Overview
This guide walks you through adding agent skills to an existing use case. By the end, your HTTP endpoints and scheduled workflows will be discoverable and usable by any Claude-based agent.
New use cases get skills automatically. When you run codika init, the scaffolded use case includes example skills for both the HTTP workflow and the scheduled workflow. This guide is for adding skills to existing use cases or customizing the defaults.
Prefer automation? The Builder System agents create use cases with correctly configured agent skills out of the box. Use this guide when you need to add or customize skills manually. Step 1: Identify triggerable workflows
Open your config.ts and list all workflows with http or schedule trigger types. Skip sub-workflows, data ingestion, and service event workflows.
# Quick check — list workflow files that are NOT sub-workflows
grep -l '"type": "n8n-nodes-base.webhook"' workflows/*.json
grep -l '"type": "n8n-nodes-base.scheduleTrigger"' workflows/*.json
workflowTemplateId from config.ts- Trigger type (http or schedule)
- Input schema fields (for HTTP)
- Output schema fields
- Integration UIDs used
- Credit cost
Step 2: Create the skills directory
For each triggerable workflow, create a subdirectory:
mkdir skills/main-workflow
mkdir skills/scheduled-report
Step 3: Write SKILL.md files
For HTTP workflows
Create skills/{name}/SKILL.md:
---
name: {usecase-slug}-{action}
description: {Third-person description. What it does and what it returns.}
workflowTemplateId: {workflow-template-id}
---
# {Workflow Name}
{One-line description with integrations used.}
## How to trigger
\`\`\`bash
codika trigger {workflow-template-id} --payload-file - <<'EOF'
{
"field1": "example value",
"field2": 42
}
EOF
\`\`\`
## Input
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|-----------|------|----------|-------------|
| field1 | string | yes | What this field does |
| field2 | number | no | What this field does |
## Output
\`\`\`json
{
"result": "example output",
"timestamp": "2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}
\`\`\`
## Notes
- Cost: {N} credit(s)
- Uses: {Integration1}, {Integration2}
For scheduled workflows
---
name: {usecase-slug}-{action}
description: {Third-person description. Mention the schedule AND manual trigger.}
workflowTemplateId: {workflow-template-id}
---
# {Workflow Name}
Runs automatically on a schedule ({schedule description}).
## Schedule
`{cron expression}` — {Human-readable} ({timezone})
## Manual trigger (for testing)
\`\`\`bash
codika trigger {workflow-template-id}
\`\`\`
No payload required.
## Output
| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| field1 | string | Description |
## Notes
- Cost: {N} credit(s)
- Uses: {Integration1}, {Integration2}
Step 4: Validate
Check for skill-related findings:
SKILL-STRUCTURE — Missing SKILL.md in a skills subdirectorySKILL-NAME-FORMAT — Name too long, wrong characters, or reserved wordsSKILL-WORKFLOW-REF — workflowTemplateId doesn’t match any workflowSKILL-DUPLICATE — Duplicate names or workflowTemplateIds
Step 5: Deploy
Skills are automatically collected and sent with the deployment. No config.ts changes needed.
Step 6: Verify agent access
# Download the skills you just deployed
codika get skills
# Or check the JSON output
codika get skills --json
Naming rules
The name field must follow Claude’s naming constraints:
| Rule | Example |
|---|
| Max 64 characters | wat-event-weekly-digest (24 chars) |
| Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens only | propale-generate-proposal |
| No spaces or underscores | my-skill not my_skill or my skill |
| No reserved words | Cannot contain “anthropic” or “claude” |
wat-, propale-, crm-.
Description rules
| Rule | Good | Bad |
|---|
| Third person | ”Sends a message to…" | "Use this to send…” |
| Non-empty | ”Generates a weekly digest" | "" |
| Max 1024 characters | Keep it concise | Don’t write a paragraph |
| Include what AND when | ”Sends reminders daily at 8 AM. Can be manually triggered." | "Sends reminders” |
Progressive disclosure for complex skills
If a skill needs more than 500 lines, split into referenced files:
generate-proposal/
├── SKILL.md # Overview + trigger command + basic I/O
├── INPUT-REFERENCE.md # Detailed field-by-field input schema
└── EXAMPLES.md # Multiple usage examples with different payloads
For detailed input schema, see [INPUT-REFERENCE.md](INPUT-REFERENCE.md).
For more examples, see [EXAMPLES.md](EXAMPLES.md).
Checklist
Before deploying:
