What "Tools" This Requires

Module 3 · Section 5 of 7

What “Tools” This Requires

Skills that edit need Read and Edit (or Write) in their tool declaration. Without Read, the skill can’t see the file content to work on. Without Edit or Write, it can’t apply changes.

This is why editors require the agent form factor. A pure skill — no tools declared — can only shape text Claude already has in context. To work on files on disk, you need tool access.

Here’s how writing-quality is declared:

---
name: writing-quality
tools: [Read, Edit, Write]
---

That’s the minimal declaration for a skill that opens files and writes changes back.