# Quiz 1: Understanding Skills and the Specification

Test your understanding of skills and the Agent Skills Specification. Answer the following questions to check your knowledge before moving forward.

## Question 1: What is a skill?

<Question
choices={[
  {
    text: "A skill is a long prompt you paste into every conversation",
    explain: "Not quite. While skills contain similar information to detailed prompts, they're structured and reusable. The key difference is that skills work across projects and teams automatically.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "A skill is a reusable package of knowledge (instructions, scripts, and references) that makes agents expert at a specific task",
    explain: "Correct! Skills are portable, structured packages that include instructions, helper scripts, documentation, and metadata—all designed to make agents reliable at completing specific tasks.",
    correct: true
  },
  {
    text: "A skill is a feature only available in Claude Code",
    explain: "No, skills are supported by many agents including Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and others. The Agent Skills Specification is an open standard.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "A skill is a Python package you install with pip",
    explain: "No, skills are not Python packages. However, skills can contain Python scripts in their scripts/ directory, and they can live in normal project or team directories.",
    correct: false
  }
]}
/>

## Question 2: What does the Agent Skills Specification define?

<Question
choices={[
  {
    text: "The best practices for writing Python code in helper scripts",
    explain: "Not quite. While the spec does cover script storage, it doesn't define Python best practices. The spec focuses on the overall skill structure and metadata format.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Requirements for one hosting or distribution platform only",
    explain: "No, the Agent Skills Specification is agent-agnostic and applies across all platforms (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, etc.). It is not tied to one distribution method.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Guidelines for writing instruction text in skills",
    explain: "The spec covers some guidance, but it's primarily about the overall structure (directories, metadata, file names) rather than the instruction content itself.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "A standard format for packaging agent knowledge, including directory structure, metadata fields, and how agents discover and load skills",
    explain: "Correct! The Agent Skills Specification (at agentskills.io) defines the portable format that allows skills to work across different agents and platforms.",
    correct: true
  }
]}
/>

## Question 3: What are the required frontmatter fields in a SKILL.md file?

<Question
choices={[
  {
    text: "name, description, version, and author",
    explain: "While version and author are useful metadata, they're optional. Only 'name' and 'description' are required by the specification.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Any metadata the creator wants to include",
    explain: "Not quite. The spec defines specific required fields (name and description) to ensure compatibility and discoverability. Without these, agents can't properly identify and load the skill.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "name and description",
    explain: "Correct! The Agent Skills Specification requires two fields: 'name' (the identifier for the skill) and 'description' (what the skill does and when to use it). Other fields like license, compatibility, and metadata are optional.",
    correct: true
  },
  {
    text: "There is no required frontmatter—skills can be just Markdown files",
    explain: "No, frontmatter is essential. It provides metadata that agents use to discover and load skills automatically. Without it, skills won't be recognized by compliant agents.",
    correct: false
  }
]}
/>

## Question 4: How do agents discover and load skills?

<Question
choices={[
  {
    text: "Agents automatically load all available skills into context at startup",
    explain: "No, that would be inefficient. Agents use progressive disclosure: they load only skill metadata initially, then activate full skills when the task matches.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Agents read skill metadata to decide if the skill applies, then load the full SKILL.md only when needed—this is called 'progressive disclosure'",
    explain: "Correct! The discovery process is progressive: agents first check metadata (~100 tokens), then load full skill content only when the task matches. This keeps agent startup fast.",
    correct: true
  },
  {
    text: "Users must manually activate skills by typing a command like '/skill dataset-publishing'",
    explain: "While some agents support manual activation, the primary design is automatic discovery. Agents analyze the user's request and load relevant skills on their own.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Skills are only available if installed via npm or pip",
    explain: "No, skills can be discovered from multiple sources: local directories, shared repositories, community registries, or custom paths. The Agent Skills Specification supports many discovery mechanisms.",
    correct: false
  }
]}
/>

## Question 5: How many agents support the Agent Skills Specification?

<Question
choices={[
  {
    text: "Only Claude Code and Codex",
    explain: "No, while Claude Code and Codex are major supporters, the spec is adopted by many agents including OpenCode and other commercial tools.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Only agents developed by Anthropic",
    explain: "No, the spec is open and platform-agnostic. It was originally created by Anthropic but is now maintained as an open standard and adopted by many organizations.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Only agents from a single vendor or registry",
    explain: "No, skills can be used with agents available anywhere. Agents can load skills from local directories, team repositories, or other registries as long as they support the spec.",
    correct: false
  },
  {
    text: "Many agents, including Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and others",
    explain: "Correct! The Agent Skills Specification is an open standard adopted by many agents. This means a single skill works across multiple platforms.",
    correct: true
  }
]}
/>

---

## Scoring

Count your correct answers:
- **5/5**: Excellent! You have a solid understanding of skills and the specification. Move on to the next lesson.
- **4/5**: Good understanding. Review the questions you missed and reread those sections.
- **3/5 or less**: Consider reviewing the "What Are Skills" and "Skill Format" lessons before continuing.

Ready to learn how to use skills with different agents? Let's move on to the next lesson.