Condensing Skills

Triggering Criteria

Users can trigger this skill by saying:

• •"Condense this skill"
• •"This skill is too long"
• •"Streamline this skill"
• •"Make this skill more concise"
• •Or using: /condense-skill

The Condensed Milk Analogy

Key insight: Condensation ≠ deletion. You're concentrating, not removing nutrition.

When to Condense

• • Too long - SKILL.md >200 lines
• • Redundant - Same concept in multiple places
• • Verbose examples - Could be in guides/
• • Duplicate files - Multiple files, same content
• • Hard to scan - Can't grasp workflow in 30 seconds

Condensation Process

Phase 1: Analyze

1. •Count lines in all skill files
2. •Identify the intent - what does this skill help users do?
3. •Map essential knowledge - what MUST be preserved?
4. •Find redundancy - duplicates, verbose explanations, inline examples

Phase 2: Extract Before Condensing

Document what MUST stay vs what CAN move to guides:

Phase 3: Restructure SKILL.md

Target structure (100-200 lines):

---
name/description/link (frontmatter)
---
# Title
## Triggering Criteria     ← HOW users invoke it
## Key Concepts            ← Tables > paragraphs (5-10 lines)
## When to Use             ← Checklist (3-5 items)
## Workflow                ← Core process (10-20 lines)
## Key Principles          ← Numbered list (3-7 items)
## Detailed Guides         ← Links to guides/

Phase 4: Move Details to Guides

Create guides/[topic].md for detailed reference material.

Phase 5: Validate

• • Intent preserved? Still conveys what skill does?
• • Knowledge preserved? Essential concepts accessible?
• • Scannable? Grasp workflow in 30 seconds?
• • Actionable? Can use skill with just SKILL.md?

Condensation Techniques

What NOT to Remove

Never condense away:

• •Core intent/purpose of the skill
• •Key decision frameworks (when to use what)
• •Critical warnings or gotchas
• •Essential workflow/checklist
• •Triggering criteria and frontmatter

Test: If removing requires users to "just know" it, keep it.

Target Metrics

Key Principles

1. •Concentrate, don't delete - Nutrition stays, water goes
2. •Tables > paragraphs - Visual scanning beats reading
3. •Checklists > prose - Actionable beats descriptive
4. •Single source of truth - No duplicate explanations
5. •Preserve intent & knowledge - The "why" and key concepts must survive
6. •Frontmatter matters - name, description, triggering criteria are essential