SKILL.make: Makefile Styled Skill File
SKILL.make introduces a Makefile-style syntax for Agent Skills, replacing unstructured prose with a declarative, dependency-driven format. It aims to improve token efficiency, enable automatic dependency resolution, and support modular, auditable skill workflows. The specification is a proof of concept compatible with most Agent Harness implementations and released under the MIT license.
- ▪SKILL.make reduces file size by approximately 15%, with potential for over 30% reduction through manual optimization.
- ▪The format uses a Target: Dependency + Recipe model to enforce strict execution order and eliminate reliance on LLMs to infer next steps.
- ▪SKILL.make supports modularity, conditional logic, and auditability, making it suitable for version control and evolution tracking.
- ▪A conversion test on real-world skills showed consistent size reductions across all files, totaling a 15% decrease.
- ▪The specification includes variable definitions, shell commands, tool invocations, prompts, and multi-line code snippets using Makefile syntax.
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SKILL.make: Makefile Styled Skill file. Specification and reference implementation for Makefile-styled Agent Skills. What is this? SKILL.make brings the declarative, dependency-driven paradigm of Makefiles to the Agent Skills format. It replaces fuzzy prose with structured logic, turning SKILL.md into a reproducible execution graph. Why Makefile styled SKILL file? Token Efficient: Optimized syntax reduces SKILL file size by ~15%, saving costs and context window space. With manual optimization, context size can be reduced by more than 30%. Dependency Resolution: The harness resolves the DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) automatically.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at GitHub.