compact skill for team reuse

Default assets:

• lean SKILL.md
• agents/interface.yaml
• selective references/
• selective evals/

Use when:

• route mistakes waste team time
• a checklist or focused script improves reliability

Library

Purpose:

• shared capability with visible evidence and portability expectations

Default assets:

• route evals
• packaging checks
• manifest metadata
• public reports

Use when:

• the skill will be reused across teams or clients
• the skill is likely to have near-neighbor route collisions

Governed

Purpose:

• high-trust skill with explicit ownership and review

Default assets:

• lifecycle metadata
• governance score
• review cadence
• regression history
• governed examples or policy references

Use when:

• the skill is operationally sensitive
• the skill influences incident, release, compliance, or organizational standards

Anti-Archetypes

Do not force a request into a skill archetype when it is really:

• a one-off answer
• a document
• a brainstorm
• an implementation task with no reusable process

See Non-Skill Decision Tree.