How it works
What is actually in the folder.
A skill is not a chatbot and it is not a prompt. It is a small set of files that an assistant reads when the work calls for them, and it is worth knowing exactly what those files are before you commission one.
The anatomy
The instruction file
Plain text, written in your voice, describing how you approach the work. Not a summary of your book. The decision rules, the order you do things in, the questions you ask before you answer, and the things you refuse to do.
The reference set
The material the assistant pulls in when it needs specifics. Frameworks, tables, worked examples, the numbers you cite and where they came from. Loaded only when relevant, so the skill stays fast and does not drown the assistant in context.
The scripts
Where a step is deterministic, a script does it rather than a model guessing at it. Calculations, formatting, file handling, anything with a right answer.
The guardrails
The boundary of what the skill will answer. Your name is on it, so it declines the questions you would decline in person and says why, rather than improvising something plausible.
Before it ships
Three test prompts, and it has to pass all three.
Every skill is written with three prompts attached: the obvious one a beginner would type, the specific one a practitioner would type, and the one designed to pull it outside its boundary. We run all three on every host we claim support for, and we record what each host actually did.
If it fails one, it does not ship. That rule is the only reason the test suite means anything, and it is the same rule the Maintained Skill Standard asks every conforming skill to follow.
Three test prompts or it does not ship.
After it ships
How an update reaches someone.
Versions are numbered so that a reader can tell at a glance whether something changed in the method or only in the packaging. Every release comes with notes that say what moved, why, and whether they need to do anything about it.
The Bindery is the rail those releases ride on. Someone with a current Maintained plan gets the new version there, installs it the same way they installed the first one, and carries on. Someone whose plan has lapsed keeps the last version they received, and simply stops receiving new ones.
We also re-validate on a schedule rather than waiting for a complaint, because a stale skill does not announce itself. It just gets a little more wrong every month with your name on it.
See what your work scores.
The audit is free and the scorecard is yours to keep.