Manage Marketing Skills with ak:skill

Use ak:skill to create or improve a reusable Marketing Skill in the current project. It routes one of six actions to a focused workflow, keeps SKILL.md concise through progressive disclosure, and distinguishes review-first planning from actions that edit files directly.

Choose ak:skill for a Skill lifecycle task

Use ak:skill when

• You want to create a Marketing Skill from a description, documentation URL, or repository source.
• You need to add references or scripts to an existing Skill.
• You want an optimization plan and review gate before changing a Skill.
• You need to fix a Skill from a project-root logs.txt file.
• You want to plan a new Skill or apply a bounded content update.

Choose another workflow when

• You still need to decide between a Skill, Agent, command, and workflow. Use ak:kit-builder for component selection and scaffolding.
• You need to install or refresh Marketing Kit rather than author project content. Follow Installing kits.
• You only need to read or explain a Skill. Ask for analysis without selecting a mutating action.
• You intend to change a user-scope Skill. That requires separate, explicit authorization; project scope is the default.

Prepare the target and evidence

Before you start:

• Confirm Marketing Kit is installed for the current runtime and scope.
• Read repository instructions and locate the project Skill directory.
• Preserve unrelated changes and name the target Skill precisely.
• For fix-logs, inspect the project-root logs.txt and remove secrets or personal data before using it.
• For a URL or repository source, define the allowed network, download, and external-tool boundary before research begins.

Run the Skill

The first positional word is the action. This example plans a new Skill and keeps implementation behind a later approval:

/ak:skill plan campaign-brief "Create a project-scoped Skill that turns an approved launch brief into reviewable draft assets; do not implement yet"

/ak:skill plan campaign-brief "Create a project-scoped Skill that turns an approved launch brief into reviewable draft assets; do not implement yet"

$ak:skill plan campaign-brief "Create a project-scoped Skill that turns an approved launch brief into reviewable draft assets; do not implement yet"

Choose an action deliberately

Only these six actions are routed by the public Skill contract. Do not rely on an unlisted internal reference as another supported action.

Understand the stages

1. Parse the action and target. The Skill asks for missing material rather than guessing a Skill name or scope.
2. Load the matching reference. Each action has its own rules for research, review, output, and mutation.
3. Inspect project scope. Existing SKILL.md, references, scripts, repository instructions, and relevant logs are read before changes.
4. Research only as authorized. Documentation lookup or repository analysis may use network access and external tools; broad crawling is not implied by a simple local update.
5. Plan or edit according to the action. plan and optimize insert review gates. add, create, fix-logs, and update can proceed to authorized project-file changes.
6. Validate progressive disclosure. The entry file stays concise while detailed guidance and deterministic helpers move to focused resources.
7. Report evidence and remaining authority. The run lists paths, checks, unresolved risks, and any Git or distribution step not yet approved.

Keep research and mutation controlled

Planning approval has two boundaries: approving a proposal allows the workflow to save the specified plan; implementation starts only after the separate implementation confirmation. A later commit, push, package export, publication, or release also remains a separate decision.

Verify outputs and evidence

A complete run should provide:

• The selected action, target Skill, project scope, and accepted non-goals.
• Exact files created or changed, including new references or scripts.
• A concise SKILL.md whose description states when the Skill should activate.
• Evidence that referenced files exist and scripts have representative tests or a documented reason they were not run.
• For plan or optimize, the approved plan location, phase files, success criteria, risks, and implementation status.
• A final diff summary with unresolved questions and all unapproved external or distribution actions.

Troubleshoot and respect limits

The bundled action references are primarily Claude-oriented and may name tools, Agents, or paths unavailable in another runtime. The workflow cannot prove an external source is complete, install tools without approval, or make a project Skill part of the released Marketing package automatically. Continue with Marketing Kit or use ak:kit-builder for a non-Skill component.