Build your first AI skill
Take something you do every week and turn it into a system that runs itself.
You've been using AI for one-off conversations. Maybe you've gotten good at prompting. You give context, you iterate, you shape the output. It works.
But there's a ceiling. Every time you sit down, you start from scratch. You re-explain who you are. You re-describe what you want. You re-invent the process. The AI has no memory of the methodology you used last time because you never wrote it down in a way it could follow again.
Building a skill is writing it down.
Not in a notebook. Not in a Google Doc you'll forget about. In a .md file that you upload to Claude, and that turns a blank AI conversation into a structured system that guides you through a complex task the same way, every time.
First: pick the right task
Not everything should be a skill. A skill makes sense when a task has three properties:
Weekly, biweekly, monthly. If you only do it once, a prompt is enough.
A single question doesn't need a skill. A process with 4-7 steps does.
Skills exist because you have standards and you want them met consistently.
Some tasks that make excellent first skills:
| Task | Why it works |
|---|---|
| Writing a weekly update/report | Repeated, multi-step (gather info, structure, draft, refine), quality matters |
| Preparing for a client meeting | Repeated, needs research + agenda + talking points, different every time but same process |
| Creating social media posts from longer content | Repeated, involves extraction + reformatting + voice matching |
| Reviewing your own writing before publishing | Repeated, needs systematic checking against your standards |
| Brainstorming ideas for a project | Repeated, benefits from structure so you don't just get obvious ideas |
| Onboarding a new client or team member | Repeated, multi-step, needs to be consistent |
Pick one. Something you'll actually do this week. Don't pick the most complex thing in your work. Pick something manageable with clear inputs and clear outputs.
The anatomy of a skill
A skill file has four parts. That's it. Once you understand these four parts, you can build a skill for anything.
You are a senior content strategist who specializes in turning long-form content into social media posts. You have 15 years of experience and you understand that good social content isn't a summary of the article. It's a standalone piece that uses the article's best ideas as raw material.
Putting it together
Here's what a skill file looks like. This is a truncated version, to keep things tidy on here.
---
name: voice-profile-builder
description: "Build a complete, functional Voice Profile .md skill file that captures someone's unique writing voice so AI can write, edit, and think like them. Use this skill whenever someone wants to: create or build a voice profile, capture their writing voice, teach AI to sound like them, codify their writing style, make AI write in their voice, create a brand voice guide, or document how they write. Also trigger when someone says things like 'AI doesn't sound like me', 'my AI writing sounds generic', 'I want Claude to match my tone', or 'how do I get AI to write like me'. This skill runs a structured interview with writing sample analysis and produces a downloadable .md skill file."
---
# Voice Profile Builder
Build a complete Voice Profile .md skill file through structured interview and writing sample analysis. The output is a functional skill file the user uploads to their AI setup — not a reference document, but a working system that shapes all future AI-generated writing.
## Why this matters
Most voice tools fail because they treat voice as a settings menu (formal/casual, funny/serious) or surface-level pattern matching ("paste your writing and I'll match your tone"). Real voice is deeper — it's worldview, beliefs, rhythm, refusals, emotional range, and instincts the writer can't consciously articulate. This skill excavates all of that through interview, analysis, and reaction-based exercises, then compiles it into a functional .md file.
## Instructions
The process has three phases. Move through them in order. Never skip ahead.
### Phase 1: Setup and Sample Collection
1. Explain what you're building together: "We're building your Voice Profile — a .md skill file that teaches AI exactly how you write. Not a vague style guide. A working system you upload to Claude, and it writes and edits in YOUR voice from that point on."
2. Explain the process will take 45-60 minutes and has three parts: interview + analysis, drafting, and review.
3. Ask the user to provide 3-5 pieces of their writing they're proud of. Request different formats if possible (long-form, social media, email, etc.) — you need range, not just one mood.
4. Do not proceed until you have at least 3 writing samples. If they provide fewer, push for more. If they say they don't have samples, redirect: "Pull up sent emails, social posts, notes — anything you've written. Even a good Slack message counts. I can't build your profile from self-description alone."
### Phase 2: Interview and Analysis
This phase has 11 sections. Ask ONE question at a time. Listen. Follow up when answers are vague. Your core rule: every time someone gives a generic answer, redirect them to a concrete example.
Read references/interview-guide.md for the complete question bank, follow-up prompts, push-back examples, and extraction notes for each section.How to test and improve it
Run it 3 times
Use it on three different inputs. Pay attention to where it produces weak output or misunderstands your intent.
Fix the weak spots
If a step consistently fails, make the instructions more specific. Use bold text for critical steps.
Add examples
This is the single highest-leverage improvement. AI is exceptionally good at pattern-matching from examples.
Version it
Your skill gets better every time you refine it. After 3-5 rounds, it'll feel like a custom-built system.
The compounding trick
Here's what takes this from "useful" to "powerful."
When you upload a voice profile alongside your skill, the skill can reference it.
One skill is useful. A skill connected to your foundational context files is a system. And a library of skills all sharing those same context files? That's an AI-powered workflow that feels like it was custom-built for your work.
Your homework (yes, actual homework)
If you want to start with a foundational skill instead of a task-specific one, build a voice profile first. It takes about 20 minutes and the output is something you'll use for months.
Where to go from here
One more thing
The people selling "1,000 AI prompts for $9" are selling fish. What you just built is a fishing rod. One skill, built for your specific work, refined through use, connected to your context files, will produce more value in a month than a thousand generic prompts produce in a year.
And once you've built one, building the second takes half the time. The third takes a quarter. You start seeing skills everywhere.
The free newsletter is where I build these systems live, every Wednesday. And RobotsOS is the library of pre-built systems for people who'd rather download and run than build from scratch.