# Compress Skills

> Compress one or more SKILL.md files so they consume less context on load while preserving 100% of their value — same triggers, capabilities, guardrails, thresholds, and output. Use when the user says 'compress this skill', 'optimize skills for context', 'make skills use less context', 'slim down the skills', 'reduce skill token usage', 'shrink SKILL.md', or wants a skill or whole skill suite trim…

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-therapys-dotagents-compress-skills`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [therapys](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/therapys)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [therapys](https://github.com/therapys)
- **Source:** https://github.com/therapys/dotagents/tree/main/skills/compress-skills

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-therapys-dotagents-compress-skills
```

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

## About

# Compress Skills

Shrink the tokens a skill costs when loaded, with zero loss of value: every trigger, step, guardrail, tool name, threshold, and output spec survives. This is **compression, not redesign** — never add features or change behavior.

## How skills spend context (optimize the right layer)

- **Frontmatter `description`** — loads into *every* session; drives auto-invocation. Keep all trigger phrases/keywords/scenarios. You may tighten wording, never drop a trigger. Editing it is high-risk; touch it last and least.
- **SKILL.md body** — loads on every invocation. **Primary target.**
- **Reference files** (`references/*.md`, `REFERENCE.md`, recipes) — load only when opened. Move occasionally-needed detail here to shrink the mandatory body.

## Process

1. **Scope.** List the target skills. `wc -c` each file for a baseline. Skip files gitignored as private unless the user names them. Skip already-minimal files ( ~30% to confirm no capability was dropped.

## Guardrails

- **Triggers are sacred.** A dropped trigger phrase silently breaks discovery. Diff descriptions to prove they're intact.
- **Don't touch protected literals** — code, HogQL/SQL, CSS/color/radius/shader values, exact commands/flags/paths stay byte-for-byte.
- **Leave already-tight files alone.** Trimming a 500 B skill risks value for no real saving.
- **Respect `.gitignore`.** Private, local-only skills stay untouched unless the user names them.
- **Report honestly.** Give per-file numbers, flag anything uncertain, and don't inflate the reduction.

## Report format

Per file: `: B → B (−XX%)`, a TOTAL line, 3–6 bullets on what was cut/moved and why value survives, and a RISK line. A shareable summary (e.g. display.dev) is optional — only when asked.

## Source & license

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

- **Author:** [therapys](https://github.com/therapys)
- **Source:** [therapys/dotagents](https://github.com/therapys/dotagents)
- **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-therapys-dotagents-compress-skills
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/therapys
- 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%.