Full transcript
0:00In a previous video, Akello showed off
0:02what skills can do in Claude Cowork.
0:05This time you're going to actually build
0:06one and walk away with a tool that you
0:08can use today. So, the last video was
0:11the why and this video is the how. The
0:13skill that we're going to be building
0:14today is a simple blurb writing skill.
0:18This is the back description that you'll
0:20see on the back of many books. Uh it's
0:21also called the book description. And
0:23these are very important things that you
0:26need for your book and a lot of people
0:28don't like writing them because it's a
0:29different type of writing skill. But
0:31after this video, you won't have to
0:32worry about that. You will create a
0:34skill that will actually do that whole
0:36process for you and you'll learn how to
0:38create skills in the meantime so that
0:41you can use the skills feature as a way
0:44to create any other group of skills that
0:47you can use in your Cowork process
0:50because once you know how to build one
0:52skill, you can build many more. So, I'm
0:55now going to uh pass it back on to
0:57Akello Herod who is helping me out with
1:00these videos and he'll give you a full
1:03rundown on how to build skills for
1:05yourself. Take it away, Akello. Hello,
1:08my name is Akello Herod and boy am I
1:09happy to be a nerdy novelist. So, last
1:12week we gave you the skinny on what
1:16skills are. Now, this week we're going
1:18to give you a nice breakdown and then at
1:20the very end, I'm going to show you
1:23something really cool on how you can
1:25actually make this just all happen. So,
1:29let's go through the anatomy of a skill.
1:31Okay. So, one, the first thing you want
1:35to do is you want to solve a problem.
1:37And in solving that problem, you
1:41you need to think of it more like like
1:43this isn't like a skill.
1:45At least in this case, when you're using
1:48Cowork over and over again, you're
1:49trying to solve this problem. Claude,
1:54I'm doing this thing. I want you to do
1:56this thing. You do it over and over and
1:58over again and it's something like, you
2:01know, your voice. You want it to kind of
2:03sound like you or genres or you want to
2:06your blurb structure or
2:09um the I don't care. Pick one, okay?
2:12Whatever that thing is that you're
2:13saying over and over and over again,
2:16that's your skill and that's what we're
2:17going to do. So, the first thing is you
2:19need to create a text file. I like to
2:21use Obsidian. Obsidian is a easy way to
2:26read markdown files. What are markdown
2:28files? I've already told you this, but
2:30markdown files are these wonderful
2:33little files that both humans and
2:36computers can both read. It's real easy
2:38for both of us to read it. So, we've
2:40created the file and I decided I wanted
2:43to call it the blurb maker skill because
2:45we're going to make a blurb that's going
2:47to go up in
2:49uh on Amazon or something for your
2:52business, okay? So, the blurb maker
2:54skill So, the way you first do it when
2:58you first do this is that you'll see
3:00here that I have these little dashes in
3:03between each one of the words. It likes
3:06to have dashes. So, you're going to do
3:08something like voice-skill.md
3:11or cozy-memory
3:13uh mystery-conventions.md
3:17or blurb-maker-skill.md,
3:22okay? The name is the command that you
3:25want to call it or invoke, okay?
3:28>> [clears throat]
3:29>> What do I mean by invoke? It means like
3:32very much like a spell. You're invoking
3:34a spell. You're saying something out
3:36loud. Well, in order to invoke, meaning
3:39call up some type of thing, you need to
3:42invoke it by typing in whatever the
3:45thing is. And it's good to have it be
3:49the thing that you actually want to go
3:50into. The blurb maker actually says me
3:54say blurb maker and then it'll go, "Hey,
3:56I'm going to use the blurb maker skill."
3:58because it's got a trigger kind of like
4:00Alexa or something like that.
4:03Okay. Second part. You're going to look
4:06at the front matter. Now, I decided this
4:09front matter is going to be this takes a
4:11dossier. So, the idea of front matter at
4:14is at the top of the file. It's a small
4:16little block of metadata that tells
4:18Claude what this skill is and when to
4:22use it, okay? That's actually extremely
4:25important because if it doesn't know
4:27when to use it, then it won't invoke it
4:29at the right time. This takes dossier
4:32and creates five blurbs of differing
4:34demographical emphasis to test different
4:38markets. And then I'm going to put here
4:42to test different markets.
4:45This is a post-final draft project.
4:50Now, that may not necessarily be exactly
4:53what you need to say in there, but it is
4:55something that is very specific to it.
4:57So, let's go down. We're going to We've
5:00already done that part. We need to have
5:03the body of this thing. And when you're
5:05writing the body, it's kind of where the
5:07real work happens, okay? The body is
5:11your actual instructions. Three things
5:14belong here, okay? Who Claude is when
5:19this skill is being loaded. It is
5:22extremely important that it understands
5:24its role. It understands its job. It
5:27understands how it should be used. What
5:30is its persona? The second thing it
5:34needs to know are the rules. What are
5:36the specific, you know, I don't care
5:38what it is. It's like a What are the
5:40specific patterns of the blurb that you
5:42want? How do you want this blurb to be?
5:45What examples can you give me? Can I
5:49give it to
5:50be more specific with the
5:53which I'm going to get to in a second,
5:55but what kind of actual uh conventions
5:59are we going to use inside of this
6:02particular skill in order to actually
6:06get it to do what we want it to do,
6:08okay?
6:10It's It It just seem It seems like it's
6:12obvious and it seems like I'm being Mr.
6:14Rogers here, but what I'm really trying
6:17to do is for you to understand that
6:18these are very basic things that can be
6:21expanded into incredibly, incredibly
6:25complicated things. I'll show you I'll
6:28also show you that in a second. Quick
6:30pause. If you're an aspiring author who
6:32wants to write multiple legit books
6:34using AI without sounding like a robot,
6:36I run a private group called Story
6:38Hacker AI. Now, it's currently closed,
6:40but if you join the wait list using the
6:42link below, I'll immediately send you my
6:44full prompt pack for free. These are the
6:47exact long-form prompts that I use to
6:49outline, draft, and edit books. Many of
6:51them are hundreds and even a a thousand
6:53words long. So, not those one-line junk
6:56prompts that you see from tech bros on
6:58YouTube. To get them, follow the link in
7:00the description, drop your email, and
7:01I'll send the prompt pack straight to
7:03your inbox. You'll also be the first to
7:05know when the group reopens. And now
7:07back to the video. Okay. Here is the
7:11biggest part. When I'm writing this
7:13thing, I want to be incredibly specific,
7:18okay? What is the
7:20genre that I'm writing for?
7:23If I want to hone in on that specific
7:25thing, how should the blurb be built?
7:28What How is the length of the blurb? Is
7:30it third person, first person, second
7:33What is it? What is the actual structure
7:37of this thing? Be incredibly specific.
7:40If you're concrete with nouns and and
7:43you have everything specifically
7:47honed in to whatever it is you're trying
7:49to do. I don't care what it is. The more
7:52specific the instructions, the more the
7:55output sounds like you are the author
7:59who looked at this and said, "This is
8:01what a blurb is." In next week's
8:03adventure, what we're really going to
8:05do,
8:06we are going to build a skill. This
8:10skill is going to show people your
8:13voice. It's pretty exciting. I'm very
8:16excited for you. But before we do that,
8:19I want you to understand that we're not
8:20quite done yet. We are at the saving it
8:23part. You save this whole thing and then
8:27you put it into a specific folder and
8:29that specific folder is where the skills
8:31are, but you say to yourself, "Oh my
8:34goodness, I'm going to have to learn how
8:35to do all of this." No, you're not
8:38because guess what?
8:41You have the opportunity to use Claude
8:46Cowork to help you build the skill and
8:48I'll show you that in a second. After
8:50you're done with all of this stuff, you
8:52are going to iterate. After you've made
8:55the first version of this thing, you're
8:57going to want to come back to it over
8:59and over again and hone it and make it
9:01better and make the processes better and
9:03you have a starting point, but you may
9:06never have an ending point because
9:08you're making it better and better and
9:10better. All right. So, that's pretty
9:12much the last of the things that I have
9:15to tell you about except for one huge
9:19thing. Ladies and gentlemen, you Oh,
9:22yeah. That's right. You can have Claude
9:25Cowork build the skill for you. This is
9:28what I did. I said, "Hey, I want to
9:30build a skill that helps me write three
9:32different versions of a blurb, a book
9:34blurb.
9:35I want to be able to give you a dossier,
9:39then I want you to invoke the skill. Use
9:42the skill over and over and over again
9:44to create three different blurbs for me
9:47to approve before I send it to Amazon.
9:52If you need to, I want you to go online
9:55right now, figure out everything you
9:58need for this skill to be the most
9:59excellent and the easiest to deploy. I
10:02want you to use your skill maker skill.
10:07That's right, ladies and gentlemen. It
10:09has a skill for making skills. So,
10:13that's what I want you to do is I want
10:15you to be able to have all of these
10:17ideas in your head. This is why I wanted
10:19you to write all these things down and
10:20why we've gone through all this stuff so
10:22that you understand the fundamental why.
10:25The why you want to do something and
10:28then the how you can really make it
10:31better. That way, when you're deciding
10:34on the skill, you can give it as much
10:37information and the specifically
10:40good information that it needs in order
10:42to make the best skill possible. And it
10:44did a whole bunch of work and oh my
10:46goodness. I mean, I I asked it to do
10:48that and then it it did some research
10:51and it wrote the skill and all six
10:54agents are done and now grading all
10:58outputs against their assertions. Good.
11:02Now aggregate the benchmark and launch
11:05the eval review. Good. Okay. Now and it
11:09did all of this. It actually created a
11:11skill that creates multiple agents that
11:14go out and they make multiple Oh, wow.
11:17And that is pretty That's pretty cool.
11:20Let's see here. Read the evals and here
11:22we go.
11:23And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a
11:28eval review. Okay. Looks like a book
11:31writer review. Review each output and
11:35leave feedback below. So, it actually
11:38made a little skill that looks at all of
11:41these and uses these to make Wow. That's
11:45pretty intense. That really went way
11:48further. So, prompt and then with skill.
11:52Wow.
11:53>> [laughter]
11:56>> It went above and beyond. My goodness.
11:59Ladies and gentlemen,
12:01this is the last thing I have to say to
12:02you about skills.
12:04They are a building block, a LEGO block.
12:07They can do anything. Co-work is the
12:11scaffolding for which you can create
12:13things,
12:15workflows and stuff inside of your
12:16business. What really goes over the top
12:19is your ability to stack these things
12:22together. So, what I want you to do is
12:24use that imagination of yours and start
12:26thinking about the different skills that
12:29you can stack together to make something
12:31bigger. You can make them You can stack
12:33a bunch of them together and they become
12:35a workflow. That workflow stacked
12:37together and wrapped together becomes a
12:39plugin. You can take that plugin and
12:41then you can make that bigger with
12:44automations and take these automated
12:46things that happen over and over again,
12:49sometimes in the middle of the night,
12:51and it can create files for you, look at
12:54your email, check your calendars. It can
12:56do all kinds of stuff just for you. I
13:00mean, it can almost run your life if you
13:05set up all of the right skills. Next
13:08week, we're going to build a skill that
13:11sounds like you.