adapting-skills
Modifies existing skills for new contexts. Forks skills from repositories, adjusts for local conventions, and customizes behavior while preserving core functionality. Use when a skill is close but not quite right.
When & Why to Use This Skill
The Adapting Skills tool streamlines the process of customizing and refining existing Claude agent skills to meet specific contextual requirements. It enables users to fork repositories, adjust local conventions, and modify behavior while maintaining core functional integrity, ensuring that agentic workflows are perfectly tailored to specialized domains or internal standards.
Use Cases
- Domain Customization: Replacing generic terminology in a research skill with industry-specific jargon for specialized fields like legal, medical, or financial analysis.
- Style Alignment: Adjusting coding or writing skills to strictly adhere to internal corporate style guides, naming conventions, and formatting preferences.
- Tool Integration: Swapping underlying libraries, APIs, or commands within an existing skill to better suit a specific local development environment or infrastructure.
- Workflow Optimization: Narrowing or expanding the scope of a proven skill to create a more efficient, task-specific agent for repetitive business processes.
| name | adapting-skills |
|---|---|
| description | Modifies existing skills for new contexts. Forks skills from repositories, adjusts for local conventions, and customizes behavior while preserving core functionality. Use when a skill is close but not quite right. |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, WebFetch, Glob |
Adapting Skills
Modify an existing skill to fit a new context.
When to Adapt vs Create New
Adapt when:
- Existing skill covers 70%+ of the need
- Changes are configuration, not architecture
- Core logic should be preserved
Create new when:
- Fundamental approach differs
- Would require rewriting most content
- Different domain entirely
Adaptation Process
- Read the source skill completely
- Identify what needs to change
- Fork to local skills directory
- Make targeted modifications
- Update name and description to reflect changes
- Test with representative tasks
Common Adaptations
- Terminology - Replace generic terms with domain-specific ones
- Conventions - Adjust coding style, formatting preferences
- Scope - Narrow or expand what the skill handles
- Tools - Swap underlying libraries or commands
Preserve
- Core workflow logic
- Proven patterns
- Error handling
- Attribution to original source