# Create Claude Skills for recurring tasks

Published: 2025-10-31T00:00:00.000Z
Updated: 2025-12-10T00:00:00.000Z
Canonical: https://wow.pjh.is/journal/claude-skills

Want to teach Claude to do recurring tasks according to your instructions? It's now best to use [Claude Skills](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512176-what-are-skills)—not projects.

From the [Claude docs](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512176-what-are-skills):

> Skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude loads dynamically to improve performance on specialized tasks. Skills teach Claude how to complete specific tasks in a repeatable way, whether that's creating documents with your company's brand guidelines, analyzing data using your organization's specific workflows, or automating personal tasks.
>
> \[...]
>
> When you ask Claude to complete a task, it reviews available Skills, loads relevant ones, and applies their instructions.

See [appendix 1](#appendix-1-a-technical-sketch) for a more technical explanation.

## What can I do with Skills?

Some examples:

* [Create invoices, send them, and verify payment](https://wow.pjh.is/journal/claude-skill-send-my-invoices).
* [Review, edit and publish a blog post](https://wow.pjh.is/journal/publish-blog-post-claude-skill).
* [Make an OKR progress report](https://wow.pjh.is/journal/okr-progress-report-claude-skill).
* [Use a web browser to review messages on a government portal](https://wow.pjh.is/journal/claude-skill-computer-use-urssaf).
* [Make an AI Chief of Staff](https://wow.pjh.is/journal/ai-chief-of-staff).

![Claude Skill week review](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/claude-skill-week-review.jpeg "Kicking off my week review")

Some things that Skills can do:

* Use all the standard tools and connectors (e.g. create Asana tasks, draft emails, get calendar events, search the web).
* Run scripts (in the consumer web app: Python, Node.js, C++, Perl & Bash).
* Modify files on your computer (using [Claude Code](https://www.claude.com/product/claude-code)).
* Invoke other skills.

## How to make a Skill

Start a new chat, and say something like:

**Prompt**

```

Hey Claude, please help me make a new Claude Skill!

Start by asking me everything you need to know in order to make a great Skill. 

When I've answered your questions, draft the SKILL.md file and print it here in the chat for review.

Then share more questions and ideas to help me iterate.

```

You'll end up with a skill file like this:

![Claude Skill creation](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/claude-skill-creation.jpeg)

## What's the difference between Skills, Projects and Custom Instructions?

> ### Skills vs. Projects
> Projects provide static background knowledge that's always loaded when you start chats within them. Skills provide specialized procedures that activate dynamically when needed and work everywhere across Claude.
>
> ### Skills vs. Custom Instructions
> Custom instructions apply broadly to all your conversations. Skills are task-specific and only load when relevant, making them better for specialized workflows.

## Further reading

* [How to create custom skills](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512198-how-to-create-custom-skills)
* [How to create a skill with Claude through conversation](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12599426-how-to-create-a-skill-with-claude-through-conversation)
* [Agent skills](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/agent-skills/overview)

## Appendix 1. A technical sketch

From [Anthropic Engineering](https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills):

> Skills use "progressive disclosure" - Claude only loads skill information as needed rather than putting everything in context upfront. Like a well-organized manual that starts with a table of contents, then specific chapters, and finally a detailed appendix, skills let Claude load information only as needed. This means that the amount of context that can be bundled into a skill is effectively unbounded.

![Claude Skills progressive disclosure](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/claude-skills-and-context-window.webp)

You can bundle context files into a skill:

![Claude Skill MD example](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/claude-skill-md-example.webp)

And you can also bundle code, when you want deterministic logic, API calls, config files, or whatever else:

![Claude Skills bundle scripts](https://wow.pjh.is/static/images/blog/claude-skills-bundle-scripts.webp)