My AI Skill Conventions

By Joel Dare - Written August 15, 2026

I like to write new skills that help me work with AI more quickly. I use Claude Code but these should be adaptable to any coding harness such as Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, opencode, or Pi.

TLDR:

Prefix personal skills with my. so they’re easy to find with autocomplete
Add auto to skills that should run unattended
Pair them with a check.sh so the AI only runs when it’s needed

“My Dot” Naming

I name my own skills in the format my.example-skill. I call the convention “My Dot” naming.

Claude Code currently mixes built-in commands and personal skills together with slash commands. Prepending skills with /my. allows me to use auto-complete to search through my personal skills. It’s handy when I can’t remember if I called a skill succinct or concise.

Automatic Skills

I also use the word “auto” to indicate that the skill should be automatic and require no user feedback. A skill called /my.auto-priority might use a rubric to automatically estimate the priority of an issue, add a tag, set a field, and insert a comment.

Check Scripts

Finally, I use check scripts, especially for automatic skills, to verify that an AI is needed at all. These sit right next to the skill and are ignored by the coding agent. I can leverage them in automated processes, such as a cronjob, to verify that an AI call needs to be made. For example, I could make a call to GitHub to see if there are any new issues. If not, do nothing. If there are, run claude -p and invoke the my.auto-priority skill.