Skills 101: AI Training
NCD AI Guild · August 19, 2026
Skills 101.
Teach Claude your playbook. Once.
Today: Claude chat, in your browser.
America's Nerdiest Insurance Company
Every single morning
Sound familiar?
Typed fresh. Every chat. Every day.
Borrowed from the engineers
D.R.Y.
Don't Repeat Yourself.
Say it once — then it's just “the usual.”
Like the coffee shop that knows your order.
Why we're here
You leave with your own skill.
Built. Installed. Tested. Today.
The hour
Seven stops. One deliverable.
- Claude refresher
- What a skill is
- ChatGPT too
- Connectors
- Three demos
- Ideate
- Build yours — and share it
Quick review
Claude already does a lot.
Chats & writes
Drafts, answers, explains.
Reaches your stuff
Email, calendar, meetings — with permission.
Makes real files
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF.
But it doesn't know our way
It's never met NCD. Skills teach it.
The idea
Instructions Claude follows — on its own, or when you call it with /.
A recipe card for Claude.
Personal · Shared · Organization · Anthropic’s guide ↗
Inside a skill
A whole skill. Five lines.
--- name: will-amy-test-skill description: this is a skill that shows how to build and share skills --- Tell me all about how skills work in claude
The header
Name + description. Claude always sees these.
The instructions
Plain English. That's it.
You’ll never type this — Claude writes it for you.
Inside a skill, part 2
…or a whole folder.
ncd-brand-guidelines/ ├─ SKILL.md ← the instructions ├─ logos/ ← images ├─ colors + fonts ← reference files └─ helpers ← code Claude can run
One file
Perfect for habits and rules.
A folder
Add templates, examples, images — even code.
Today's brand demo is exactly this — our real logos and colors, bundled in.
Two ways a skill starts
When does a skill kick in?
Automatically — Claude reads each skill’s short description; when your request matches, it jumps in.
On demand — type / and pick it yourself. No guessing.
"Helps with recaps."
"Use whenever the user pastes meeting notes or asks for a recap, summary, or follow-ups — even without the word 'recap.'"
Meanwhile, next door
ChatGPT has skills too.
Same file under the hood
Build in one, install in the other.
A skill ≠ a Custom GPT
Skills stack inside your normal chat.
One caveat
Instructions transfer. Plumbing doesn't.
One more piece
Skills are the recipe.
Connectors are the pantry.
The recipe tells Claude how. The pantry is where the ingredients live — and a connector is the pantry door you’ve unlocked.
Microsoft 365
Your email, calendar, and Teams.
Fireflies
Your meeting transcripts.
ClickUp
Your tasks and projects.
Unlock once: Settings → Connectors. Claude only sees what you’ve connected.
Meet today's four
Same trick. Four very different jobs.
NCD Brand Guidelines Demo
On-brand anything.
1-Day Sweep Demo
Yesterday → one to-do list.
10-Day Sweep Big sibling
Ten days → one webpage.
Vendor Landscape Demo
Scout any software market.
Before we demo — 60 seconds, together
Switch yours on.
- Open Claude in your browser — claude.ai.
- Sidebar → Customize → Skills. That’s where every skill lives.
- Missing one? “+” → Browse skills → Install from NCD’s directory.
- Toggle on today’s four.
Demo 1 · Everyone — hands on
/ncd-brand-guidelines
Run one. Right now.
- New chat. Type “/” — pick ncd-brand-guidelines.
- Then ask:
Make me a one-page flyer announcing our Skills 101 class. - Watch the reply. Claude shows the skill it's reading.
Didn't fire? Name the skill — then raise a hand.
Demo 2 · Watch this one
/1-day-sweep
One day → one list.
Claude reads yesterday — meetings, email, Teams — and hands back what needs you.
Big sibling: 10-Day Sweep
The Monday version. Strongest model. Bring coffee.
Demo 3 · Watch this one
/vendor-landscape
Shopping for software?
Type it, then say what you’re shopping for.
Who's out there, what it costs, how they compare — one page.
Ideate · Write, don't talk
What should exist?
What do you do every week, same rules every time?
What do you re-explain to Claude every chat?
Which document has a fixed format?
What would a new hire need a cheat sheet for?
Into the capture doc. Every answer is a skill.
Pick one.
The smallest, most annoying weekly thing.
Build
Four moves.
- "Help me build a skill that ___."
- Answer like you're training a new hire.
- Click "Save skill."
- Test in a fresh chat. No fire? Fix the description.
Before you build
Six rules of thumb.
A specific description
Name the exact phrases it should answer to.
One job
One thing reliably beats five things vaguely.
Show it “good”
Paste a real example of the output you want.
Crawl → walk → run
One file → a folder → files & code.
Test in a fresh chat
Real request, no hints.
Let Claude fix it
Say what went wrong — it revises the skill.
Made something good?
Share it.
- Customize → Skills. Open your skill.
- Share — a person, a group, or all of NCD.
- They flip it on. Done.
Wrap
You walked in with prompts.
You're walking out with a skill.
Homework: use it for real this week.
Ideas & help: the AI support chat. Not in it yet? Ask — we’ll add you.
