Skills and agents · Practical guide

Create your first reusable AI skill

Beginner · Published 2026-10-09 · Reviewed 2026-10-05

Tools: Multi-tool
Audience: People getting started with AI
Topic: Skills and agents

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You’ll finish with: a reusable instruction set with clear inputs and acceptance checks.

A useful skill is a tested procedure you can reuse. Start with a task you can already do well in chat. Saving vague instructions in a special file does not make them less vague.

Set up

Budget 25–40 minutes. Use a client supporting Agent Skills. Plain chat can test the wording, but it does not prove native installation. Check the linked host instructions and account access before setup.

Download this guide’s practice sheet ↓

Download the text-only action-note skill and tests ↓

Try this example

FICTIONAL PRACTICE MATERIAL
Skill: action-note. Input: Jo checks the venue by Thursday; catering owner unknown. Output: task, owner, due date, uncertainty. Boundary: create drafts only. No messages or external tools required.

Do the task

Download the supplied skill folder and read SKILL.md, including its name and description.
Use your client’s supported skill installer or folder location. In Claude Code, a project skill can live at .claude/skills/action-note/SKILL.md; other clients use different locations.
Invoke action-note explicitly on the practice input, then test a second note with no date.

Your reusable prompt

Use action-note to extract tasks from this input. Return the four specified fields. Keep missing owners and dates as Unknown. Show the draft without sending it anywhere.

PRACTICE INPUT
Skill: action-note. Input: Jo checks the venue by Thursday; catering owner unknown. Output: task, owner, due date, uncertainty. Boundary: create drafts only. No messages or external tools required.

Refine your result

Run the second test: Lee will check the poster. Confirm that no due date is invented and explain which saved skill you used.

Check the result

The first result should assign Jo only the venue check; catering remains unowned. The second has Lee and an unknown date. If the client only followed pasted text, record a prompt test, not an installed-skill test.

Save and reuse

Keep SKILL.md, the host used and both test results together. Review scripts or dependencies before adding them later.

Sources and notes

Agent Skills file specification Checked 2026-10-05
Installing and invoking Claude Code skills Checked 2026-10-05

The practice input and teaching prompt are original 5HO material. Examples are fictional; they are not screenshots or claims of a completed real-world task.
Official documentation supports the relevant product concepts. Setup availability depends on your account; where a guide offers a fallback, it does not prove the connected capability worked.