FIELD NOTE 04 / REUSABLE SKILLS
Package the thing you keep retyping.
Turn a useful workflow into something you can ask for by name.
A skill is a reusable procedure: when to use it, what information it needs, what to do, and how to judge the result. Start with a workflow you have already made work.
“You do not need 139. You need the two or three things you keep re-typing.”
Paul’s working notes · September 2026
What it looks like
Repeating your whole review checklist in every conversation.
SKILL.md Use when: I ask for a release review. Inputs: scoped diff and intended behavior. Steps: inspect, identify failure cases, verify. Output: actionable findings with evidence. Stop when: required context is missing.
Put it to work
- 01
Choose a procedure with a recognizable result.
A writing-voice check, a research brief, or a release review is easier to package than “do better work.” Keep one example of a good result and one that fails your standards.
- 02
Capture the successful version.
Write down the trigger, inputs, sequence, expected output, and stop conditions. In Claude Code, a skill uses SKILL.md with metadata. Check the current format for your tool instead of assuming every app installs the same file.
- 03
Test the trigger and the output.
Try it once by name and once in a situation where it should apply. Check whether the tool used it and whether the result meets the original example. Remove duplicated rules and update the procedure when the tools change.
Give this to your AI
Adapt the brackets to your task.Turn the workflow we just completed into a reusable skill for [tool]. First read its current official skill documentation. Propose a clear trigger, required inputs, steps, output format, and stop conditions. Include the successful example as a reference, excluding private data. Show how to invoke it and how to verify that it ran. Do not install other skills or change global settings.
A skill is an instruction package, not a guarantee of quality. Do not install a large collection just to increase the count. Read any included scripts before allowing them to run.
Save a proven procedure, give it a name, and check the result.
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Inspect the project on GitHubSources & further reading
Personal counts are from Paul’s prompt-history analysis. Tool guidance was checked against these sources in September 2026. Confirm current behavior in your installed version.