Claude skills: teach AI your workflow once

By Erick · 7 min read

You explain the same thing to AI over and over: your style, your rules, the steps you always follow. A skill fixes that. You write it down once, and Claude uses it automatically every time the task comes up.

What a skill is

A skill is a folder with one file, SKILL.md. At the top is a short description that tells Claude when to use it. Below are the instructions: steps, rules, examples. When your request matches the description, Claude loads the skill and follows it.

• In Claude Code: put it in .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md inside your project, or in your user folder to use it everywhere.
• In the Claude app: upload a skill in settings and it works in your chats.

Your first skill in 10 minutes

Copy this template, change the name, description and rules to your own task, and save it.

---
name: youtube-hook-writer
description: Writes hooks for my YouTube videos. Use when I say "write a hook", "first 15 seconds", "intro for my video".
---

# YouTube Hook Writer

Goal: give me 5 hooks for the first 15 seconds, then pick the best one.

## Steps
1. Ask what the video shows and what the viewer searched for (if I didn't say).
2. Write 5 hooks, max 35 words each, each with a different formula.
3. Every hook shows the result or proof in the first sentence.
4. Score each 1-10 and recommend one.

## My rules
- Simple English, short sentences, no hype words.
- Never promise something the video doesn't show.

## Check before answering
- [ ] Result mentioned in the first sentence
- [ ] Under 35 words
- [ ] No repeated formulas

The description is everything

Claude decides whether to use a skill by reading only the description. So write it like a trigger list: what it does + the exact phrases you'd type. "Helps with videos" is too vague. "Writes hooks. Use when I say 'write a hook' or 'intro for my video'" works.

The fastest way: let Claude write the skill

Do the task with Claude once, correct it until you like the result, then paste this at the end of the chat:

We just finished [TASK]. Turn what we did into a Claude skill so next time it happens automatically.

Write a SKILL.md with:
- YAML front matter: name (kebab-case) and a description that says exactly WHEN to use it (list the phrases I'd type)
- the goal in one sentence
- step-by-step instructions
- my preferences and rules from this conversation (what I corrected, what I liked)
- a final checklist to verify the result before showing it to me
Keep it under 150 lines.

Every correction you made becomes a rule. Next time you don't have to repeat it.

Skills I use for my videos

• Editing style: captions, zooms, pacing and structure, so every edit looks like my channel.
• Edit autopilot: a checklist of every correction I've ever made: cut repeats, keep music quiet, start with the result.
• Script writer: hook first, then problem, method, proof and the steps.
• Packaging: title and thumbnail text checked together before I publish.

Erick
5 years making AI content, 1,000+ AI videos, 20M+ views.