Why this session exists
Sessions 1-2 made you good at asking. But you're still re-explaining the same standards every time: how we format the weekly report, what our QA checklist covers, how a client email should sound. A skill packages that knowledge once - and Claude pulls it in automatically whenever the task matches. This is the session where your team's expertise becomes infrastructure.
What a skill actually is 8 min live
A skill is a folder with instructions inside. That's genuinely it - no code required. The cleverness is in when Claude reads it.
LiveAnatomy: a folder, a SKILL.md, and a trigger3 min▶
Two parts matter:
- The description (in the frontmatter) tells Claude WHEN this skill applies - it's read all the time, so it must name the trigger words and situations precisely. Weak description = skill never fires. This is the #1 troubleshooting lesson.
- The body holds the HOW - your steps, format, tone, rules, examples. It loads only when needed, which keeps Claude fast and context-efficient even with dozens of skills installed.
- Optional extras: a
references/folder for templates and examples,scripts/for code Claude can run. Multi-file skills split detail out so the main file stays lean.
LiveSkill vs prompt vs project vs subagent - which tool when3 min▶
Session 1 gave you prompts, Session 2 gave you projects. Here's the full decision map - this covers the official course's "skills vs other features" lesson:
| You have... | Use | Because |
|---|---|---|
| A one-off task | A 4D prompt | No reuse, no setup - just describe well |
| A domain you work in daily (team, client, product) | A project | Standing knowledge + instructions for a WHOLE area |
| A repeatable PROCEDURE with rules and a format | A skill | Auto-applies whenever the task matches, works across chats and projects |
| A big task needing isolated, parallel work (engineers) | A subagent | Separate context window, returns a summary - Session 6 |
The tell that you need a skill: you catch yourself pasting the same instructions for the third time, or a teammate's output doesn't match yours because they didn't know rule #4. The weekly report, the campaign brief format, the data QA checklist, the client-email tone rules - each is a skill waiting to be written.
LiveWhat makes a GOOD skill candidate2 min▶
- Repeatable: happens weekly or more, or across many people.
- Rule-based: you can write down what "done right" means - format, sections, tone, checks.
- Currently inconsistent: different people produce different quality - the skill IS the standard.
- Bad candidates: one-offs, pure judgment calls ("should we enter this market?"), anything whose rules change weekly.
SOP in, skill out 5 min live
The method is a pipeline: pick, draft, test, tighten, share. You'll run the whole thing in Demo 1.
LiveDraft it WITH Claude - the converter prompt2 min▶
You don't write the SKILL.md by hand - you paste your SOP into this converter and review what comes back. (There's also an official skill-creator skill that interviews you interactively; the converter below works everywhere, today.)
A marketing team's "campaign wrap-up report" SOP was 14 bullet points in Confluence that nobody followed exactly. Twenty minutes of converter + testing later: a skill that produces the same 6-section wrap-up from any campaign's raw numbers. The intern's report now matches the director's - that's the point.
Self-studyTesting and troubleshooting - why skills don't fire2 min read▶
The official course dedicates a lesson to this, because everyone hits it. The failure ladder, in order of likelihood:
- Vague description. "Helps with reports" fires never; "when the user asks for the weekly performance report, a campaign wrap-up, or says 'run the report skill'" fires reliably. Name the trigger words.
- Trigger overlap. Two skills with similar descriptions compete - make each description name what it does NOT cover.
- Bloated body. A 600-line SKILL.md gets skimmed. Keep the body lean; push templates into
references/. - Wrong tool. If it should apply to EVERYTHING in a domain, you wanted project instructions, not a skill.
Self-studyMulti-file skills and sharing them with the team2 min read▶
- Multi-file structure:
SKILL.mdstays the lean brain;references/report-template.mdholds the full template;references/examples.mdholds 2-3 gold-standard outputs;scripts/holds anything executable (engineers). Claude loads extras only when the task needs them. - Sharing: on Claude.ai/Teams, skills can be shared to the workspace so the whole team gets the same standard; in Claude Code, commit the skill folder to the repo (
.claude/skills/) and everyone who clones has it. Plugins bundle several skills for distribution. - Versioning: treat skills like documents with owners - when the SOP changes, the skill changes, one place, everyone updated. That's the governance win over tribal knowledge.
- Validating third-party skills: read the SKILL.md before installing (it's just text), check what scripts it runs, prefer official or well-starred sources - the same Diligence habit as ever.
The skill shelf: install these first 5 min live
Before building, shop. The ecosystem already has polished skills for the boring-but-critical stuff.
LiveThe starter shelf - official and battle-tested3 min▶
| Skill / pack | What it gives you | Who needs it |
|---|---|---|
| docx · pptx · xlsx · pdf (official, anthropics/skills) | Proper Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF creation and editing - real files, correct formatting | Everyone |
| skill-creator (official) | Interviews you and builds new skills - the meta-skill | Everyone building skills |
| theme-factory (official) | Consistent visual themes across generated docs and pages | Marketing, anyone shipping visuals |
| marketing-skills pack (community, ~34k★) | Copywriting, ads, SEO, emails, launch playbooks - dozens of focused skills | Marketing & branding (Session 4 uses these) |
| awesome-claude-skills lists (community) | Curated indexes of hundreds of community skills - shop here before building | Everyone, quarterly browse |
LiveKOL skills - borrowing an expert's brain2 min▶
The most underrated genre: skills that encode a known expert's METHOD, not a company procedure. The pattern is called a KOL (key opinion leader) skill - you write down how a master works, and Claude applies that discipline to your material.
The same pattern works for any master you study: an Ogilvy-style ad-critique skill, a Tufte-style chart-review skill, a Buffett-style annual-letter summarizer. Write the method once, apply it forever - and yes, this is exactly how you'd package YOUR OWN expertise for the team as you become the in-house KOL.
Turn YOUR SOP into a working skill ★ 15 min · everyone builds
Bring a real procedure - the weekly report, the QA checklist, the client-email rules. By the end it's a tested skill.
Write your SOP as 5-10 rough bullets if it isn't written down already (3 quiet minutes - "how I actually do the Friday report").
Run the converter prompt (Part 2) with your SOP pasted in. Read the draft SKILL.md it returns - check the description names YOUR trigger phrases.
Answer the flags: the converter lists ambiguities it found in your SOP - resolving them now is free; resolving them after three bad reports is not.
Install it: Claude.ai → Settings → Capabilities → Skills → create/upload your skill (in Claude Code: save the folder under .claude/skills/).
Run the test protocol: one obvious task, one sideways-phrased task, one should-not-trigger task. Tighten the description until all three behave.
Victory lap: run your real task for this week with the skill live. Compare it with last week's manual version.
Install from the shelf and run it ★ 7 min · everyone installs
Prove to yourself the ecosystem works: install one official skill and use it in anger.
Pick your poison: pptx if you make decks, xlsx if you live in spreadsheets, docx for documents.
Install it from the skills directory (Claude.ai → Settings → Capabilities → Skills → browse; engineers: anthropics/skills on GitHub).
Run a real job: "Create a 5-slide deck summarizing [this week's real topic] - our template style: title, 3 content slides, next steps." Watch it produce an actual .pptx.
Notice what you did NOT do: explain PowerPoint mechanics. The skill carried the how; you supplied the what. That division of labor is the whole session in one sentence.
This week ◐ 30 min total
- Ship your skill to one teammate and have them run it cold. Their confusion is your description's bug list.
- Convert a second SOP - the second one takes a third of the time, and that's when the habit sticks.
- Team leads: list your team's top 5 SOPs in a doc, mark which are skill candidates (repeatable + rule-based), and assign owners. That list is your team's skill roadmap.
- Browse the shelf for 10 minutes: anthropics/skills and an awesome-claude-skills list. Install at most two - hoarding skills you don't use is the new hoarding browser tabs.
- Stuck? Ask Claude: "My skill isn't triggering when I say X - here's my SKILL.md, diagnose the description." Then #learn-claude, then next session's Q&A.
Official courses covered
This session teaches the complete working content of the official skills course from claude.com/resources/courses.
Three questions before you go 🎯 ◐ 90 seconds
1 · Your skill never fires when you ask for the weekly report. First suspect?
The description is the doorbell. "Helps with reports" fires never; naming the exact phrases and task types fires reliably.
2 · You want Claude to know your team, product, and glossary in EVERY conversation. That's a job for...
Domain-wide context = project. A skill is for a repeatable PROCEDURE with rules and a format. Different tools, different jobs.
3 · Which of these is the best skill candidate?
Repeatable + rule-based + currently inconsistent - the skill IS the standard. Judgment calls and one-offs stay human work.