What are Claude Skills and how do they work

Today I dive into Anthropic’s latest feature that lets anyone create reusable workflows for Claude—no coding required. I break down exactly what Claude Skills are, how to build them from scratch, and how to use them inside Claude Code and Cursor to automate recurring AI tasks like generating PRDs, writing changelog summaries, and turning demo notes into follow-up emails.

What you’ll learn:

1. What Claude Skills are and how they differ from Claude Projects and custom GPTs
2. How to structure a Skill (metadata, instructions, and linked files)
3. Why defining workflows in natural language beats rigid automation tools
4. How to create Claude Skills using Claude Code and Cursor
5. How to validate your skills with Python scripts and folder references
6. How to upload and use Claude Skills inside Claude’s web or desktop app
7. Practical examples: turning changelogs into newsletters, demo notes into emails, and more

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Brought to you by:

ChatPRD—An AI copilot for PMs and their teams

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Where to find Claire Vo:

ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/

Website: https://clairevo.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/

X: https://x.com/clairevo

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:39) What are Claude Skills and how do they work?

(08:30) The structure of Claude Skills files

(11:00) Demo: Creating Skills using Claude’s built-in skill creator

(16:08) A more efficient workflow: Creating Skills with Cursor

(17:42) Using Python validation scripts

(18:37) Testing Skills with Claude Code

(20:52) Creating a changelog-to-newsletter Skill

(22:16) Creating a demo-to-follow-up-email Skill

(23:45) Uploading Skills to the Claude web interface

(26:04) Conclusion and summary

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Tools referenced:

• Claude: https://claude.ai/

• Claude Code: https://claude.ai/code

• Cursor: https://cursor.sh/

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Other references:

• Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills

• Anthropic Skills Documentation: https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills?utm_source=chatgpt.com

• Claude Projects:https://claude.ai/projects

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co.