Why agent skills need good descriptions

This article discusses the importance of writing clear and specific descriptions for agent skills used by AI coding agents. It explains that descriptions serve as selection metadata, helping agents decide whether to load a skill before reading detailed instructions. Vague descriptions like 'Helps with Azure' cause agents to skip useful skills or load irrelevant ones, leading to inconsistent behavior. The article provides patterns for effective descriptions, such as describing the trigger rather than just the topic, keeping descriptions aligned with the skill's purpose, and testing descriptions with real requests. It emphasizes that good descriptions improve task consistency and reduce the need for repeated guidance in prompts, especially as skill libraries grow.