Skills: explain a job to Claude once

How Claude picks the right skill

Here's the clever bit. Every skill has a one-line description. Claude reads the descriptions, and only opens a skill's full instructions when the job in front of it matches. So you can have hundreds of skills, and it only ever picks up the one it actually needs.

You can also run one yourself. In Claude Code, type / followed by the skill's name.

Three ways to make one

1. Ask Claude to build it

   Tell Claude you want a skill for a repeatable task. Describe the job, paste an example you were happy with, and it writes the skill for you.

   Start a skillCopy

   I want to make a skill for a job I do every week: [the job]. Here's an example of it done the way I like: [paste it]. Ask me anything you need to know, then write the skill, including a description that says what it does and when to use it.

2. Get it right first, then save it

   Work through the task with Claude in a normal chat until it comes out exactly right. Then ask it to turn what it just did into a skill, so next time it gets it right first go.

   Turn this chat into a skillCopy

   That's exactly how I want this done. Turn everything we worked out in this chat into a skill so you do it this way every time.

3. Let it watch you

   Claude can record your screen while you do the job, watching what you click and type, and turn that into a skill. This is called Record a skill. It's on the Mac app, on Pro, Max and Team plans.

To add a skill you've downloaded, check Settings → Capabilities has code execution on, then go to Customize → Skills → + → Create skill → Upload a skill.

They're not stuck in one place

Skills don't just live in one folder or one project. Once you've added one, it works in any chat and any project where it's needed. Write it once, and it follows you everywhere.

My writing-style skill

This is the one I use most. It stops Claude writing like a robot: no em dashes, none of the words that give AI away (delve, leverage, seamless), and a check Claude runs on its own writing before handing anything over. This is a cut-down version, ready to upload as-is.

Download the writing-style skill (.zip)

What you need

1. Any Claude plan, Free included.
2. Code execution switched on (Settings → Capabilities).

Where this goes

Skills and projects sound like the same thing. They're not. Day 21 is how to tell them apart.