What would a new colleague need to know?
A Skill is what you'd write down for a new colleague who has to do this job alone on Monday.
In lesson 1 you picked a task to hand over:
Good ones are mostly writing or following rules: replies to the same kinds of customer email, the weekly stock summary, the layout of meeting notes. It can be the task above or a close relative. Using the practice kit? Write "Replies to customers".
Those mistakes become the rules in your Skill. Think of the things you correct every time: the tone, the order, what to leave out, who to ask when it's not clear.
How does Claude use a Skill?
Guess first. The answers shape how you write the Skill in the Do part.
Show the answer
A short description of each, then the full text of the one that matches. Claude always has each Skill's name and description. When your request fits a description, it reads that Skill's instructions. Anything else in the Skill's folder is read only if those instructions point to it.
That's why ten Skills cost little, and why the description is the most important thing you write. A vague description means Claude doesn't notice the Skill. Naming the Skill in your request also works, and is the quickest fix when Claude skips one.
Show the answer
Only you. A Skill you upload goes into your own list in Customize › Skills, and colleagues can't see it until you share it. Admins can see its name and sharing status, but not its files.
On Team and Enterprise you can share it with specific colleagues, and on Enterprise with a group. Shared Skills are view-only, and colleagues turn them on for themselves. An Owner can also add a Skill for the whole company. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, each person uploads their own copy, so you send colleagues a ZIP file: one file that packs the Skill's folder.
Turn the routine into a Skill
Four steps. Tick each one when it's done.
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Check that Skills are switched on.
Skills need a setting that lets Claude run code and make files. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, open Settings › Capabilities and turn on Code execution and file creation (newer screens call it Create and edit files).
On Team and Enterprise, only an Owner can check this, on the Policy tab of Organization settings › Plugins & skills. Cloud code execution and file creation and Skills must both be on. On Team they are on by default.
Then click Customize in the left sidebar and choose Skills. If the page is missing or greyed out, that setting is the first thing to check.
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Install the practice Skill.
Do this even if you'll build your own in step 3. In Customize › Skills, click +, then + Create skill, then Upload a skill, and choose the ZIP below. When it appears in your list, switch it on.
The Northgate practice Skill
Northgate Cycles is a made-up bike shop with two stores in Ellisford, Texas. This Skill holds its rules for writing to customers, and when to hand a case to Ian, the owner. Upload the ZIP from your Downloads folder as it is, without unzipping it.
Download the ZIP (1 KB)Why it works: the ZIP holds one folder, northgate-replies, and that folder holds SKILL.md. The folder name matches the name written at the top of the file. Uploads fail when either is wrong. If Downloads shows a northgate-replies folder and no ZIP, Safari unzipped it: turn off Open "safe" files after downloading in Safari › Settings › General and download again.
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Build a Skill for your own routine by talking to Claude.
Open a new chat, paste this, and fill in the brackets:
I want to create a skill for [your routine]. Ask me questions one at a time about how I do it and what usually goes wrong, then build the skill. I'll paste an example of a good result.
Answer with real cases, and paste a finished example if you have one. Claude writes the SKILL.md and shows the Skill file in the chat. Click Save skill on it. No such button? Download the file and upload it as in step 2. Then open the Skill in Customize › Skills, switch it on and read the top: the description should say what the Skill does and when to use it. To change a rule, ask Claude in a chat to edit the Skill.
Use your answer to the second Think question. The mistakes a new colleague makes are the best rules you can give it.
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Share it with the team (Team and Enterprise only).
In Customize › Skills, click the three dots next to your Skill and choose Share. Add the colleagues by name or email. The Skill appears in their list, greyed out until they switch it on. If you improve it later, they get the new version the next time they use it.
To offer it to the whole company instead, open the Skill and click Publish to org, or ask an Owner to add it under Organization settings › Plugins & skills.
On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra there is no sharing. Open the Skill in Customize › Skills, click ... next to its switch, choose Download and send colleagues the file to upload. Then tick this step.
If you see this instead
- There is no Skills page, or it is greyed out
- Code execution is off. Turn on Code execution and file creation in Settings › Capabilities, or on Team and Enterprise ask an Owner to check the Policy tab.
- You can't find the upload option
- On Team and Enterprise, an Owner can turn off User-created skills. You can still use Skills they add for everyone. Ask the Owner to switch it on, or to add your Skill for you.
- The upload fails
- Check the ZIP holds one folder with SKILL.md inside, not loose files. The folder name must match the name in the file, and the name and description can't contain odd characters. If you zipped it yourself, zip the folder, not its contents.
- There is no Share or Publish to org button
- An Owner controls both on the Policy tab of Organization settings › Plugins & skills: Skill sharing for Share (on by default on Team), Publishing for Publish to org. You can only publish a Skill you made yourself. On Free, Pro, Max and Ultra there is no sharing at all.
Does Claude follow your rules without being told?
Make sure the Skill is switched on, start a new chat outside any Project, and ask for the task. Don't mention the rules.
With the practice Skill
You pass when the sign-off includes the High Street number, (254) 555-0142, which Claude can only get from the Skill. A good draft also follows the other house rules without you asking:
It opens with "Hi Jen," and gets to the point in the first line.
It says sorry once, with the reason: promised Thursday, nobody called.
It gives one next step with a day, such as Kevin calling. If Claude doesn't know the day, it leaves [day] in brackets instead of inventing one.
It never says "Dear valued customer" or "we apologize for any inconvenience".
Where Claude shows it used the Skill
Open the thinking line above the answer: it should mention northgate-replies. No thinking line? The phone number tells you the same. If the Skill wasn't used, check that it's switched on, then start your request with "Use my northgate-replies skill".
What a good answer says
It starts with a line to you, not the customer: hand this to Ian before replying. The helmet is $59.99, a refund over $50, and the customer threatened a review. Both are Ian's. The draft that follows is a short holding reply that says Ian will answer personally and promises no refund.
Then switch the Skill off in Customize › Skills and ask the Jen question again in a new chat. The phone number should be gone.
With your own routine
Ask for the routine in one sentence, the way a colleague would, without repeating any rules. You pass when the result follows your Skill's rules and you didn't have to type them.
If Claude ignored a rule, ask Claude to add it to the Skill and try again. Change one thing at a time.
Two questions from memory
Claude has ten Skills installed. Does it read all ten in every chat?
No. It always sees each Skill's name and description. It reads a Skill's full instructions only when your task matches that description. Files inside the Skill are read only if the instructions point to them.
Claude doesn't use your Skill. What do you check first?
That it's switched on in Customize › Skills. Then the description: does it say what the Skill does and when to use it? As a quick fix, name the Skill in your request, for example "Use my northgate-replies skill".
Lesson 7 opens by asking the first one again.
Lesson 6 hands a longer task to Cowork. Skills you've switched on are available there too.
Your plan so far
What you've decided
- First task for Claude
- Who starts
- Training setting
- Profile
- First Project for
- Documents in it
- Project instructions
- Shared with the team
- File storage
- Folders Claude should use
- Storage connected
- Daily tools to connect
- Mail and calendar
- Routine turned into a Skill
- Skill