A practical guide

Should this be a Skill?

A short walkthrough for deciding when to build a Claude Skill, and how to do it well.

Decision tree and workflow icons on teal background
Part 1 — The mindset

Prompt vs project vs Skill

A simple way to remember it: projects are persistent reusable knowledge. Skills are persistent reusable processes.

Prompt
One question, one answer. No reuse.
Project
Reusable knowledge: reference files and standing instructions for one context.
Skill
Reusable process: a repeatable workflow Claude triggers automatically.
Part 2 — The five questions

Think of one specific workflow. Answer honestly.

Tick each box where the answer is yes. Your score updates below.

  • Do you do this more than 5–10 times across the team?Frequency is the strongest signal a workflow earns being packaged.
  • Does the output need to look the same regardless of who runs it?Consistency matters when the work goes out to clients or stakeholders.
  • Does it need specific knowledge, templates or brand rules?If Claude needs context it does not already have, a Skill can carry that.
  • Is the workflow stable, or still changing every week?Skills work best when the process has settled. Tick yes if it is stable.
  • Would explaining the workflow take more than a paragraph?If yes, a Skill saves you from re-explaining it every time.
0/50–1 yesJust prompt it.

This is a one-off or context-dependent task. Write a clear prompt instead.

Part 3 — The brief

Clarify what good looks like before you build

Same rule as any good deliverable: a good Skill starts with a good brief. If you cannot answer these, run the workflow as a prompt a few more times until the pattern is clear.

  1. 1What is the goal? What does this Skill produce?
  2. 2Who triggers it, and in what situation?
  3. 3What does a great output look like? Have 2–3 real examples ready.
  4. 4What does Claude need to know that it does not already?
  5. 5What is the trigger phrase? How will Claude know to use it?
Part 4 — How to build it

Let Claude build it with you

Do not try to write the Skill yourself. Pick the path that fits your situation and use the prompt provided.

Path A — Build from scratch

You have a workflow in mind but have not started yet. Claude will interview you, then draft the Skill. Have your templates and 2–3 example outputs ready to upload.

Paste this into a new Claude chat
I want to create a new Skill. Interview me about the workflow, then draft the Skill for me. Ask me one question at a time.
Path B — Turn a working chat into a Skill

You have already iterated with Claude in another chat and got a good output. Open that chat and send the prompt below to package what you did.

Paste this into your existing chat
Take the conversation we just had and turn it into a Skill. Synthesise the steps, the rules I gave you, and the format we landed on so I can upload it.

Important: send this in the chat where the good output happened, not a new one.

Part 5 — House rules

A few things to keep your Skills tidy

Name them clearly
Use a consistent prefix that signals ownership or context. Something like team-press-release or projectx-newsletter. Avoid generic names like skill-3. Add _v2 when you iterate.
Toggle off what you are not using
Active Skills cost tokens and slow responses. Enable only what you need today.
Avoid overlap
Two Skills that do similar things confuse Claude. Before building a new one, check whether an existing Skill already does the job.
Combine them when it makes sense
Claude can use more than one Skill in a single chat. Draft something with one Skill, then ask another to review or refine it.
Critique what comes out
A Skill is a starting point, not a final product. If you cannot explain why the output is good, you are not done.