Build Your Own Skill
Goal — Create a small skill for a repeatable task in your project.
By the end — A working skill of your own that Claude fires on a matching request.
1Pick a repeatable job
Think of something you do more than once — for example, "add a new page with the site's standard layout and styling." A good skill captures a task you would otherwise re-explain every time.
2Draft the skill
Have Claude scaffold the skill, starting with the SKILL.md. Read the description it writes — that is the trigger that will fire the skill later.
Help me create a skill that adds a new page using this site's layout and tokens. Start with the SKILL.md.3Keep it lean with references
If the instructions get long, split them. You just applied progressive disclosure to your own skill.
Move the detailed steps into a reference file and keep SKILL.md short, pointing to it.4Try it out
Watch it follow your own instructions. You have taught Claude Code a move that is yours.
Use the skill to add an About page.5Understand orchestrator versus portable
Some skills are self-contained and work anywhere — portable. Others coordinate a specific project and reference its paths — orchestrator. Which one you built depends on whether it leans on this project.
Is the skill I built portable or project-specific, and what would make it one or the other?Recap — You built a skill from a repeatable task, kept it lean with a reference file, ran it, and learned the portable-versus-orchestrator distinction.