Publishing Skills

Skills are markdown files that give AI agents domain-specific knowledge and behaviors. Unlike MCP bundles which provide tools, skills provide expertise.

What Is a Skill?

A skill is a SKILL.md file that teaches an agent how to approach a specific domain:

---
name: code-reviewer
description: Expert code review with security and performance focus
metadata:
  category: development
  triggers:
    - "review this code"
    - "check for bugs"
---

# Code Review Guidelines

When reviewing code, focus on:

1. **Security vulnerabilities**
   - SQL injection
   - XSS attacks
   ...

Skills are used by Claude Code and other AI development tools.

Quick Overview

1. Create SKILL.md

   Write your skill with YAML frontmatter

2. Add GitHub Action

   Use the skill-pack action to build and publish

3. Create a Release

   Tag and release on GitHub

4. Done

   Your skill is live on mpak.dev

Example Repository

my-skills/
├── code-reviewer/
│   └── SKILL.md
├── test-writer/
│   └── SKILL.md
└── doc-generator/
    └── SKILL.md

Each directory with a SKILL.md file becomes a separate skill package.

The Workflow

Add to .github/workflows/release.yml:

name: Publish Skills
on:
  release:
    types: [published]

permissions:
  contents: write
  id-token: write

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: NimbleBrainInc/skill-pack@v1

When you publish a release, this will:

1. Find all SKILL.md files in your repository
2. Validate the frontmatter
3. Package each skill into a .skill bundle
4. Upload to your GitHub release
5. Announce to mpak.dev

Package Naming

Skills are automatically scoped to your GitHub owner:

GitHub Owner	Skill Name
NimbleBrainInc	@nimblebraininc/code-reviewer
johndoe	@johndoe/code-reviewer

The directory name (e.g., code-reviewer) becomes the package name.

README Badges

Once published, add a badge to your README:

[![mpak](https://registry.mpak.dev/v1/skills/@yourorg/your-skill/badge.svg)](https://mpak.dev/skills/@yourorg/your-skill)

Available badge types:

Type	URL	Shows
Version (default)	.../badge.svg	Latest version
Downloads	.../badge.svg?type=downloads	Total downloads

You can also copy badge markdown directly from your skill page on mpak.dev.

Next Steps

SKILL.md Reference Full frontmatter documentation

GitHub Action Complete action configuration

Resources

• Agent Skills Specification - Full specification
• Claude Code Skills - Using skills in Claude Code
• skill-pack Action - GitHub Action source