How do you use custom commands in an AI coding tool?
Custom commands keep you from rewriting the same prompts in your AI coding tool. When well scoped, they become reliable shortcuts, and when one becomes strategic, it deserves to become a documented skill.
Key takeaways
- A custom command launches a reusable instruction from your AI coding tool.
- A skill goes further: a documented, classified method that is ready to install.
- A good command stays short, clearly named, and verifiable.
- A command that becomes strategic deserves to be turned into a skill.
Custom command, skill, or specialized assistant?
A custom command is often the simplest format: a file that describes an action your AI coding tool can run again. A skill is a more refined method, documented, categorized, and easy to share. A specialized assistant is better suited to an autonomous mission with a complete role.
The right choice depends on complexity. To summarize a diff, a short command is enough. To audit an SEO page with a checklist, internal linking, and structured data, a detailed skill is more appropriate. To manage an entire mission, a specialized assistant becomes relevant.
What are useful examples of everyday commands?
The most useful commands cover repeated tasks such as reviewing a pull request, generating tests, explaining an error, summarizing documentation, preparing a release, or auditing a page before publication.
Each command should state the expected output, such as a review report, a list of tests to add, bug hypotheses, a remediation plan, or a summary ready to share.
- Clear file name.
- One main action per command.
- Explicit verification steps.
- No overly broad promise such as optimizing the entire project.
What common mistakes should you avoid?
The first mistake is creating commands that are too generic. A command called improve-project is likely to produce vague results. A command called review-security-diff is much easier to verify.
The second mistake is accumulating without cleaning up. A command library should read like living documentation: duplicates are removed, names improve, and risky instructions are taken out.
How do you connect your commands to a skills strategy?
If a command is used often and produces good results, it deserves to become a documented skill. You can then categorize it, share it, add it to a collection, and install it more cleanly in other projects.
That is the whole value of a catalog: moving from isolated files to an understandable library, with categories, descriptions, sources, and usage recommendations.
Here are two well-structured skills you can use as inspiration for your own commands:
Editorial Review
Custom commands are powerful when they stay specific. As soon as a command becomes strategic, it should be documented as a skill and integrated into a collection.
Frequently asked questions about custom commands
Where should you place a custom command?
In most projects, it belongs in the repository's commands folder as a file. Always check your tool and project conventions before adding a file.
What is the difference between a command and a skill?
The command is the invocation mechanism. The skill is a more refined reusable method, with context, steps, and checks, ready to classify and share.
How many commands should you keep?
Keep only the commands you use regularly. A small, clear library is better than a long list no one maintains.
When should you turn a command into a skill?
As soon as a command is used often, produces good results, and deserves to be shared. Turning it into a skill gives it documentation, a category, and a clean installation path in other projects.
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