Anatomy of a Skill

Skills in Agent Board are structured, version-controlled knowledge packages that provide domain-specific context to an AI agent. They are stored within the .agent/skills or .claude/skills directory of a project.

Directory Structure

A skill is organized as a self-contained directory. This structure allows for a clear separation of high-level indexing and granular rule definitions.

.agent/skills/
└── [skill-name]/
    ├── SKILL.md             # The entry point and metadata definition
    └── rules/               # A collection of specific guidelines
        ├── rule-one.md      
        ├── rule-two.md
        └── assets/          # Supporting code examples or snippets
            └── example.tsx

The SKILL.md File

The SKILL.md file serves as the manifest and the primary interface for the AI agent. It uses YAML frontmatter to define the skill's identity and a Markdown body to act as an index.

Frontmatter Specification

Usage Index

The body of the SKILL.md file must contain:

When to use: High-level triggers that tell the agent when this knowledge is relevant.
How to use: A list of links to specific rule files within the rules/ directory.

---
name: remotion-best-practices
description: Best practices for Remotion - Video creation in React
metadata:
  tags: remotion, video, react
---

## When to use
Use this skill when modifying Remotion compositions or rendering logic.

## How to use
- [rules/animations.md](rules/animations.md) - Rules for frame-based animations.

Individual Rule Files

Rule files located in the rules/ directory provide the "atoms" of knowledge. Each rule file should focus on a single sub-topic.

Rule Metadata

Every rule file begins with its own YAML frontmatter. This allows the agent to parse the specific intent of that file without reading the entire content.

---
name: animations
description: Fundamental animation skills for Remotion
metadata:
  tags: animations, useCurrentFrame
---

Rule Content Guidelines

Technical writing in rule files should follow these patterns:

Code Examples: Provide "Golden Path" code snippets.
Prohibitions: Explicitly list forbidden patterns (e.g., "CSS transitions are FORBIDDEN").
Prerequisites: Include required packages or environment setups.
Hooks and API: Document specific functions or hooks required for the task.

Code Assets

For complex patterns, skills can include full source files (e.g., .tsx, .py) inside the rules/ or rules/assets/ directory. These assets are used by the agent as "blueprints" for code generation, ensuring the agent follows the exact implementation style required by the project.

// rules/assets/example-animation.tsx
import { useCurrentFrame } from "remotion";

export const MyAnimation = () => {
  const frame = useCurrentFrame();
  // ... implementation
};

Discovery Logic

Agent Board automatically crawls the .agent and .claude directories. When a user interacts with the agent, the system matches the current context (files being edited, user prompts) against the name, description, and tags defined in the skill frontmatter to inject the relevant rules into the agent's context window.