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Can I organize skills hierarchically? If when many skills are defined, Claude Code loads all definitions into the prompt, potentially diluting its ability to id
by ithkuil 10mo ago
Can I organize skills hierarchically? If when many skills are defined, Claude Code loads all definitions into the prompt, potentially diluting its ability to identify relevant skills, I'd like a system where only broad skill group summaries load initially, with detailed descriptions loaded on-demand when Claude detects a matching skill group might be useful.
- simonw 10mo agoThere's a mechanism for that built into skills already: a skill folder can also include additional reference markdown files, and the skill can tell the coding agent to selectively read those extra files only when that information is needed on top of the skill. There's an instruction about that in the Codex CLI skills prompt: https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/13/openai-codex-cli/ https://simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/13/openai-codex-cli/ If SKILL.md points to extra folders such as references/, load only the specific files needed for the request; don't bulk-load everything.
- ithkuil 10mo agoyes but those are not quite new skills right? can those markdown in the references also in turn tell the model to lazily load more references only if the model deems they are useful?
- simonw 10mo agoYes, using regular English prompting: If you need to write tests that mock an HTTP endpoint, also go ahead and read the pytest-mock-httpx.md file