# Template Design

> Creating reusable, parameterised prompt templates for consistent outputs.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-template-design`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [Owl-Listener](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/owl-listener)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [Owl-Listener](https://github.com/Owl-Listener)
- **Source:** https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/claude-plugin/prompt-architecture/skills/template-design

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-template-design
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Template Design
A prompt template is a reusable prompt structure with variable slots that get filled at runtime. Templates create consistency across similar tasks and make prompt management scalable.
## Template Anatomy
A template has:
- **Fixed text**: The parts that stay the same every time (instructions, format, role)
- **Variables**: Slots that get filled with specific content (user input, retrieved data, configuration)
- **Conditional sections**: Parts that appear or disappear based on context
- **Default values**: What fills a variable if no specific value is provided
## Designing Variables
Each variable should be:
- **Named clearly**: `{user_query}` not `{input1}`
- **Typed**: Is it free text, a selection from options, a number, a boolean?
- **Bounded**: What are valid values? What's the maximum length?
- **Documented**: What is this variable for? Where does its value come from?
- **Defaulted**: What happens if the value is missing?
## Template Patterns
- **Task template**: A template for a specific type of task. Variables capture the task-specific details while instructions remain constant.
- **Persona template**: A template where the persona is variable but the task structure is fixed. Useful for multi-persona products.
- **Format template**: A template where the output format is variable but the analysis approach is fixed.
- **Escalation template**: A base template with additional sections that activate at higher complexity levels.
## Template Composition
Complex prompts can be built from smaller templates:
- **Base template**: Core instructions that apply to everything
- **Task overlay**: Task-specific instructions layered on top
- **Context injection**: Retrieved information inserted at a specific point
- **User preferences**: Personal settings that modify behavior
## Template Quality Criteria
- **Consistency**: The template produces reliably similar outputs for similar inputs
- **Flexibility**: The variables allow enough variation for diverse use cases
- **Clarity**: The template is easy to read, maintain, and modify
- **Testability**: You can verify the template works with a standard set of test inputs
- **Maintainability**: Changes to one part don't break other parts
## Design Artefacts
- Template library with documentation
- Variable specifications per template
- Test input sets for each template
- Template versioning and change log
- Composition rules for combining templates

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [Owl-Listener](https://github.com/Owl-Listener)
- **Source:** [Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills](https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-template-design
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/owl-listener
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.