Generating a Skill
The Smidge web app uses a three-step wizard to guide you through skill generation. Navigate to /generate to start.
Step 1: Upload Sources
The upload step accepts files and URLs. You can:
- ●Drag and drop files directly onto the upload area
- ●Click to browse and select files from your filesystem
- ●Paste YouTube URLs, web page URLs, or other link types
- ●Add multiple sources — they will be fused into a single skill
Each uploaded source shows a preview card with the file name, type, and size. You can remove individual sources before proceeding.
Step 2: Configure
After uploading, Smidge runs a quick AI prefill pass to suggest a name, description, and category based on your source content. You can accept or edit these suggestions.
Name
The skill name is automatically slugified to lowercase-hyphenated format (e.g., css-layout-expert). This becomes both the display name and the directory name. Maximum 64 characters.
Description
A brief description of what the skill teaches. Maximum 200 characters. This appears in the skills library and in the frontmatter of the generated file.
Category
Choose a category to organize your skill in the library. Available categories include coding, writing, design, devops, testing, documentation, and more.
Skill Type
The skill type influences how the AI structures the output:
- ●Coding — emphasizes code patterns, API usage, and architecture decisions
- ●Writing — emphasizes voice, tone, style guidelines, and content structure
- ●Task — emphasizes step-by-step procedures, checklists, and decision trees
Step 3: Preview & Generate
Click Generate to start the three-pass pipeline. Progress is streamed in real time via Server-Sent Events (SSE):
- ●Extracting... — parsing and cleaning source materials
- ●Synthesizing... — structuring content into SKILL.md format
- ●Validating... — checking against the Agent Skills spec
When generation completes, you'll see the full skill content with validation results. Green checks indicate passing validations; warnings highlight areas that could be improved.
Download Options
After generation, you can:
- ●Download .md — single SKILL.md file
- ●Download .zip — full directory with SKILL.md and any reference files
- ●Copy to clipboard — quick copy of the markdown content
- ●Edit — open in the built-in skill editor for refinement
Tips for Best Results
- ●Clean sources — remove irrelevant headers, footers, and boilerplate from documents before uploading
- ●Be specific — focused, topical content produces more actionable skills than broad overviews
- ●Combine wisely — pair a reference doc with practical examples for well-rounded skills
- ●Review the output — AI generation is powerful but not perfect. Review and edit the result in the skill editor.