agent-skill-creator/references/templates-guide.md

Template-Based Creation System

Overview

The template-based creation system accelerates skill creation by providing pre-built scaffolds for common domains. Instead of starting from Phase 1 (Discovery) with a blank slate, templates provide a curated starting point with known-good APIs, proven analysis patterns, and tested configurations. The 5-phase pipeline still runs, but Phase 1 and Phase 2 are pre-populated with vetted decisions.

Available Templates

Financial Analysis

Template ID: financial-analysis Target domain: Stock market, portfolio analysis, economic indicators

Component	Details
Primary API	Alpha Vantage (free tier, 500 requests/day)
Secondary API	Yahoo Finance via yfinance (unofficial, unlimited)
Pre-built analyses	Technical indicators (RSI, MACD, SMA), price trends, volume analysis, sector comparison
Output formats	Tabular summaries, time-series data, PDF reports
Authentication	API key via environment variable ALPHA_VANTAGE_KEY

Pre-configured scripts:

• scripts/fetch_market_data.py -- OHLCV data retrieval with rate limiting
• scripts/analyze_technicals.py -- RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands calculations
• scripts/generate_report.py -- PDF/HTML report generation

Climate Analysis

Template ID: climate-analysis Target domain: Weather patterns, historical climate data, forecasting

Component	Details
Primary API	Open-Meteo (free, no API key, 10,000 requests/day)
Secondary API	NOAA Climate Data Online (free, API key, 1,000 requests/day)
Pre-built analyses	Temperature trends, precipitation patterns, extreme events, historical comparisons
Output formats	Time-series data, geographic summaries, PDF reports
Authentication	Open-Meteo: none. NOAA: API key via NOAA_API_KEY

Pre-configured scripts:

• scripts/fetch_climate_data.py -- Multi-source data retrieval with caching
• scripts/analyze_trends.py -- Statistical trend analysis and anomaly detection
• scripts/generate_report.py -- Climate summary report generation

E-commerce Analytics

Template ID: ecommerce-analytics Target domain: Sales tracking, customer behavior, revenue analysis

Component	Details
Primary API	Google Analytics Data API (free tier)
Secondary APIs	Stripe API (transaction data), Shopify Admin API (store data)
Pre-built analyses	Revenue trends, conversion funnels, customer segmentation, product performance
Output formats	Dashboard data, CSV exports, PDF reports
Authentication	OAuth2 (Google), API key (Stripe/Shopify)

Pre-configured scripts:

• scripts/fetch_analytics.py -- Multi-platform data aggregation
• scripts/analyze_sales.py -- Revenue, conversion, and cohort analysis
• scripts/generate_dashboard.py -- HTML dashboard and PDF report

Template Matching Process

When a user describes their workflow, the system matches it to the best template through a two-step process.

Step 1: Keyword Extraction

The system extracts domain-relevant keywords from the user's request:

User: "I need to analyze stock performance and generate weekly reports"

Extracted keywords:
  - Domain: ["stock", "performance", "reports"]
  - Actions: ["analyze", "generate"]
  - Frequency: ["weekly"]
  - Implied domain: finance

Step 2: Similarity Scoring

Each template is scored against the extracted keywords:

Template	Keyword Match	Domain Match	Action Match	Total Score
Financial Analysis	3/3	1.0	0.9	0.95
Climate Analysis	0/3	0.0	0.4	0.10
E-commerce Analytics	1/3	0.2	0.6	0.30

Selection threshold: A template is suggested when its score exceeds 0.70. Below that threshold, the system falls back to the standard 5-phase pipeline with full discovery.

Template Usage

Direct Request

Explicitly ask for a template:

User: "Create a financial analysis skill using the financial template"

Result: System loads the financial-analysis template, pre-populates
Phase 1 (Alpha Vantage + Yahoo Finance) and Phase 2 (technical
indicators), then proceeds through Phases 3-5.

Auto-Detection

Describe your workflow and let the system match:

User: "Every week I check weather trends for the Pacific Northwest
       and compare them to historical averages"

Result: System detects climate-analysis template (score: 0.92),
confirms with user, then proceeds with Open-Meteo + NOAA as
pre-selected data sources.

Customization After Selection

Templates are starting points, not rigid constraints. After selection, the user can customize any aspect:

User: "Use the financial template but replace Alpha Vantage with
       IEX Cloud and add cryptocurrency support"

Result: System loads financial-analysis template, swaps the primary
API to IEX Cloud, adds crypto endpoints to Phase 2 design, then
proceeds through Phases 3-5 with the modifications.

Creating Custom Templates

Custom templates follow the same structure as built-in ones. Place them in references/templates/custom/.

Template File Structure

references/templates/custom/
└── my-template/
    ├── template.json        # Template definition
    ├── phase1-config.md     # Pre-populated Discovery decisions
    ├── phase2-config.md     # Pre-populated Design decisions
    └── scripts/             # Starter scripts (optional)
        └── fetch_data.py

Template Definition (template.json)

{
  "id": "my-custom-template",
  "name": "My Custom Template",
  "domain": "logistics",
  "keywords": ["shipping", "tracking", "delivery", "freight", "supply chain"],
  "apis": [
    {
      "name": "ShipEngine",
      "url": "https://www.shipengine.com/docs/",
      "auth": "api_key",
      "free_tier": true,
      "rate_limit": "500/day"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": [
    "shipment_tracking",
    "delivery_performance",
    "cost_optimization",
    "route_analysis"
  ],
  "output_formats": ["tabular", "pdf", "csv"]
}

Registering the Template

After creating the template files, register it by adding an entry to references/templates/registry.json:

{
  "templates": [
    {"id": "financial-analysis", "path": "references/templates/financial/", "builtin": true},
    {"id": "climate-analysis", "path": "references/templates/climate/", "builtin": true},
    {"id": "ecommerce-analytics", "path": "references/templates/ecommerce/", "builtin": true},
    {"id": "my-custom-template", "path": "references/templates/custom/my-template/", "builtin": false}
  ]
}

Template Best Practices

1. Include at least 10 keywords to ensure reliable matching during auto-detection.
2. Document API quirks in phase1-config.md so the pipeline does not rediscover known gotchas.
3. Provide working starter scripts when possible -- this accelerates Phase 5 significantly.
4. Test the template by running a full creation cycle and verifying the output passes validation.
5. Keep APIs current -- review rate limits and endpoints periodically, since free tiers change.

Template vs. Full Pipeline

Scenario	Recommended Approach
Domain matches a built-in template	Use template (saves 30-50% of creation time)
Domain is adjacent to a template	Use template with customization
Entirely new domain	Full 5-phase pipeline from scratch
User explicitly requests no template	Full 5-phase pipeline
User provides a transcript of their workflow	Full pipeline with transcript processing

Templates are an optimization, not a replacement. The 5-phase pipeline always runs. Templates simply pre-populate the early phases with proven decisions.