Agent Skills: From Claude to Open Standard to Your Daily Coding Workflow (laurentkempe.com)

Anthropic's introduction of Agent Skills for its AI assistant Claude has evolved from a proprietary feature into a groundbreaking open standard that is revolutionizing workflows for AI users across various roles, including developers and product managers. Unlike traditional AI interactions that rely on simple prompts, Agent Skills organizes instructions, scripts, and documentation into reusable units, enhancing how AI assistants can assist in complex coding tasks. This shift is significant for the AI/ML community as it democratizes advanced AI functionalities, allowing a range of tools—from Claude Code to GitHub Copilot—to adopt a consistent framework for AI interaction. Agent Skills simplify user engagement with AI by employing a lightweight structure consisting of SKILL.md files that utilize YAML for metadata and Markdown for instructions. This approach enables AI agents to progressively disclose relevant information based on user needs, optimizing context use during queries. For instance, when generating unit tests in C#, the skill ensures consistent coding practices while reducing cognitive overload on the AI. Overall, Agent Skills herald a new era of AI development, where the capacity to share and implement AI capabilities can increase efficiency and foster innovation within coding environments.