Extracts and creates Claude skills from source materials — PDFs, URLs, text files, audio transcripts, or video transcripts. Use this skill whenever the user provides documents, books, guides, articles, or links and wants to turn them into reusable skills. Triggers on: "create skills from these files", "turn this PDF into a skill", "extract skills from", "make skills from these docs", "build skills from this book/article/guide", or when the user supplies a collection of related materials and asks what skills can be made. Also triggers when the user points at a directory of documents and says something like "apply to docs/*.pdf". This skill is the right tool even if the user doesn't say "skill" explicitly — if they hand you learning material and want to operationalize it, use this.
name skills-from-sources description Extracts and creates Claude skills from source materials — PDFs, URLs, text files, audio transcripts, or video transcripts. Use this skill whenever the user provides documents, books, guides, articles, or links and wants to turn them into reusable skills. Triggers on: "create skills from these files", "turn this PDF into a skill", "extract skills from", "make skills from these docs", "build skills from this book/article/guide", or when the user supplies a collection of related materials and asks what skills can be made. Also triggers when the user points at a directory of documents and says something like "apply to docs/*.pdf". This skill is the right tool even if the user doesn't say "skill" explicitly — if they hand you learning material and want to operationalize it, use this. Skills From Sources You are turning raw source materials into reusable Claude skills. The goal is to deeply understand each source, identify distinct actionable skill candidates, and create well-structured skill directories that future Claude sessions can use. Phase 1: Extract Content from Sources For each source, extract its full text using the best available method: PDFs — run the bundled extraction script: python scripts/extract_content.py --pdf <path> This uses PyMuPDF. If the PDF is long (>100 pages), extract a representative sample: introduction, chapter summaries, conclusions, and any framework/method sections. Read scripts/extract_content.py for usage details. URLs — use the WebFetch tool directly. Grab the main content; skip navigation, footers, and ads. Plain text / Markdown — use the Read tool directly. Audio / Video — these require a transcript. If a .txt , .srt , or .vtt transcript file exists alongside the media file, read that. Otherwise, tell the user you need a transcript and offer to proceed with the other sources in the meantime. Collect the extracted text for each source in memory — you'll analyze them together in Phase 2. Phase 2: Understand Each Source For each source, answer these questions (you don't have to write them out — just hold them in mind): What domain does this cover? (e.g., habit formation, sales tactics, cooking techniques, software architecture) What is the core thesis or framework? (the main model, method, or insight) What are the key concepts, steps, or techniques? (the actionable parts) Who is the intended audience? (beginners, experts, practitioners, coaches, developers...) What would someone do differently after reading this? Write a brief 2–3 sentence summary of each source before moving on. Phase 3: Identify Skill Candidates Look across all sources and identify skills worth creating. Good skill candidates are: Specific and actionable — "design a tiny habit using BJ Fogg's anchor method" is better than "habits" Repeatable — something you'd want Claude to do consistently every time, not once Distinct — each skill covers one coherent capability; don't merge unrelated things or split one thing into five Complementary to Claude's defaults — skills add domain knowledge or workflow structure that Claude wouldn't have without the source material When multiple sources overlap (e.g., several books on the same topic), look for: Synthesis skills — combining insights from all sources into one unified framework Comparison skills — helping users choose between approaches (atomic habits vs. tiny habits vs. mini habits) Domain-specific application skills — applying a framework to a particular context (habits for software teams, habits for wellness, etc.) Present the skill candidates to the user as a short numbered list with a one-line description of each. Ask which ones to create before building anything. If the user wants all of them, proceed. Example presentation format: I found 4 skill candidates across these sources:
Body — include: A clear statement of what this skill does and why The core framework or model being applied (cite the source briefly) Step-by-step process instructions written in imperative form Output format (if there's a specific structure the user expects) 1–2 concrete examples if the skill is complex Tone and length: Write for Claude, not for the end user Explain the why behind each step, not just the what Keep under 300 lines; use a references/ file for heavy domain content Avoid hedging language and unnecessary MUSTs — explain reasoning instead Reference files If the skill needs substantial domain content (frameworks, lists, criteria, detailed models), put it in references/<topic>.md and reference it from SKILL.md with a pointer like: "Read references/habit-laws.md for the full Four Laws framework before starting." Keep reference files focused — one topic per file, with a brief table of contents if over 100 lines. Updating MEMORY.md After creating skills, add entries to ~/.claude/skills/MEMORY.md (the skills index). Each entry is one line: