Building · 9 min read
The Claude Skills Playbook
By Hank BarkerPublished
The one required file, the nine skill categories, and how to build your own. A plain-English playbook for Claude Skills.
A skill is a folder that teaches Claude how to do one job well. There is only one required file, and once you see how it fits together, you can build your own in an afternoon.
What's inside
- The anatomy of a skill, and the one file it cannot go without.
- The nine categories skills fall into, with a real example of each.
- How Claude decides when to reach for a skill, and how to write that trigger so it fires at the right time.
- A build walkthrough, from empty folder to a working skill you can reuse.
Who it's for
Anyone who keeps re-explaining the same process to Claude. Write it down as a skill once and stop repeating yourself.
Keep a copy of the guide
Download the PDF to keep the steps and prompts handy while you work.
Put this to work with your team
I’m Hank Barker, founder of PriorAIty. I help Michigan teams build useful AI habits through hands-on training and adoption consulting, with in-person and virtual options.
Keep going
- Build a Real Tool Without Code
Three honest ways to build a working tool with AI, and how to pick the right one without writing a line of code.
- Before your team starts using AI
Connect AI to a business outcome, build a usable policy, train people on their work, and review a pilot before expanding.
- Give your AI helper a job
Four useful assignments for Dots and Muse, with setup references, source rules, approval limits, and a reusable review record.
Weekly AI guide
The Weekly AI Guide
One genuinely useful AI use case a week, whatever news matters, and what I've got coming up: free sessions, new guides, upcoming trainings.