reference guide

Build a Skill — in ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini

Doing the exercise in a chat tool

The Skill Builder's interviewer is itself just an agent — so any chat tool can play it. What you lose is the file tree and the zip button: you assemble the folder yourself on your own computer. The steps and captures are identical to the main exercise.

Set up your tool first

1
Use one conversation as the interviewer.
A temporary chat is fine — you will be copying the results out as they're agreed, not relying on the chat to keep them.
2
Start it with the interviewer prompt below.
3
Create the folder on your own machine as the interview produces each file.
your-skill/ with SKILL.md, references/, scripts/, assets/ — copy each finished file out of the chat and into the folder verbatim.

The interviewer prompt

user prompt

I want to package a recurring task from my work as an agent skill — a folder a fresh AI assistant could use to do the task without ever having met me. Interview me about the task, one question at a time, pressing for concrete details ("what does 'clean the data' MEAN here?", "can I have a real finished example?"). Then write, one file at a time as we agree on them: 1. SKILL.md — the skill's name, a one-line "use this skill when…" description, and a table of contents pointing at the other files. 2. references/ — the knowledge a newcomer would need, as files. 3. assets/ — a template with placeholders, and one worked example: a real input with its real finished output. 4. scripts/ — step-by-step procedures or code, ONLY if the task truly warrants them. Keep SKILL.md pointers, not payload. Start the interview.

The acid test in a chat tool

Step 3 needs a conversation that has never met you: open a fresh temporary chat (a different tool entirely is even better), upload or paste the folder's files, give it a task, and do not coach. When it stumbles, fix the folder — not the chat — and run the test again in another fresh conversation.

Back to the exercise →