Custom Skills

How skills fit into the framework

The framework runs the project: the steps, the exit gates, the documents, the reviews. A skill is consulted at six points along the way and nowhere else. It extends a point by adding material the agent reads, or overrides one of three allowlisted items.

Never overridable: the Operating Rules, every exit gate, every options box, the usage rows, the publish rule, the publisher and ID-range rules, the Standards Guide's rules, the dashboard, and the clock.

How to create one

1. In a project where the material already worked, run /ocpf-bc:skill-create. It proposes what it can see: a file you added to the patterns folder, a document the framework has no template for, a check you asked for more than once.
2. Answer the boxes: the slug, a display name, your name and organization (typed by you), the journeys it is for, and the extension points it plugs into.
3. The folder is written to ~/.ocpf/skills/<slug>/, offered a GitHub repository of your own, and loaded into the current project. Later changes go through /ocpf-bc:skill-update, which shows the diff, asks patch, minor, or major, and writes the new version.

You can also write one by hand. This is the whole shape:

<slug>/
  SKILL.md            frontmatter name = the slug with _ replaced by -, then the procedure for the agent
  ocpf-skill.json     the manifest
  README.md           what it does and how to load it
  CHANGELOG.md        one entry per version, newest first; 1.0.0.0 is the first
  references/         the Markdown the extension points name
  LICENSE             optional

{
  "ocpfCustomSkill": 1,
  "slug": "posting_review_checklist",
  "displayName": "Posting Review Checklist",
  "version": "1.0.0.0",
  "description": "One sentence.",
  "author": { "name": "Your name", "organization": "Your organization", "url": "https://..." },
  "framework": { "name": "OCPF BC Agentic Development Framework", "madeWith": "6.0.0.0", "minVersion": "6.0.0.0", "maxVersion": null },
  "journeys": ["full", "lite", "feature"],
  "harnesses": ["claude-code", "copilot"],
  "extends": {
    "referenceSources": ["references/PostingPatterns.md"],
    "preReviewChecks": ["references/PostingReviewChecklist.md"],
    "codeReviewChecks": ["references/PostingReviewChecklist.md"]
  },
  "overrides": { "documentTemplates": {}, "modelRecommendations": {}, "companionOffers": {} },
  "renamedFrom": [], "conflictsWith": [], "requires": []
}

The slug is the identity. Lowercase letters, digits, and underscores; starts with a letter; 3 to 40 characters; no double or trailing underscore; not ocpf_, bcskills_, onlycopilotfans_, or obcf_. Two skills with one slug and two authors is a collision the framework refuses. A renamed skill lists its old slugs in renamedFrom.

Where to find and share skills: public and private