create-agent

Hands one kind of job to a specialist — a version of the AI kept to a single role, built out of the way you have already been steering this conversation.

When to use

SCOPE

USE FOR

Turn a specialized persona or tool-restricted workflow from this conversation into a reusable agent.
Define a custom agent's job scope and which tools it should use or avoid.
Decide when this new agent should be picked over the default one.

This is a saved copy of the skill's SKILL.md instructions. It may differ from the upstream file or the version you install.

In this document (3)

Related skill: agent-customization. Load and follow agents.md for template and principles.

Guide the user to create an .agent.md.

Extract from Conversation

First, review the conversation history. If the user has been using the agent in a specialized way (e.g., restricting tools, following a specific persona, focusing on certain file types), generalize that into a custom agent. Extract:

The specialized role or persona being assumed
Tool preferences (which to use, which to avoid)
The domain or job scope

Clarify if Needed

If no clear specialization emerges from the conversation, clarify:

What job should this agent do?
When should it be picked over the default agent?
Which tools should it use (or avoid)?

Iterate

Draft the agent file and save it.
Identify the most ambiguous or weak parts and ask about those.
Once finalized, summarize what the agent does, suggest example prompts to try it, and propose related customizations to create next.

Remember to follow the agent-customization guidelines to create highly effective agents.

Built into VS Code. Nothing to install there. The npx skills add command copies the same instructions into another agent, but they are written for VS Code and may call tools only VS Code has.

Run this outside your AI tool, using Node.js 22.20.0 or newer. Skills CLI 1.7.2 skips skill selection; prompts cancel installation without an interactive terminal. If choosing Project when asked about installation scope, open your project's folder before running this.

Install checklist

Check selected tools if a picker appears; Claude Code may be unchecked under Additional agents. ↑/↓ moves, Space toggles selections, Enter confirms.
Without a tool picker, check Installing to: for your intended tool. Stop if it names a different tool.
If asked, choose Symlink (Recommended) for shared files or Copy to all agents for separate copies; review the summary before confirming installation.
Install the find-skills skill? defaults to Yes, adding another skill for all projects. Choose No if you don't want that extra installation.

Skills CLI 1.7.2 sends install data to skills.sh by default, including the source, skill names, target tools and file details; GitHub sources are reported only when GitHub confirms the repository is public, while other remote sources can also be reported. Confirmed-public GitHub sources also trigger a security-audit request. Before installing, set the environment variable DO_NOT_TRACK=1 or DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 to disable both.

npx skills add microsoft/vscode --skill "create-agent" --full-depth

Once this skill is installed where Claude Code loads it, type /create-agent in Claude Code when you want to start it. Claude Code won't start this skill on its own.

View on GitHub

Extract from Conversation

Clarify if Needed

Iterate

No requirements beyond installing this skill were found.

More skills

act-on-feedback

agent-customization

author-contributions

chronicle

code-review

commit