Build Guide

Build your first
Claude skill

By Dan Donovan, @askdandonovan

Take one thing you do every week (writing proposals, sending client reports, triaging your inbox) and turn it into a Claude skill that does it in your voice, with your judgement. Here's the exact setup, using the same SKILL method from the video.

4 Steps
~10 min To first skill
1 Custom skill
$0 Extra cost

What's the skill-creator?

It's an official Claude skill whose whole job is to build other skills. You describe a task you do by hand; it interviews you about how you actually do it, drafts a skill, tests it, and improves it, until Claude can run that task the way you would. You're not writing code. You're training a very sharp new hire.

What you'll have after this
A working custom skill
Does one real job of yours, end to end
Your judgement, encoded
The reasoning behind the work, not just the steps
Fires on its own
Triggers whenever you describe the task
The SKILL method
A repeatable recipe for every skill after this one
Before you start, pick your lane. There are two ways to build a skill. The actual building (Steps 3 & 4) is identical for both. Only the setup differs.
Claude Code (terminal) Most control. Needs a Pro or Max plan. Do Steps 1 & 2.
Desktop, web or Cowork No terminal. Easiest. Works on any plan, Free included. Use the "No terminal?" panel in Step 2.

New to Claude? Sign up free at claude.ai first.

1

Install Claude Code

On the desktop, web or Cowork app? Skip Step 1 entirely. You don't need the terminal. Jump straight to the "No terminal?" panel in Step 2.

Claude Code is Anthropic's tool that runs in your terminal and can read, write, and reason about files on your computer. It's where skills live.

On Mac or Linux, open Terminal and paste this:

Terminal 
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Once it's installed, start it by typing:

Terminal 
claude

It'll ask you to log in the first time. Sign in with your Claude account and you're in.

On Windows? Claude Code works through WSL, or you can grab the desktop app at claude.ai/code for a simpler setup.
2

Add the skill-creator

The skill-creator is a free, official skill from Anthropic. You add it once and it stays. These two lines get typed inside Claude Code (not the terminal). They start with a slash, which is how you run commands there.

First, connect the official skill library:

Claude Code 
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official

Then install the skill itself:

Claude Code 
/plugin install skill-creator@claude-plugins-official

No terminal? Desktop, web & Cowork

The desktop and web apps have a built-in Skill Creator: no install, no ZIP, no commands. Same tool, three clicks. This is the same setup for regular chat and for Cowork.

  • Turn it on: open Settings → Capabilities and switch on "Code execution and file creation" (skills need it)
  • Add the Skill Creator: in the sidebar, open Customize → Skills and enable the built-in Skill Creator skill
  • That's it: start a new chat (or a Cowork session) and paste the prompt in Step 3. Claude builds the skill with you.
Works on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise. On Team or Enterprise, an owner has to switch on Skills under Organization settings first. Your finished skill stays private to your account unless you share it.
3

Pick what to clone, then kick it off

First the thinking part: pick one thing you already do every week. If you've done it 10+ times by hand, it's a perfect first skill. Don't invent something new. Clone something real.

Then paste this in and swap in your workflow. In Claude Code, drop it in the chat; on desktop, web or Cowork, paste it into a new chat with Skill Creator turned on. This one prompt runs the whole SKILL method for you, so you get a genuinely good skill, not a generic one:

Paste into Claude Code 
I want to create a new skill using the skill-creator skill.

Here's the workflow I want to turn into a skill:
[describe the thing you do every week — e.g. writing a client proposal after a discovery call]

Before you write anything, interview me about how I actually do this: the judgment calls I make, what a great result looks like, and where it usually goes wrong. I'll paste real examples and templates so it sounds like me.

Then draft the skill, make its description pushy enough that it triggers reliably, test it on 2 real examples, and improve it based on what's off.
Not sure what to clone? Steal one of these and drop it in place of the [describe…] line above:
Proposal writer Writing a client proposal after a discovery call. I'll paste my 3 best past ones.
Weekly client report Turning raw numbers into a branded update written in my voice.
Inbox triage Reading my inbox and drafting replies in my tone, the way I usually respond.
SOP writer Turning a messy Loom or doc into a clean step-by-step my team can follow.
4

Answer the interview, then loop

Claude will ask you questions before it writes anything. This is the most important part, because it's where your expertise gets copied in. Answer like you're training your replacement:

  • Explain the why: not just what you do, but the reasoning behind each call
  • Paste real examples: your best proposals, a report you're proud of, your templates
  • Say what "great" looks like, and the mistakes to avoid

It'll draft the skill and test it. When you see the result, run it on 2 or 3 real jobs and tell it what's off: "too formal," "missed the pricing section," "that's not how I'd open." It fixes and re-runs. Two or three loops is what turns "pretty good" into "better than me on autopilot."

Don't stop at draft one. The first version is never the good one. The looping is the whole point. It's the difference between a toy and something you'll actually use every week.

The SKILL method

The prompt in Step 3 already runs all of this for you. This is what each letter is doing under the hood, and the recipe you'll reuse for every skill after this one.

S
Steal from your own week
Pick a task you already do 10+ times. Real, not invented.
K
Keep the why, not the rules
Give it your reasoning, not a rigid checklist. That's what clones your judgement.
I
Invite it to fire
Make the description pushy so the skill actually triggers when you need it.
L
Load your real assets
Feed it your templates, your voice, your best examples. Your files, your quality.
L
Loop on real jobs
Run it, compare, fix, repeat, until it beats what you'd do by hand.
You're not automating tasks. You're cloning the judgement that makes you good at them, the part most people assume can't be automated. A proposal in your voice. A report in your format. A reply that sounds like you wrote it. That's what a skill is.