Viktor Enns @viktorenns - Twitter Profile

6 months ago

@dr_cintas Any chance this setup could be applied to Gemini or would it need to be created and tested from scratch? Asking for a friend.

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Akshay 🚀

@akshay_pachaar

7 months ago

Anthropic released a 33-page guide on building Skills. Here's everything you need to know (under 370 words): First, what are Skills? A skill is a folder that teaches Claude how to handle specific tasks. You teach it once, and it works every time. No more re-explaining your preferences in every conversation. Skills aren't locked to Claude. They've been published as an open standard, so you can use them with AI agents like OpenClaw, too. Here's the simplest way to think about it: MCP gives Claude access to your tools. Skills teach Claude how to use them well. One without the other is incomplete. The guide breaks things down into 3 use cases: 1. Workflow Automation: You have processes that need to run the same way every time. A skill can pull your project status, evaluate team capacity, and create tasks without you walking Claude through each step again. 2. MCP Enhancement: Your team has years of accumulated knowledge about how things should work. A skill captures that expertise so Claude handles edge cases the way your best team member would. 3. Document Creation: Every team has standards for how presentations, code, and designs should look. A skill lets Claude follow those standards without you pasting your style guide into every conversation. The setup is more straightforward than you'd think: One SKILL. md file with some structured metadata at the top is all that's required. Scripts, templates, and reference docs are optional. Two fields in that metadata matter most: - name (lowercase with hyphens, no spaces or capitals) - description (what the skill does + specific phrases that should activate it) Nail the description, and Claude picks up your skill at exactly the right moment. Get it wrong, and it sits there doing nothing. The guide walks through 5 patterns that actually work: 1. Sequential Workflow Orchestration: processes that need to happen in a fixed order, like onboarding a customer or deploying a service. 2. Multi-MCP Coordination: your workflow touches multiple services, say design in Figma, tasks in Linear, updates in Slack. One skill ties them together. 3. Iterative Refinement: the skill validates its own work, catches issues, and refines the output before handing it to you. 4. Context-Aware Tool Selection: Claude picks the right tool automatically depending on the file type, size, or situation instead of you telling it every time. 5. Domain-Specific Intelligence: your skill carries specialized knowledge like compliance rules or security checks that Claude wouldn't know on its own. Pitfalls the guide warns you about: - Vague descriptions like "Helps with projects" that never trigger - Important instructions buried inside walls of text - No fallback when a tool call fails - One skill trying to do too much Here's the bigger insight: AI doesn't have to be general-purpose in every conversation. Give it focused knowledge for the workflows you actually repeat, and it stops being a chatbot and starts being a genuine part of how you work. I've shared a link to the PDF in the next tweet.

akshay_pachaar's tweet photo. Anthropic released a 33-page guide on building Skills.

Here's everything you need to know (under 370 words):

First, what are Skills?

A skill is a folder that teaches Claude how to handle specific tasks. You teach it once, and it works every time. No more re-explaining your preferences in every conversation.

Skills aren't locked to Claude. They've been published as an open standard, so you can use them with AI agents like OpenClaw, too.

Here's the simplest way to think about it:

MCP gives Claude access to your tools. Skills teach Claude how to use them well. One without the other is incomplete.

The guide breaks things down into 3 use cases:

1. Workflow Automation: You have processes that need to run the same way every time. A skill can pull your project status, evaluate team capacity, and create tasks without you walking Claude through each step again.

2. MCP Enhancement: Your team has years of accumulated knowledge about how things should work. A skill captures that expertise so Claude handles edge cases the way your best team member would.

3. Document Creation: Every team has standards for how presentations, code, and designs should look. A skill lets Claude follow those standards without you pasting your style guide into every conversation.

The setup is more straightforward than you'd think:

One SKILL. md file with some structured metadata at the top is all that's required. Scripts, templates, and reference docs are optional.

Two fields in that metadata matter most:
- name (lowercase with hyphens, no spaces or capitals)
- description (what the skill does + specific phrases that should activate it)

Nail the description, and Claude picks up your skill at exactly the right moment. Get it wrong, and it sits there doing nothing.

The guide walks through 5 patterns that actually work:

1. Sequential Workflow Orchestration: processes that need to happen in a fixed order, like onboarding a customer or deploying a service.

2. Multi-MCP Coordination: your workflow touches multiple services, say design in Figma, tasks in Linear, updates in Slack. One skill ties them together.

3. Iterative Refinement: the skill validates its own work, catches issues, and refines the output before handing it to you.

4. Context-Aware Tool Selection: Claude picks the right tool automatically depending on the file type, size, or situation instead of you telling it every time.

5. Domain-Specific Intelligence: your skill carries specialized knowledge like compliance rules or security checks that Claude wouldn't know on its own.

Pitfalls the guide warns you about:

- Vague descriptions like "Helps with projects" that never trigger
- Important instructions buried inside walls of text
- No fallback when a tool call fails
- One skill trying to do too much

Here's the bigger insight:

AI doesn't have to be general-purpose in every conversation. Give it focused knowledge for the workflows you actually repeat, and it stops being a chatbot and starts being a genuine part of how you work.

I've shared a link to the PDF in the next tweet.

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Viktor Enns

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