DCC-MCP Skills Creator

A first-class meta-skill for creating, validating, and reviewing DCC-MCP skill packages. It bundles scaffold/validation tools together with agent-facing authoring guidance for SKILL.md, tools.yaml, scripts, groups, prompts, and progressive-loading taxonomy.

Use dcc-mcp-creator when the task is to create a full adapter repository for a host such as Nuke, Blender, 3ds Max, Unreal, ZBrush, Houdini, or Maya. Use this skill when the task is to create or improve the skill packages loaded by those adapters.

Installation

This skill ships with dcc-mcp-core. Add it to your skill path:

# Linux/macOS
export DCC_MCP_SKILL_PATHS="${DCC_MCP_SKILL_PATHS}:$(python -c 'import dcc_mcp_core; print(dcc_mcp_core.__file__)')/../skills"

# Windows
set DCC_MCP_SKILL_PATHS=%DCC_MCP_SKILL_PATHS%;C:\path\to\dcc-mcp-core\skills

Or reference it directly when starting your MCP server:

from dcc_mcp_core import create_skill_server, McpHttpConfig

server = create_skill_server(
    "maya",
    McpHttpConfig(port=8765),
    extra_paths=["/path/to/dcc-mcp-core/skills"],
)

Quick Start

Create a new skill

# Call the loaded MCP tool:
# dcc_mcp_skills_creator__create_skill(
#     name="maya-rigging",
#     parent_dir="/path/to/skills/dir",
#     dcc="maya",
#     tool_name="create_locator",
#     affinity="main",
# )

Validate an existing skill

from dcc_mcp_core import validate_skill

report = validate_skill("/path/to/my-skill")
if report.has_errors:
    for issue in report.issues:
        print(f"[{issue.severity}] {issue.category}: {issue.message}")
else:
    print("Skill is valid!")

Get a SKILL.md template

# Call the loaded MCP tool:
# dcc_mcp_skills_creator__skill_template()

Skill Directory Structure

my-skill/
|-- SKILL.md              # Required: metadata frontmatter + instructions
|-- tools.yaml            # Required when metadata.dcc-mcp.tools points here
|-- scripts/              # Optional: tool implementation scripts
|   `-- create_locator.py
`-- references/           # Optional: recipes, examples, and long-form docs
    |-- RECIPES.md
    `-- NOTES.md

Current Tool Contract

Generated tools.yaml entries follow the modern contract:

Local tool names are snake_case and client-safe. Do not use dotted names.
Loaded tools are published as <skill-name>__<tool_name> when namespacing is needed.
Skill package version metadata lives at metadata.dcc-mcp.version in SKILL.md; a top-level version key is rejected by the strict loader.
input_schema and output_schema are declared explicitly.
Keep MCP-facing input_schema shapes simple: prefer a top-level object with properties, required, primitive type, bounds, and descriptions. Put mutually exclusive forms, conditional requirements, and cross-field rules in the tool script or handler validation instead of anyOf, oneOf, allOf, not, if/then/else, or dependent-schema keywords.
execution is sync or async; use async for deferred/long-running work.
affinity is explicit. Use main for host API or scene mutation work and any for pure work.
enforce_thread_affinity: true is emitted so adapter dispatch stays honest.
annotations use MCP hints: read-only, destructive, idempotent, open-world, and deferred.
call_examples: optional list of ready-to-copy argument payloads. Each entry has arguments (JSON object matching input_schema.properties) and an optional note. Surfaced in describe responses at metadata.dcc.call_examples so agents can construct correct arguments on the first attempt.

Authoring Workflow

Decide whether the skill is infrastructure, domain, thin-harness, or example.
Give the skill a kebab-case name and each local tool a snake_case name.
Keep host API calls inside scripts, with lazy imports so discovery works without the host running.
Import dependency-light runtime helpers from dcc_mcp_core.skills_helper first: JSON/YAML codecs, bounded HTTP helpers, safe file/path helpers, validation, cancellation checks, and result helpers.
Declare execution, affinity, timeout_hint_secs, schemas, annotations, and failure recovery chains in tools.yaml. For high-frequency tools, add call_examples so agents can copy argument payloads without trial-and-error.
Put long examples, recipes, and host-specific notes under references/.
Validate with validate_skill_dir or dcc_mcp_core.validate_skill() before loading it in an adapter.
If the desired behavior requires parsing core internals or adapter-private YAML at runtime, stop and request a core API instead.

When reviewing existing skills, reject top-level DCC-MCP extension keys such as dcc, version, tags, tools, groups, depends, search-hint, runtimes, prompts, and resources. Move them under metadata.dcc-mcp.*; for version metadata, use metadata.dcc-mcp.version: "1.0.0". Validate the installable skill directory that contains the SKILL.md loaded by adapters, not only mirrored repository docs or marketplace metadata.

Read AUTHORING_WORKFLOW.md and DCC_TOOL_CONTRACTS.md before changing a production skill package.

Gateway-Facing Tag Taxonomy

Gateway search treats tags as a narrowing filter. Use a small shared vocabulary so pipeline, production-tracking, and documentation connectors rank and filter consistently across hosts. When authoring SKILL.md frontmatter, include the appropriate tags under metadata.dcc-mcp.tags:

| Tag | Use for | |-----|---------| | pipeline | Studio pipeline systems, publish/intake/review automation, and production data hand-offs. | | production-tracking | Shot/asset/task/status tracking systems regardless of vendor. | | shotgrid | Autodesk Flow Production Tracking / ShotGrid-specific tools. | | ftrack | ftrack-specific tools. | | docs | Documentation, product help, reference lookup, and guide resources. | | read-only | Discovery/read operations. Also set MCP readOnlyHint (annotations.read_only_hint: true in tools.yaml); the tag is for search, not policy. | | destructive | Mutating or irreversible operations. Also set MCP destructiveHint (annotations.destructive_hint: true in tools.yaml); the tag is for search, not policy. |

Filter semantics:

dcc_type (singular) + dcc_types[] — OR: a result matching any listed DCC family passes. Include dcc_type: "maya" with dcc_types: ["blender"] to match records from either host in one request.
tags[] — AND: a result must carry every listed tag. Use pipeline + production-tracking to narrow to records that carry both.
tags_any[] — OR: a result carrying any listed tag passes. Combines with the AND filter above: tags: ["pipeline"] + tags_any: ["read-only", "docs"] returns pipeline records that are read-only OR documentation.

Vendor tags can be added when they sharpen routing without replacing the canonical tags. For example, Autodesk Product Help should use docs, read-only, and the vendor tag autodesk. Do not add docs to a production-tracking search unless the user explicitly asks for help or reference material.

Skill SKILL.md example (frontmatter excerpt):

metadata:
  dcc-mcp:
    dcc: shotgrid
    layer: domain
    tags: [pipeline, production-tracking, shotgrid]
    search-hint: "ShotGrid task status, find shots, update task assignments"
    tools: tools.yaml

# Read-only docs connector (SKILL.md excerpt)
metadata:
  dcc-mcp:
    dcc: autodesk-help
    layer: infrastructure
    tags: [docs, autodesk, read-only, infrastructure]
    search-hint: "Autodesk Product Help, Maya help, 3ds Max help, API reference"
    tools: tools.yaml

Individual read tools should also carry read-only in their tool-level tags; mutating publish/update tools should carry destructive when applicable.

Validation Rules

The validator checks:

SKILL.md exists and is readable
YAML frontmatter is well-formed
Required fields: name, description
Name format: kebab-case, <=64 chars, matches directory name
Field lengths: description <=1024, compatibility <=500
Tool declarations: non-empty names, no duplicates, snake_case client-safe format
Script files: source_file references exist in scripts/
Sidecar files: metadata.dcc-mcp.tools/groups/prompts references exist
Dependencies: metadata.dcc-mcp.depends consistency
Spec compliance: non-standard top-level keys are frontmatter errors; dcc-mcp-core extensions must live under metadata.dcc-mcp.* and point to sibling files
Version metadata: metadata.dcc-mcp.version is accepted and projected to SkillMetadata.version; top-level version fails with an actionable migration hint
Skill helper adoption: validate_skill_dir emits skill-helper-adoption warnings when scripts import avoidable dependencies covered by dcc_mcp_core.skills_helper, such as requests, httpx, PyYAML, or local JSON/HTTP/file/path helper modules