MWC AI PLAYGROUND — SESSION 3

Build Your Skills Stack

Claude Skills: what they are, where they come from, how to build one

Where we are

S1 Prototype Without Code — tools, possibilities, first experiments

S2 Build Your Persistent Workspace — Projects, starter kit, instructions vs. files

S3 Skills — teaching Claude how to do something well Today

S4 Design — long-form content into designed reading experiences

S5–6 Ship something — use it, share it, or sell it

Three layers

Instructions how to act

Files what to know

              Skills
              how to do this specific thing well
            

A skill is a markdown file. That’s it.

Before we start — enable Skills

01 Go to Settings → Capabilities

02 Turn on Code execution and file creation

03 Go to Customize → Skills

04 Find skill-creator — toggle it on

— Works on Free, Pro, Max, Team & Enterprise

What’s inside a skill

A skill is a recipe Claude follows every time.

Instead of re-explaining how you like things done, you write it once. Claude reads it before every relevant task and follows it consistently — across every conversation, every session, every surface.

The key rule: every skill needs a WHAT (what it does) and a WHEN (when to use it). That’s how Claude knows to reach for it.

Skill folder structure

your-skill-name/

SKILL.mdrequired

scripts/optional

references/optional

assets/optional

Browse examples: github.com/anthropics/skills Full guide: Complete Guide to Building Skills

Skills don’t come
from Claude.

They come from you.

A skill is implicit knowledge made explicit.
The best ones come from people who already know
how to do something well.

What we’re doing today

We’re going to take something one of you knows how to do
— and build a skill from it. Live.

Now — make something.

Think of something you do well that’s hard to explain.
Not the outcome. The how.

Open Claude. Start extracting.
Ask it to turn the conversation into a skill when you’re ready.

Don’t know where to start?

Try this. Dictate or type it into Claude:

“I give feedback on [thing] pretty often. Usually the things I find myself saying over and over are [describe the patterns]. Can you build a skill where I input the thing I’m reviewing, and you write a first draft of the feedback you think I’d give, as close to my voice as you can?”