Creating Operational Skills

References

| Reference | Content | |-----------|---------| | SKILL_STRUCTURE.md | File structure, YAML frontmatter, naming, examples | | BEST_PRACTICES.md | Authoring guidelines, degrees of freedom, patterns | | OPERATIONAL_TOOLS.md | Feature engineering: transforming knowledge into usable formats |

Process

1. Identify the workflow - What task? What inputs/outputs? What references needed?
2. Create folder - mkdir -p .claude/skills/<skill-name>/references
3. Write SKILL.md - Keep under 500 lines, point to references
4. Create reference files - Split long content, add Contents sections
5. Apply feature engineering - Transform principles into usable formats (OPERATIONAL_TOOLS.md)
6. Add scripts - Place in scripts/ folder if needed
7. Update CLAUDE.md - Add to Skills table
8. Iterate with feedback - Test, get user feedback, improve

Iteration

Skills improve through use. After creating:

1. Test with real tasks - Does Claude use the skill? Does output meet expectations?
2. Get user feedback - Where did it fall short? What was confusing?
3. Identify failure modes - Generic output? Wrong decisions? Missed steps?
4. Apply fixes
5. Repeat - Skills evolve; first version is rarely final