Create a skill in the Workshop
The Skill Workshop, templates, the editor, validation, saving, re-embedding.
The Skill Workshop is Cerevisor's in-app editor for building new skills or editing existing ones. Switch to it from the title bar (the Workshop icon).
License gate: The Workshop's edit surface is gated on Trial+ / Paid tiers. Free-tier users can browse skills in the Workshop but can't save changes.
Workshop layout
Three panes:
| Pane | Content |
|---|---|
| Skill List (left) | Every skill Cerevisor found, grouped by source folder. Click a skill to load it into the editor. |
| Editor (center) | The active skill's SKILL.md editor, plus metadata fields. |
| Validation (right) | Real-time validation: errors, warnings, info messages about your current skill. |
Creating a new skill
Click + New skill above the skill list. The Workshop's create dialog offers three entry tabs:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Generate | Describe what you need in plain language; Cerevisor's chat-capable provider drafts a SKILL.md you can edit. Only shown when at least one chat-capable provider (Anthropic, Gemini, OpenAI-compatible) is configured. |
| Template | Pick one of five hand-rolled scaffolds (see Templates below). |
| Blank | One click. Drops you into the editor with the bare-minimum SKILL.md frontmatter so you can build from scratch. |
For Generate and Template, you also pick:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Skill name | Required. The folder name and name: frontmatter value. Use kebab-case. |
| Location | ~/.claude/skills/ (shared with Claude Code) or ~/.cerevisor/skills/ (Cerevisor-only). |
Click Create. The skill folder is generated and you're dropped into the editor.
The editor
The editor has these sections:
Metadata
- Name: text input. The
name:frontmatter value. - Description: textarea. The
description:frontmatter value. This is the most important field for skill discoverability: see What are skills?. - Category: dropdown to organize the skill in the panel.
- Tags: chip input.
Body editor
A Monaco editor for the body of SKILL.md. Markdown with syntax highlighting. Supports tables, code blocks, callouts.
Below the editor is a live markdown preview tab.
Auto-save
Edits debounce-save to disk every few seconds. The editor shows a "Saving…" / "Saved" indicator. There's no explicit Save button.
Delete
A trash icon at the bottom removes the skill. Confirms first. Only available for skills under ~/.cerevisor/skills/, Cerevisor doesn't delete skills it didn't write.
Validation
The validation pane updates as you type. It surfaces:
| Severity | Examples |
|---|---|
| Error | Missing required name: or description: frontmatter. Invalid YAML. Malformed markdown structure. |
| Warning | Description shorter than 50 chars (probably too vague). No "when to use" hint. No "when NOT to use" hint. |
| Info | Suggestions for improving discoverability — adding tags, mentioning common triggers, etc. |
Errors block the skill from showing up in agent pickers. Warnings don't block but indicate poor discoverability.
Templates
The five built-in templates available under the Template tab:
| Template | Best for |
|---|---|
| Development Tool | Coding, debugging, and testing patterns. Scaffolds before/after examples, core patterns, and common-mistakes sections. |
| Documentation Generator | Creating docs, reports, and other formatted output. Scaffolds document structure, formatting guidelines, and reusable templates. |
| Creative Skill | Art, design, and content creation. Scaffolds design principles, style guides, and a creative-process walkthrough. |
| Engineering Pattern | Prompts, workflows, and architectural approaches. Scaffolds architecture diagrams, configuration, error-handling, and monitoring. |
| Utility | General-purpose helper skills for repetitive tasks. Scaffolds basic and advanced usage examples. |
Pick the template closest to what you're building; you'll edit out what you don't need. If none fits, use the Blank tab instead.
Re-embedding
When you save a skill that changes its description or tags, Cerevisor invalidates the cached semantic embedding for that skill. The next skill scan (or the next launch) re-embeds it.
You can force a re-embed of every skill via Settings → Skills → Re-embed all skills. Useful after upgrading the embedder or after bulk edits.
Editing an existing skill
Click any skill in the Workshop's left list. The editor loads it.
You can edit skills installed under ~/.claude/skills/ too. Be aware: these are often skills you installed from a published source, editing them locally means your changes will be overwritten if you reinstall.
For local-only customizations, fork the skill: create a new skill in ~/.cerevisor/skills/ with a similar name (e.g. my-skill-customized), copy the content, edit there.
Sharing a skill
Just zip the skill folder and send it. The recipient unzips into their ~/.claude/skills/ (or ~/.cerevisor/skills/) and the skill appears on next launch.
Skills are intended to be portable. They don't reference machine-specific paths. They don't bundle credentials.
A note on writing good skills
The single best resource for writing well-tuned skills is the existing skill collection. Browse the Workshop, read a few skills that seem similar to what you're building, mirror their patterns.
The writing-skills skill (if you have it installed) walks through this in depth.