build-agent
The facts
Its description
Turns a task the owner keeps doing by hand into a named, reusable skill they can trigger by name or put on a schedule. Watches them do it once or listens to them describe it, works out what varies and what stays fixed, writes the skill with approval checkpoints in the right places, registers it with the router, and shares it with the team. This is how a business gets a workflow nobody shipped for them. Use this whenever the owner describes something repetitive they wish were automatic — including phrasings like "I do this every week," "can you remember how to do this," "make this a thing I can just ask for," "build me an agent," "automate this for me," "turn this into a workflow," or "I want this to happen every Monday." Reach for it when they describe a routine, even without asking for automation.
The description the agent reads to decide when to use it.
When it starts
The agent picks this skill when the owner describes a routine they keep doing by hand and wishes were automatic, or when they have just walked the agent through that task once and want it remembered. It is triggered by talk of repetition, remembering a process, or wanting something to run on a schedule, even when the owner never says the word "automate".
Things a person might say (the model's guesses)
- “I reconcile the carrier commission file by hand every month — can you make that something I can just ask for?”
- “Can you remember how to do this so I don't have to walk you through it again?”
- “I want this to happen every Monday without me thinking about it.”
A model's summary of when it is used.
Tools it may use, or may not
allowed-tools: Read, WebFetch
Tools it may use while it runs without asking you first.
Files it mentions
reference/capture.md, reference/skill_authoring.md, reference/gotchas.md
Files the text names, such as ones to read or write. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.
What it leads to
- hands off to build-connector when the new skill needs a tool that isn't connected line 99
- hands off to daily-briefing when the new output belongs in the daily picture line 99
- hands off to monday-brief when the new skill should feed the weekly brief line 99
- calls smb-router line 78
- an alternative: invoice-chase when a shipped skill already covers the task capture.md, line 121
Other skills this one hands off to, calls, requires or offers instead, as a model read them.
What leads to it
- build-connector hands off to this build-connector, line 82
- smb-router hands off to this when the owner wants a recurring task automated smb-router, line 108
Other skills that hand off to this one, call it, require it or offer it instead, as a model read them.
Licence
Apache-2.0, from LICENSE
The terms its author shares it under, which let it be shown here.
Other files in this skill (3) Close
The text
Most marks come from matching words in the file, so treat them as pointers.
Build Agent
Turn something the owner does every week into something they ask for by name.
This is what keeps the plugin from having to ship every industry's workflow. No catalog can cover a septic contractor's permit routine or an insurance agency's carrier commission reconciliation. Those owners can build them.
Raw lines 1 to 23Step 1 — Watch it happen, or hear it described
Two starting points, and the first is much better.
Best: they just did it in this conversation. If the owner has walked through the task with you — pulled the files, made the decisions, corrected you twice — that transcript is the specification. Extract it rather than re-interviewing them. The corrections they made are the most valuable part, because they encode judgment the owner would never have thought to state.
Otherwise: they describe it. Ask them to walk through the last time they did it, concretely. Real specifics beat an abstract description every time — "last Tuesday I pulled the carrier file, matched it against what we'd booked, and chased six discrepancies" tells you more than "I reconcile commissions."
Read reference/capture.md for how to get a complete picture without an interrogation.
Step 2 — Separate what varies from what stays fixed
This is the whole craft of the step. A skill that hardcodes last Tuesday's specifics only works on last Tuesday.
For each part of the task, decide:
- Fixed — the sequence, the sources, the output format, the rules
- Varies — dates, names, amounts, which file, which customer
- Judgment — the parts where the owner decides, which become approval gates
The corrections the owner made while walking through it usually mark the judgment points. When someone says "no, not that one — we skip anything under USD 50," that is a rule. When they say "hmm, depends," that is an approval gate.
Raw lines 34 to 45Step 3 — Find the approval gates
Every step that sends, spends, publishes, or deletes needs a gate. So does every step where the owner hesitated.
Do not gate everything — a skill that asks permission nine times is worse than doing it by hand. Gate the consequential and the ambiguous, and let the rest run.
Read reference/skill_authoring.md for where gates belong and how to phrase them.
Step 4 — Write it
Produce a real skill in the same shape as everything else in this plugin: a SKILL.md with frontmatter and numbered steps, plus a reference/ folder if the detail warrants it.
Requirements it must meet, same as every shipped skill:
- Name and folder match, lowercase with hyphens
- Description says what it does and when to trigger, in third person
- A real fallback for when a connector is missing
- Approval gates on anything consequential
- Never invents a number; missing data is reported as missing
Write it in the owner's terms, not in generic business language. If they call it "the carrier file," the skill says carrier file. A skill full of unfamiliar vocabulary is one they will not trust to run unattended.
Raw lines 54 to 67Step 5 — Test it on a real case, before they rely on it
Run the new skill against a case the owner already knows the answer to — ideally the exact one they walked through. Show the output next to what they got by hand.
This is the step that determines whether the skill gets used. An owner who has seen it reproduce a known-good result will schedule it. One who hasn't will run it manually and check it every time, which saves nothing.
If it doesn't match, fix the skill and run it again. Do not ask the owner to accept a near-miss.
Raw lines 68 to 75Step 6 — Register and set the cadence
Add it to smb-router so plain-English requests reach it, and record the trigger phrases the owner actually uses.
If it is a recurring task, offer to schedule it. Scheduling is what converts "a skill I could run" into "something that happens without me," which is the outcome they wanted.
Raw lines 76 to 81Step 7 — Share it, with approval
Offer to share with the team. Say what sharing means: who gets it, what data it can reach, and what it can do unattended.
Be specific about the risk when a skill sends, spends, or writes. A skill that emails customers, running for someone who did not build it and does not know its assumptions, is a real hazard. Recommend draft-only for shared skills that send anything.
Raw lines 82 to 87What not to do
- Do not re-interview about a task they just walked through. The transcript is the spec.
- Do not hardcode the example. Names, dates, and amounts vary; the sequence does not.
- Do not gate every step. Nine approvals is worse than doing it by hand.
- Do not skip the test run. An untested skill gets checked manually forever, which saves nothing.
- Do not write it in generic business language. Their words, or they won't trust it.
- Do not build something that sends or spends without approval gates. Ever, regardless of what the owner asks for.
After the build
The owner now has a named skill they can trigger or schedule. If the new skill hit a tool that isn't connected, "connect to my ERP" (build-connector) is the natural next step — it turns the missing system into a working source. Also nearby: "brief me" to fold the new output into the daily picture, and "Monday brief" if the skill should feed the weekly one. Offer at most three, and skip any offer the owner already declined this session.
Reference files
reference/capture.md— getting a complete picture of the task without an interrogationreference/skill_authoring.md— the structure, frontmatter, and where approval gates belongreference/gotchas.md— the failure modes that produce a skill nobody uses
From anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins at 2574e29, 2026-10-27. Skills read by DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on 2026-11-04. Summary and techniques by Claude Opus 5.5 on 2026-11-06.