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Skills are, in my view, one of 
the most important and probably 

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one of the most underused 
features in the. 

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Cloud ecosystem right now. 
And even arguably beyond the 

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cloud ecosystem, if you're using
cloud for anything serious, you 

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probably hit. 
This problem. 

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You've got it working exactly 
how you want it for a specific 

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task that has a perfect output, 
and then the next time you have 

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a conversation it's just 
begotten everything. 

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You could copy and paste 
instructions into the chat every

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time, and many people do this, 
but that doesn't scale. 

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GPTS or clawed projects help, 
but they're not the same as it 

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understanding a process for a 
specific task, and they fill up 

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the context window far too 
quickly. 

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Because you preload them. 
Full of so much information. 

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To it has the information it 
needs to help you do a task. 

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And so you're constantly running
out of space in a conversation 

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and having to start a new 
thread. 

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The solution is skills. 
A skill is a set of instructions

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you write once give to claw. 
Encode your process and your 

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preferences, and today we're 
going to go deep on them. 

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We're going to go into the 
actual principles of context 

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engineering and why skills are 
so important. 

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The exact anatomy of a skill 
file with real examples that you

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can use today and how you can 
make them and how you can chain 

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different ones together and 
where to. 

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Find skills and install them. 
How they fit alongside MCPS. 

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Or plug insurance. 
And we shouldn't. 

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Even bother using them at all, 
this is in the loop. 

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With Jack Horton. 
Hope you enjoyed the show. 

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Before we get into what skills 
are, I think it's probably worth

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understanding the problem they 
were built to solve and kind of 

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what they consist of. 
What is a skill? 

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Because once you understand 
that, I think everything will 

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start to really fall into. 
Place so throughout. 2025 AI 

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coding agents were getting 
dramatically better and better. 

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Core code could suddenly, you 
know, build really complex 

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systems. 
They could. 

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Read an entire file system. 
They could. 

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Interact with Git. 
They can run tests, they can 

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deploy things, and the 
capability was obviously there 

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to do really cool stuff. 
But what most people found is 

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they hit a wall, and that wall 
really was the context window. 

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We've talked about context 
engineering before in July 2025,

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and it's the same for even those
that are not using core code. 

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The amount of times you just run
out of space and this happens 

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with GPTS. 
And core projects. 

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And what's actually happening 
here is that every time you want

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Core to obviously know 
something. 

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Whether? 
It was your, I don't know, 

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teams, coding standards, how an 
API works, the context of the 

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market or the business you're 
working in. 

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You basically be pasting lots of
information to the chat, which 

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essentially crams. 
Everything into the. 

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LLM System prompt which is this 
big long prompt. 

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It gets sent to an LLM that 
defines, you know, its. 

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Purpose. 
How it should behave? 

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What it should? 
Do and as agents and LLMS get 

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more powerful, the list of 
things that. 

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Is included. 
In that system. 

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Prompt is always growing, so 
there's more instructions, 

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there's more tools so the 
integrations it can use. 

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So that system prompt is just 
ballooning. 

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And the problem with that is 
that the context windows are 

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finite. 
The more you step in there, the 

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worse the agent starts to 
perform. 

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It gets slower and more 
expensive, less reliable, and 

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there's a real tension between 
giving an agent you know as much

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information as possible and 
making it able to execute 

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consistently well. 
And this insight is what led to 

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skills. 
Agents don't need all of that 

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knowledge and information all of
the time. 

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What they need is the right 
information, the right ability 

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to run a process, or awareness 
of a process at the perfect 

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moment. 
And so in in about late October 

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2025, Anthropic published a blog
called Equipping Agents for the 

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Real World. 
With agent skills. 

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And they framed. 
It kind of like this they. 

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Said Claude is really powerful, 
but real work requires 

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procedural information and just 
organizational contacts. 

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And as agents become more and 
more capable, we need more 

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composable, scalable and 
portable ways to equip them with

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that domain specific expertise. 
And that's what led to agent 

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skills, which essentially are an
organized set of folders. 

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Full of instructions and 
resources that help agents. 

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To basically discover and load 
the right thing at the right 

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time and I think the key phrase.
Here is dynamically. 

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So these skills. 
Aren't always there for. 

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The agent, they're not sitting 
in the context window taking up 

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space. 
They only get loaded when 

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they're relevant and stay out of
the way when they're not. 

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And that's A, and that's a 
fundamental. 

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Design. 
Principle of any modern day 

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agent. 
Really you know and topic is a 

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specific. 
Name for it. 

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That's been adopted. 
Everywhere. 

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Which is called. 
Progressive disclosure so you 

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progressively. 
Disclose more information to the

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agent needs. 
Only. 

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Actually when it needs it. 
So this progressive disclosure 

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happens. 
In three layers. 

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Layer one when Claude starts a. 
Session it basically preloads. 

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Just the name. 
And the description of the 

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skills. 
So not the full set of 

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instructions, just a one line 
summary. 

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You know, maybe 100 tokens per 
skill. 

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So again, a few words. 
This makes it possible for the 

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agent to know, I guess, what is 
available to it. 

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We just talked about this 
before, the tools that were 

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available to this agent and 
therefore it's cheap enough to 

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always have those small. 
Descriptions loaded. 

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Then you've got layer 2 when 
when essentially Claude 

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encounters a task and recognises
that one of those descriptions 

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is relevant. 
It then loads that full skill 

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file and as a result it will 
have the complete. 

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Rules and instructions that you.
Create for it, but only does it 

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for that specific skill, not all
of the skills. 

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So again, you could give it 
dirty. 

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Skills or tools? 
And it will only. 

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Use one of them so again. 
Protecting that context window, 

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and then you've got layer three.
If the skill MD file references 

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other files in the folder of 
templates or reference docs or 

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scripts, code will actually be 
able to navigate to those as 

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needed. 
It doesn't read everything 

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upfront, it follows it for 
references. 

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So if a process that it's 
following says use this extra 

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doc, it will then go and find 
that extra dock. 

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It won't then load every single 
skill. 

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Think about it like a set. 
Of instructions. 

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Basically layer 1 is like the 
table of contents, layer 2 is 

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that you know, relevant chapter 
I guess and layer. 3 is the 

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appendix. 
You don't need the whole thing 

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every time. 
So now you understand, you know,

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why we have skills, why they're 
important and what they're kind 

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of made-up of. 
I think then let's build a skill

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together. 
And I think the walkthrough. 

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Of this. 
Helps you. 

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Really understand what a skill 
is beyond just me using. 

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Kind of abstract words, 
instructions, because I think 

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it's really important to. 
Understand the mechanics. 

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And the specifics here. 
So if we build 1 together, 

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right, you have to picture this.
So let's say you write a team 

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update every single Friday, and 
every time you ask Claude for 

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help with this, you end up 
giving it basically the same set

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of prompts every single time. 
You know, keep it under 300 

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words. 
Lead with wins. 

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Plain language, no weird AI, 
slop language. 

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End with the blockers and every 
few. 

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Weeks Cloud does something 
annoying. 

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Maybe it allowed a random sign 
off or use the wrong language 

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again and you have to then. 
Correct it. 

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So here's how you would solve 
that with skills. 

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Now before I get into this, 
it's. 

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This is a few bits of a process 
here, and it's also important to

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note that on all the cloud 
interfaces you should have an 

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option of just either having a 
skills creator. 

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Or just telling. 
Claude, create all of this 

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process as a skill and review it
and collaborate with it. 

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Collaborate on this skill with 
me. 

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So you can actually tell it to 
turn things you've been working 

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on into a skill, then review it.
But I think for the purposes of 

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this discussion, it's still 
important to understand how to 

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create one because it'll give 
you an in depth understanding of

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what the heck this thing is. 
So step one would be create a 

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new. 
Folder on the computer, call it 

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weekly update or tell Claude to 
create a folder and call it 

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weekly update. 
Tell it to organise. 

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It as it. 
Sees fit or it. 

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Makes sense. 
Remember the core Co work 

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episode we've done I think about
5 weeks back? 

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If you haven't listened to that,
I'd recommend also listening to 

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that alongside this episode. 
Anyway, Step 2 would be to go 

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inside that folder, create a 
new. 

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File and it's a text file, you 
name it skill dot MD. 

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All caps for skill then dot MD. 
For the extension. 

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Step three. 
You open that file and at the 

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very top you're going to give. 
Cloud 2 piece of information, 

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you name the name of the skill 
and a one line simple 

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description of what it does and 
that's. 

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It below that you write actual. 
Instructions for example. 

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Write a concise weekly team 
update following our style of 

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format. 
Use when the user asks for help 

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with a weekly update or. 
Stand up summary or team status 

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report. 
Now notice that description. 

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I've included a few trigger 
phrases. 

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Weekly update stand up. 
Summary team status report. 

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So this gives Claude multiple 
ways to recognize when this 

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skill is needed. 
So if I then in a conversation 

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say I am writing this team 
status report, it would then 

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pull up and use this. 
This tool or this this? 

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Skill Step 4, you would then 
write the body, which is the 

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instructions. 
So you'd call it a heading 

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weekly team update format. 
And then when asked to write or 

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help with a weekly team update, 
all of these rules and then you 

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set the rules out. 
You can also have areas called 

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structure, you know open with a 
section called wins of the. 

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Week. 
Containing 2. 

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To four bullet. 
Points of complete work. 

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You could have tone so don't use
AI jargon and weird corporate 

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pillar. 
Keep it in first person. 

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You say LEMP, keep it under 300 
words and then add a section 

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called gotchas. 
So never use phrases like 

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moving. 
Forward or synergy or circle? 

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Back don't sign off saying kind 
regard because this isn't an 

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e-mail. 
This is going into a Slack 

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channel. 
And that's what a skill file is.

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And the gotcha section is 
something Anthropic specific 

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calls out as one of the highest 
signal content in any set of 

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skills, One of the. 
Claude. 

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Code team members actually wrote
that in a in a blog post that 

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the highest value thing you 
could possibly do is build up a 

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gotcha section over time so 
every time Claude makes a 

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mistake you can add to it. 
The skill becomes a living 

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document that essentially 
accumulates your hard won 

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knowledge about what goes wrong 
and how to prevent it. 

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So every time you're having a 
conversation with Claude, say I 

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want you to update the skill dot
MD file for XYZ skill with. 

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These new gotchas and. 
Again, you're just building up. 

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Constant information and 
knowledge on this. 

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And then finally, obviously you.
Save the file. 

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So that means you've now got a. 
Folder called weekly. 

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Update with a file called skill 
dot MD inside it. 

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You can then install it. 
And this depends on how you use 

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calls. 
If you're using cloud dot AI, so

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the web interface, you zip that 
folder, not the file, the actual

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folder itself. 
Right click the folder, compress

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it into a zip and then go to 
cloud AI. 

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And if you go into settings, you
can actually. 

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Go into customize and then 
skills and then you can upload 

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the skill using that zip file. 
If you are using the web 

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interface, which I recommend no 
one do, you should be using the 

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Co work interface or core code. 
But if you are using that you 

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need to go and turn on code 
execution and file creation 

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00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:08,520
skills. 
Kind of need that to function if

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you're using. 
The core code interface. 

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It's really easy, you just tell 
it to do it and it will bash 

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00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,040
command it. 
It'll just set it up for you now

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if you are. 
Writing Organization. 

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Wide skills you'll probably need
to speak to your admin, but you 

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can even tell it to make this a 
personal skill or a team wide 

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skill if you're using clouds COA
which is the. 

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Desktop interface skills can 
come bundled in plug insurance 

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or just upload them through the 
same settings panel. 

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As Claude dot. 
AI as I said Claude Co work is 

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the same agent as Claude code 
so. 

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You can basically ask. 
It to just do it for you. 

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And they've just released a new 
feature for most people called 

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the Skills Creator, which just 
helps you create a. 

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Skill. 
So yeah, once you've done that, 

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every time you start a new 
conversation, Claude sees all 

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the different skills that it's 
got available to it and it's 

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descriptions. 
That's that layer one. 

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It costs almost nothing in 
context window and capacity and 

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then when you say something like
here are my. 

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Notes for this week's. 
You know, write up our update, 

255
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it will then load up that skill 
and it will work. 

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00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:07,680
Now really quick, really quick 
note here. 

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It could probably be quite 
attractive to start turning 

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everything into skills when 
that's just not necessary. 

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00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,400
So if it's a one off task, just 
use prompts. 

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If it's a repeatable task that 
you do a. 

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00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:20,520
Lot or you need other. 
Team members to fulfill. 

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00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:22,600
Then you can make a skill. 
And when you write. 

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00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:24,000
The skills. 
There's a trap. 

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You don't need to. 
Reinstate what Claude as a 

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00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,760
baseline model already knows. 
Anthropics guidance on this is 

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really really direct, so don't 
tell it how to write Python 

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00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,160
because it knows. 
How to write Python? 

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00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:37,600
Don't tell it what good code 
looks like in general, tell it 

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00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,320
what good code looks like in 
your specific code base. 

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00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:44,120
So again, it's about making it 
contextual and writing it out 

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your process that you want. 
This thing to follow and then 

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once you've built a skill, test 
it. 

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00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:49,920
Don't just use it once and go, 
oh, that was good. 

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00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:51,720
Use the skill. 
Creator's Evaluation. 

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00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:53,520
Tools run the skill against 
different prompts. 

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00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,160
And then don't. 
Make it too prescriptive so 

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there's a difference between. 
A skill and a. 

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Template templates. 
Break the moment. 

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The situation changes. 
We talked about this last week 

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and you'll notice this is all 
about reliability. 

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00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:08,600
And consistency. 
If you write something that is 

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if this, then that. 
It's. 

283
00:13:10,800 --> 00:13:11,920
Going to be. 
Quite rigid. 

284
00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:15,240
And therefore. 
If you need to be flexible, it's

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00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:16,440
not going to work in the same 
way. 

286
00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:19,800
So again, Quad and Anthropica 
are very clear here. 

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00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:22,480
It's about a skill. 
Not a template. 

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00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:25,960
So yeah, that that's how to make
a skill and when not to make a 

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00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:27,560
skill. 
But I also wanted to talk about 

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00:13:27,560 --> 00:13:30,000
how to make skills extremely 
powerful. 

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00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,640
So if you imagine, that's kind 
of like getting started. 

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00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:36,280
This is now moving into. 
Advanced thinking, not because 

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00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:40,080
it's super complex, but because 
it makes such an extra impact on

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00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:42,400
how you work. 
And that's skill chains. 

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00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,480
So yeah, the next level is when 
skills start working together, 

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00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:01,840
and I'm going to give you an 
example of four skills that feed

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00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:04,240
into each other to form a 
complete development process 

298
00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:07,080
from a vague idea all the way. 
Through to tested ship code. 

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00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:09,720
And it came from a developer 
called Map Poco. 

300
00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:12,480
And you might be thinking, oh, 
but I'm not a developer now. 

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00:14:13,240 --> 00:14:15,920
I'll also provide a couple of 
extra examples here about. 

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00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:18,240
Non developer or product focused
tasks. 

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00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:20,680
So the first skill is called. 
Grooming. 

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00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:23,240
And I'll read it out in full 
because I think it's important 

305
00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:25,800
to hear just how simple a skill 
can be. 

306
00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:28,240
The entire skill body is 3 
sentences. 

307
00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:30,320
Interview me. 
Relentless about every. 

308
00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:31,600
Aspect of this. 
Plan until we. 

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00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:32,920
Reach a shared. 
Understanding. 

310
00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:35,440
Walk down every single branch. 
Of the decision. 

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00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:38,960
Tree resolve any dependencies 
between decisions 1 by 1. 

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00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,520
And finally, if a question can 
be answered by exploring the 

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00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:44,840
code base, explore the code base
instead, so. 

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00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:46,600
Three sentences and that's the 
whole thing. 

315
00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,960
And he said Sessions where I 
called asked him 30-40 fifty 

316
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,600
questions from that tiny skill 
before it was satisfied that 

317
00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,680
they understood the problem. 
And you might be thinking, gosh,

318
00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:59,120
that's a lot of typing. 
But if you've not got super. 

319
00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:02,240
Wispy yet? 
I recommend you to go and pay 

320
00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:04,280
just a few pounds a month. 
I think they. 

321
00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:08,040
Also have a pre tier but it's 
just an amazing basically voice 

322
00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:10,800
tool that you can press a 
shortcut, it appears and when 

323
00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,840
you're finished speaking the 
text appears in any text box. 

324
00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:15,920
It makes my life infinitely 
easier. 

325
00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:17,760
But anyway. 
And then? 

326
00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:18,880
Once the grilling. 
Is done. 

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00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:21,360
It'll invoke a second skill, 
write a PRD. 

328
00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:24,880
So this is a structured multi 
step skill and apid is a 

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00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:26,760
product. 
Requirement document says. 

330
00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,880
What people in product write. 
Before they build something 

331
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:32,760
so-called. 
Will then start to ask the user 

332
00:15:32,760 --> 00:15:34,960
for a detailed. 
Description it'll explore. 

333
00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:38,600
The repo to verify any. 
Assertions it will interview. 

334
00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:40,960
And once all this is done, this.
Document's written. 

335
00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:44,480
It will also submit this as a 
GitHub issue, so actually raises

336
00:15:44,480 --> 00:15:46,520
it in the system of record to 
track work. 

337
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:49,560
And So what comes out on the 
other end is a ticket or. 

338
00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:53,480
An item of a a task to be done. 
With a full document, with a 

339
00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:56,720
problem statement, a proposed 
solution, detailed stories. 

340
00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:59,360
In the right format, 
implementation decisions. 

341
00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:01,720
And then it will. 
Trigger 1/3 skill called the PRD

342
00:16:01,720 --> 00:16:03,520
to issues. 
That takes the document and 

343
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,520
breaks it. 
Into a series of individual. 

344
00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,560
Tasks each task. 
Is essentially A deliverable 

345
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:10,240
piece of work that the team can 
work on. 

346
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,720
For example, it will start with.
What is most important to start 

347
00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:15,120
on? 
Usually the things with the 

348
00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:18,120
highest risk to a project. 
The skill will also establish. 

349
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:20,000
Blocking relationships between. 
Tasks. 

350
00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:23,200
So task 3 might depend on task 
one, but task 2 might be 

351
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:25,360
independent and should be 
therefore picked up in parallel.

352
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:28,000
So this is really useful if 
you're running many different 

353
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,080
agents at the same time. 
For example, this is what a 

354
00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:31,760
product manager and a developer 
has to be. 

355
00:16:31,880 --> 00:16:34,520
Finally, when it's time to 
implement, there's a Test Driven

356
00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,280
Development skill. 
So basically is a process that 

357
00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,560
enforces and confirms with the 
developer what interface. 

358
00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:42,320
Changes are going to be needed. 
Agreed. 

359
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:44,840
Therefore, which behaviors we 
have to test and then enter a 

360
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,600
loop and you can't? 
Have that thing finished until 

361
00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:50,520
it achieves those sets of 
behaviours that you were looking

362
00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:52,120
to. 
Actually achieve so. 

363
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,640
That's a very. 
Product centric example that the

364
00:16:54,640 --> 00:16:56,560
take away here for non 
developers as well is that. 

365
00:16:56,800 --> 00:16:59,240
This principle. 
Of chaining works regardless of 

366
00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:01,200
domain, so and even that 
process. 

367
00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:03,320
We went through. 
You could build a research 

368
00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:04,800
brief. 
Skill that feeds into a draft. 

369
00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:08,280
Article skill that feeds into a 
format for newsletter skill. 

370
00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:12,280
The exact same architecture, 
discovery, planning, execution, 

371
00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:15,400
each skill picking up where the 
last one left on. 

372
00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:17,319
And this mechanism is domain 
agnostic. 

373
00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,240
The instructions inside is what 
makes. 

374
00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:22,920
It specific to your work. 
Now you might be thinking, gosh,

375
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,720
it's really exciting, but maybe 
a lot to get. 

376
00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,160
Started on here. 
Well, there are places for you 

377
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,800
to go find other skills, bring 
them in and get inspiration. 

378
00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:35,600
I will have one warning. 
Which is obviously when you're 

379
00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:38,600
downloading things from the 
Internet that are just very 

380
00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:41,440
public and inside a community. 
It does present risk. 

381
00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:43,480
So if you bring that straight 
into your. 

382
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,920
Your environment that you're 
doing coding from or whatever it

383
00:17:46,920 --> 00:17:47,440
might. 
Be. 

384
00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:50,040
You need to make sure that 
you're going and getting trusted

385
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:52,400
verified sources. 
So just just a. 

386
00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:54,960
A preface that. 
Super popular ones, probably 

387
00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:57,960
more say, but going on random 
websites and finding skills and 

388
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:00,280
downloading them. 
Will always present some risk. 

389
00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:03,880
So anyway, Anthropic has got an 
entire skill set of a skill 

390
00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,160
library, should I say, on the 
GitHub reposogithub.com 

391
00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:08,480
Anthropic. 
Skills. 

392
00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:11,800
You know there's skills by 
creating word docs, excel 

393
00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:13,560
spreadsheets. 
PowerPoint presentations. 

394
00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:15,640
PDS. 
Beyond Anthropic, the community 

395
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:18,160
is massive now. 
There are curated collections on

396
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:20,280
GitHub with 10s of thousands of 
stars. 

397
00:18:20,560 --> 00:18:23,200
There are directories listing. 
Thousands of community skills 

398
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:25,680
and there's even growing 
ecosystems of plug in. 

399
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,680
Particularly in core Co work and
for those that don't understand 

400
00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:32,200
the difference. 
Between skills, MCPS and plug 

401
00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:34,440
insurance. 
There's often a lot of confusion

402
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:36,600
here. 
Think of it in three layers. 

403
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,960
Skills are the knowledge layer, 
so they tell Claude how to do a 

404
00:18:39,960 --> 00:18:40,440
thing. 
So a. 

405
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,120
Process or a preference. 
A skill doesn't connect Claude 

406
00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:45,040
to anything in the external 
world. 

407
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,640
Just makes it smarter about a. 
Particular task MCPS. 

408
00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,000
To model context protocol are 
the connection layer. 

409
00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:54,840
They let Claude reach out into 
your. 

410
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:57,360
Slack your GitHub repo. 
Your CRM your. 

411
00:18:57,360 --> 00:18:59,960
Calendar. 
And plug insurance are basically

412
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:00,720
the. 
Packaging layer. 

413
00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:05,720
A plug in bundles skills, MCPS, 
other resources together that 

414
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:07,680
you can just then install in a 
single gap. 

415
00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,200
So instead of separately 
configuring a Slack MCP, writing

416
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:14,200
a skill for how your team uses 
Slack, and then setting all that

417
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:16,760
up manually, you can just. 
Create a plug in that does all 

418
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,040
of that together. 
Skills of the brain, MCPS of the

419
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:21,560
hands and. 
Plug insurance the toolbox, and 

420
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:23,480
the best thing here is that 
skills aren't just an. 

421
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:24,920
Anthropic thing. 
It was published. 

422
00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:26,720
As an open standard in December 
2020. 

423
00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,960
Five and. 
Since then it's been adopted by 

424
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:33,240
loads of tools like Open AI 
codecs, GitHub Copilot VS Co 

425
00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:35,920
Cursor, Gemini. 
They're all supporting the same 

426
00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:37,600
format. 
It's one of the fundamental ways

427
00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:38,720
that would build a. 
Lot of new. 

428
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:40,600
Functionality now. 
On our product. 

429
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:42,640
Aligning ourselves with that 
ecosystem. 

430
00:19:59,390 --> 00:20:02,390
So yeah, let's conclude for 
today's episode because here's 

431
00:20:02,390 --> 00:20:04,630
the bigger picture. 
We're in this massive 

432
00:20:04,630 --> 00:20:06,030
transition. 
From using AI. 

433
00:20:06,030 --> 00:20:07,470
As a conversation. 
To using. 

434
00:20:07,470 --> 00:20:10,710
It as a library of reliable. 
Repeated. 

435
00:20:10,710 --> 00:20:13,870
Capabilities and every time you 
figure out how to get one of 

436
00:20:13,870 --> 00:20:16,110
these things, these systems, 
these large language models to 

437
00:20:16,110 --> 00:20:19,120
do something well, you can 
capture that knowledge. 

438
00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:21,800
So it compounds over time, and 
that's what skills are 

439
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:25,720
compounding information. 
That you and your team can 

440
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:28,280
leverage over time. 
Skills turn. 

441
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:30,240
One person's expertise into 
everyone's. 

442
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:33,840
Capability your best. 
Engineers review process 

443
00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,200
becomes. 
A skill the whole team can run. 

444
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:40,080
Your best writer can be the 
foundation to how every person 

445
00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:42,600
in your company writes content. 
So if there's one thing to take 

446
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,800
from this episode, it's this The
next time you find yourself 

447
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:48,560
giving called the same 
instructions the third time in a

448
00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,440
row, just stop and write skill. 
We'll look to link everything 

449
00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:54,800
into the show notes. 
You know, documentation skills 

450
00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:57,640
repos basically as much as. 
Possible for you to. 

451
00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,440
Get started on. 
Skills anyway. 

452
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,680
That's it for me. 
I hope you enjoyed the episodes.

453
00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:05,840
And I'll see you next week.
