Project instructions are fine. But if you've ever copy-pasted the same prompt into three different Claude projects, you may be ready to build a skill instead.

Skills are different. A skill teaches Claude how to do a thing, not what to do in a specific project.

You write it once, upload it, and Claude can reference it across any project or chat. No more copy-pasting. No more hoping Claude picks up on context.

Most of these articles began as a video where I walk through how to do something, like build skills.

The article version takes a lot less time to publish when I can have Claude write a draft from the video transcript that I just spent a lot of time working on.

So to make this skill, I downloaded transcripts from a handful of my YouTube videos, threw them into Claude, and asked it to write a voice skill based on how I actually talk.

It came up with stuff I wouldn't have thought to include and in a lot more detail than I would have written off the cuff.

The output wasn't perfect. I had to edit it. But it gave me a real starting point way faster than writing from scratch.

It's a markdown file: just text with some formatting.

The part Claude sometimes gets wrong is the front matter at the top. You need three dashes, then name: and description: in lowercase, then three more dashes to close it out. That part has to be there or it'll throw an error when you upload it.

Once that's sorted, you make a folder, put the .md file in it and zip the folder.

Then you go to Claude and upload it under Customize → Skills.

Claude will show you the parsed title and description so you know it read correctly.

And don't worry if you mess something up, it will not work properly and it will give you an error. That happened to me a few times. That's how I figured out the syntax mistakes.

From there, you can reference it explicitly in a prompt or just mention it in your project instructions so Claude knows to check it automatically.

You don't have to tell Claude to use a skill every time. If your project instructions say something like "reference the voice skill when writing articles," it'll go grab it on its own.

Thanks for reading!

Also, I'm contemplating a new podcast where I would have a conversation with, potentially…you.

I'm looking for founders and CEOs of AI and tech companies who need an audience for their business and/or product. 👇