Build Your First Skill
Write a working Claude skill from scratch in three lessons. Take home a weekly retrospective skill you actually use.
One install command.
Jump to install
Signed in as your account.
What you'll build
- 01 A real Claude skill with name, description, body, and a references file.
- 02 A weekly-retro skill installed in your own Cowork that you can use forever.
- 03 An intuition for collaborating with Claude as the director, not just the typist.
curriculum
3 lessons across 1 phases.
phase A · Author your first skill 3 lessons
- 01 SKILL.md frontmatter lesson_frontmatter
The YAML header that tells Claude when to fire your skill. You decide what triggers it; the walker drafts the YAML.
- 02 The skill body lesson_body
The markdown below the frontmatter is the prompt Claude runs when the skill fires. You design the structure; the walker drafts the markdown.
- 03 Progressive disclosure lesson_disclosure
Reference files Claude loads only when needed. Keeps the skill short for the common case and extensible for the deeper ones.
prerequisites
What you need before you start.
- Claude Cowork
- The agentic tab inside Claude Desktop. No terminal experience required beyond installing the app once.
- About 30 minutes
- Three short lessons. You can stop and resume any time — the walker tracks where you are.
install
Two lines to start.
Run the first in your shell. Run the second from inside Claude Code, in plain English.
First time here?
You'll need the lwc CLI and the Claude Code plugin
installed once before the two lines below will work.
Full walkthrough →
~/lwc claude
> set up the skill authoring workshop