Teacher Yao’s open-source yao-meta-skill — objectively speaking, it’s far more convenient than the official skill-creator. You just throw in scattered workflows, prompts, even chat logs, and it generates a high-quality skill. How did this project come about? It’s said to have been reverse-engineered from Anthropic’s leaked Claude Code source code, and then blended with best practices for skills from various models. Teacher Yao polished it for an entire month. To be honest, this is the most handy Meta Skill I’ve ever used; nothing else comes close. https://github.com/yaojingang/yao-meta-skill…

yaojingang/yao-meta-skill Source: https://github.com/yaojingang/yao-meta-skill # Yao Meta Skill CI (https://github.com/yaojingang/yao-meta-skill/actions/workflows/test.yml) License: MIT English 中文 日本語 Français Русский YAO stands for Yielding AI Outcomes: the goal is not to generate more prompt text, but to produce reusable AI assets and real operational outcomes. yao-meta-skill creates, evaluates, packages, and governs reusable agent skills. The 1.0 line focused on turning repeated workflows into installable, readable, cross-platform skill packages. The 2.0 line expands that factory into a Skill OS: a governed system for modeling a skill once, compiling it for multiple targets, testing its behavior, reviewing its release evidence, and tracking the next iteration. Quick Start · Skill OS 2.0 · 1.0 vs 2.0 · Operator UX · Benchmark · Examples · Evals · Failure Library · Method Doctrine ## Skill OS 2.0 Upgrade Skill OS 2.0 keeps the original promise of yao-meta-skill, but makes the package lifecycle more explicit. Instead of stopping at SKILL.md, it adds a semantic contract, target compilers, evaluation evidence, release gates, and operation reports around the skill. - Skill IR: a platform-neutral intermediate representation for intent, triggers, inputs, outputs, boundaries, references, and expected artifacts. - Target compilers and adapters: generated surfaces for OpenAI, Claude, generic agent skills, Agent Skills compatible packages, and VS Code-oriented workflows. - Output Eval Lab: trigger checks, output assertions, execution evidence, timing and token evidence, benchmark reproducibility, blind-review packs, answer keys, and adjudication reports. - Review Studio 2.0: a single HTML gate page for intent, triggers, output eval, context cost, runtime checks, trust, Skill Atlas signals, adoption drift, waivers, annotations, release evidence, warnings, blockers, and fix actions. - Evidence and release governance: evidence consistency checks, package verification, install simulation, runtime permission probes, world-class evidence intake, world-class ledger, operator runbook, and public claim guard. - SkillOps loop: metadata-only adoption drift, telemetry hooks, adaptive proposals, daily and weekly curator reports, and portfolio-level drift signals. Current posture: the repository is ready for beta and external testing, while stronger public “world-class” claims remain evidence-gated. Provider-backed production evidence, human blind-review evidence, native permission execution, and real-client telemetry are tracked as separate evidence tasks instead of being treated as completed work. See the companion artifacts: - Visual 1.0 vs 2.0 comparison report - Chinese desktop preview - English desktop preview ## From 1.0 to 2.0 | Dimension | 1.0 focus | 2.0 upgrade | | — | — | — | | Product role | Create, refactor, evaluate, and package reusable skills. | Govern the full lifecycle of a skill: creation, compilation, evaluation, review, release, telemetry, and iteration. | | Architecture | SKILL.md, agents/interface.yaml, manifest files, and report artifacts. | Skill IR, target compilers, adapters, gate contracts, evidence ledgers, release locks, and action-oriented review pages. | | Cross-platform delivery | OpenAI, Claude, and generic package targets. | Adds broader Agent Skills and VS Code-oriented compatibility, with registry-readable compatibility records. | | Quality model | Trigger and structure checks plus report-based review. | Output eval, benchmark reproducibility, execution evidence, failure disclosure, blind-review packs, and evidence consistency checks. | | Report experience | Overview HTML and first-pass review pages. | Bilingual Skill Overview v2, Review Studio 2.0, reviewer annotations, action cards, charts, and audit-oriented report contracts. | | Release boundary | Package output with basic validation. | Package verification, install simulation, runtime permission probes, release locks, public claim guard, and operator runbooks. | | Operating loop | Manual feedback and local iteration. | Adoption drift, metadata telemetry, SkillOps reports, adaptive proposals, and portfolio-level drift detection. | ## 2.0 Use Cases - Create a new skill from repeated work: start with a workflow note, prompt set, transcript, runbook, or document pattern, then generate a package with a lean entrypoint, explicit inputs and outputs, references, reports, and the lightest justified gates. - Upgrade a personal skill into a team asset: add interface contracts, manifests, target adapters, trust checks, output evals, reviewer waivers, release notes, and Review Studio evidence before other people depend on the skill. - Prepare a skill for beta release: run package verification, install simulation, compatibility checks, runtime permission probes, and evidence consistency checks, then separate beta readiness from stronger public claims. - Keep a skill useful after release: use metadata-only telemetry, adoption drift, feedback logs, SkillOps reports, and adaptive proposals to decide whether the next move should be documentation, an eval, a skill patch, or a governance update. - Compare with other meta-skill approaches: keep Anthropic/OpenAI-style conversational creation and lean instruction writing where they fit, then use yao-meta-skill when the package needs evidence, portability, release gates, and repeatable maintenance. ## Operator UX Commands These read-only helper commands turn common maintainer questions into repeatable diagnostics: bash python3 scripts/yao.py install-status --expected-source . python3 scripts/yao.py localized-doc-sync-check python3 scripts/yao.py pr-review-report 4 --repo yaojingang/yao-meta-skill - install-status explains whether the active skill is coming from .codex/skills, .agents/skills, or the disabled mirror, and flags duplicate active installs. - localized-doc-sync-check verifies that the Chinese README carries the public homepage sections that were added to the English README. - pr-review-report reads GitHub PR metadata, changed files, status checks, and suggested local commands without merging or mutating the PR. ## Capability Surface It turns rough workflows, transcripts, prompts, notes, and runbooks into reusable skill packages with: - a clear trigger surface - a lean SKILL.md - optional references, scripts, and evals - a front-loaded intent dialogue with an intent confidence gate, so the system keeps clarifying when the true job, outputs, exclusions, or standards are still fuzzy - a silent-by-default GitHub benchmark scan plus reference synthesis that studies top public repositories and world-class pattern tracks, then surfaces only real conflicts or uncertainty to the user - a generated visual HTML overview for each newly initialized skill - a Review Studio 2.0 HTML gate page that combines intent, trigger, output eval, context, runtime, trust, atlas, adoption drift, reviewer waivers, reviewer annotations, release evidence, and per-warning fix actions - a Skill OS 2.0 audit that maps each world-class requirement to current evidence, human-required gaps, and external-required gaps - a Skill OS 2.0 blueprint coverage report that maps the upgrade plan’s core modules and recommended PRs to concrete artifacts, commands, and tests - a world-class evidence plan that turns remaining provider, human, native-permission, and real-client telemetry gaps into executable evidence tasks - a world-class evidence ledger that records which external and human evidence is accepted or still pending without treating planned work as proof - a world-class evidence intake contract that validates external and human evidence packets for provenance, privacy, artifact refs, and anti-overclaim rules before ledger review - a redacted world-class preflight report that checks local files, environment readiness, human/external prerequisites, and source blockers before operators collect evidence - a world-class submission review queue that compares evidence packets, intake validation, source artifacts, and ledger state without accepting evidence - a world-class operator runbook that gives reviewers the exact commands, artifacts, and collection checklist needed to close remaining evidence gaps - a world-class claim guard that scans public claim surfaces and blocks premature completed/true claims while the evidence ledger still has pending external or human evidence - a benchmark reproducibility manifest that checks methodology sections, required artifacts, failure disclosure, and reproduction commands - an evidence consistency gate that compares generated reports against each other so benchmark, overview, interpretation, adoption, world-class ledger, coverage, and Review Studio facts do not drift silently - Output Eval Lab evidence with assertion grading, execution/timing/token evidence, a blind A/B review pack, a separate answer key, and reviewer adjudication reports - a runtime permission probe report that checks packaged target adapters for explicit permission metadata, native-enforcement flags, metadata fallback notes, and residual risks - a Python compatibility gate that catches supported-runtime syntax hazards before they reach GitHub Actions or packaged distribution - a side-by-side HTML review studio for first-pass human review - an artifact design profile that defines visual direction, layout patterns, and quality gates for reports, tutorials, dashboards, screenshots, and review pages - a prompt quality profile that abstracts need modeling, RTF mapping, complexity, and quality checks into reviewer-visible evidence instead of bloating SKILL.md - a systems-thinking model that maps boundaries, feedback loops, drift risks, recurring failure patterns, and highest-leverage quality moves - three high-value next iteration directions after the first package is created - a lightweight feedback log that does not require a full promotion cycle - a local-first metadata-only adoption and drift report that turns real usage signals into next iteration candidates, with optional yao.py CLI run capture, external client event emit hooks, hook recipes, and JSONL import that record command names and outcomes without arguments or raw content - an explicit-source adaptive proposal loop that summarizes redacted repeated user preferences and generates approval-gated adaptation proposals without scanning private logs or writing source files - a SkillOps opportunity scorer and decision policy that ranks redacted repeated signals, maps them to report-only, AGENTS update, existing-skill patch, or eval-addition actions, and keeps every durable write approval-gated - a weekly SkillOps curator report that aggregates daily opportunities, Skill Atlas portfolio signals, release lock state, and world-class evidence gaps into a proposal-only maintenance queue - a Browser/Chrome Native Messaging telemetry host that can receive length-prefixed metadata-only client events and generate a local launcher plus manifest without storing raw content - a Skill Atlas drift layer that reads aggregate adoption reports and surfaces portfolio-level drift signals without packaging raw telemetry logs - a baseline compare report for with-skill vs baseline review - a conversation-style, archetype-aware quickstart that steers new packages toward scaffold, production, library, or governed fits - Skill IR as the platform-neutral semantic contract, plus compiler reports and client-specific adapters - Registry audit metadata with package version, owner, license, checksum, and compatibility matrix - governance, promotion, and portability checks built into the default flow ## Architecture Hero view: Skill OS 2.0 turns messy operational input into a governed, reusable skill package through a model, compile, evaluate, release, and operate loop. mermaid flowchart LR A["Inputsworkflow / prompt / transcript / docs / notes"] --> B["Intent modeljob / outputs / exclusions / standards"] B --> C["Skill IRtrigger / contracts / resources / evidence"] C --> D["Skill packageSKILL.md / references / scripts / reports"] C --> E["Target compilersOpenAI / Claude / generic / Agent Skills / VS Code"] D --> F["Eval Labtrigger / output / benchmark / runtime"] E --> F F --> G["Review Studiogates / warnings / actions / waivers"] G --> H["Release boundarypackage verification / install simulation / claim guard"] H --> I["SkillOps loopfeedback / adoption drift / next iteration"] I --> B Read it in 10 seconds: - Inputs: start from rough operational material instead of a polished spec. - Intent model: make the job, outputs, exclusions, constraints, and standards explicit before generating files. - Skill IR: keep the semantic contract separate from any single platform format. - Package and compile: generate the lean skill package and the target-specific adapters from the same source model. - Evaluate and review: turn trigger behavior, output quality, runtime checks, and trust signals into reviewable evidence. - Release and operate: publish only within the current evidence boundary, then feed adoption drift and reviewer feedback into the next iteration. ## Weighted Quality Benchmark This benchmark is a project-level engineering review, scored from 0-10 per dimension and weighted to 100. GitHub stars are intentionally excluded because they measure ecosystem heat, not meta-skill engineering quality. The score is local engineering evidence, not a claim of world-class readiness. Public superiority claims still depend on accepted external and human evidence in the world-class ledger. Weighted score formula: sum(score / 10 * weight). | Meta Skill | Method Depth 15 | Context Discipline 10 | Toolchain 15 | Eval/Test Rigor 20 | Governance 15 | Portability 10 | Onboarding/Review 5 | Local Reliability 10 | Weighted Score | | — | —: | —: | —: | —: | —: | —: | —: | —: | —: | | Yao Meta Skill | 9.5 | 8.0 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 6.5 | 9.5 | 91.5 | | Anthropic Skill Creator | 9.0 | 6.5 | 8.5 | 7.5 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 7.5 | 5.0 | 67.5 | | OpenAI Skill Creator | 8.5 | 9.5 | 5.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 8.5 | 4.0 | 50.5 | | Rank | Meta Skill | Score | Core Positioning | | —: | — | —: | — | | 1 | Yao Meta Skill | 91.5 | A complete engineering, evaluation, governance, and portability system for reusable skills. | | 2 | Anthropic Skill Creator | 67.5 | Strong methodology and iteration loop, with weaker local execution reliability and governance coverage. | | 3 | OpenAI Skill Creator | 50.5 | Best treated as a concise skill-writing method guide rather than a full engineering system. | ## Human Blind A/B Review Snapshot On 2026-06-29, a single human reviewer compared yao-meta-skill with the bundled OpenAI skill-creator across five realistic skill-creation scenarios: support triage, revenue reconciliation, webinar repurposing, incident postmortems, and PR review follow-up. The reviewer confirmed decisions were completed before the answer key was opened. Result: yao-meta-skill was selected in 5/5 cases. Evidence: - Review entrypoint: [reports/blind-human-review-2026-06-29/index.html](reports/blind-human-review-20