Designing a skill like an app: a developer's iteration diary for interface-bts
round · x · 2026-10-29
Developer Nomandsign wrote a behind-the-scenes look at designing the interface-bts skill, arguing that skills are the apps of the agentic era — just written in markdown instead of code.
Key takeaways:
- A skill has two users: the human who types the install command, and the AI agent that reads the instructions. Making it work is easy; polishing what humans see is where the effort goes.
- Early versions used a ⌘-triggered overlay with annotations; after iterations the author settled on freezing animations mid-action and presenting them in a poster-like layout.
- First drafts explained ideas in 3x the necessary words; single-screen constraints forced careful, slop-free copywriting.
Includes screenshots of multiple iteration stages — a useful methodology reference for skill design.
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