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Stop collecting prompts. Start writing your own skills

The reference for writing skills that actually fire. How a description decides whether a skill is ever selected, how to scope one so it doesn't collide with the others, and how to test that it works before you rely on it.

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cat problem.md
A terminal session that drifted across seven files

Sound familiar?

Wrote a skill and the agent ignores it completely?

It is the most common experience in this whole area, and it almost never means the instructions were wrong. The skill was never selected. Its description named a capability rather than a situation, and nothing in a real request ever matched it.

Once you can write a description that matches the moment, everything else becomes straightforward. Until then, you are writing files that sit on disk being confidently ignored.

ls prompts/ | head -3

Sample pages

Inside the playbook

Twenty-four worked patterns. Each names the anti-pattern it replaces and gives you a test you can run to prove the skill fires.

pattern 03

Getting a skill selected

The Description Test

Describe the situation, not the capability. "Use when reviewing a database migration" beats "expert in databases" every time.

Use whenEvery skill you writePairs withThe Collision Check
pattern 11

Two skills fighting

The Collision Check

List every skill whose trigger overlaps this one. If two could fire on the same request, narrow one description until they cannot.

Use whenAfter the fourth skillPairs withThe Description Test
pattern 18

Proving it works

The Fires-Or-Not Test

Write three requests that must trigger it and three that must not. Run all six. A skill you have not tested this way is a guess.

Use whenBefore relying on itPairs withThe Description Test

24 in total inside the guide

Every prompt is dated, tested on a real repository, and carries a plain note on when not to use it.

cat contents.md

What's inside

Here's exactly what's in the reference

  • How to write a description that gets your skill selected at the right moment
  • Scoping a skill so it never collides with the other ones you wrote
  • Splitting long instructions so the agent loads only what it needs
  • Testing a skill properly before you depend on it in real work
  • Debugging the silent failure where a skill simply never fires
contents
01 Why Skills Get Ignored
02 Writing The Description
03 Scope And Collisions
04 Progressive Disclosure
05 Testing A Skill
06 Maintenance Over Versions
why --verbose

Why most skills never fire

The failure is almost never the instructions. It is a description written to impress rather than to match the moment the skill is needed.

Selection First

The description does the real work. A brilliant skill with a vague description is invisible, and this is the chapter people skip.

Scoped To Not Collide

Clear boundaries so the fifth skill you write doesn't quietly break the second one you already depended on.

Tested, Not Assumed

A six-request procedure that proves a skill fires when it should and stays silent when it shouldn't.

grep -n 'is this for me'

This is for you if

  • You have written a skill and watched it get ignored
  • You maintain more than three skills and they are starting to collide
  • You want to stop borrowing other people's setups

This is not for you if

  • You have not yet used a skill someone else wrote — start there
  • You want ready-made skills rather than the craft of writing them
Yes, I want skills I wrote that actually fire — Only $12.90

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PDF

What you get

The Skill Author's Playbook — 40-page guide (PDF)

How to write skills that get selected, stay scoped and survive a version change.

  • 40 pages6 chapters, 2026 Edition
  • 24 patternsExact wording, ready to paste
  • Instant accessEmailed the moment you buy
  • Any deviceRead on desktop, tablet or print

Pages shown are from the actual guide. Digital product (PDF) — no physical item and no software licence is included.

A skill that never triggers is a file nobody reads.

The Skill Author's Playbook is where you stop borrowing setups. It covers the description line that decides whether a skill gets selected at all, scope boundaries that prevent collisions, progressive disclosure for long instructions, and a test procedure that proves it fires.

US$12.90one-time
Yes, I want skills I wrote that actually fire — Only $12.90

Instant digital download. One-time payment of $12.90, billed securely by Digistore24. Educational material only. Results depend on your project, your model and how you apply it. Independent publication, not affiliated with or endorsed by any AI vendor.

man faq

Frequently asked questions

Is this a physical book or a digital product?

It's a digital guide (PDF). Right after purchase you get an email with a secure link to download it instantly. Nothing is shipped.

Is this official, or connected to Anthropic?

No. Terminal Craft is an independent publisher with no affiliation to, endorsement from or sponsorship by Anthropic or any other AI vendor. Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic PBC. This guide is our own field notes on using those tools well.

Does this include software, a licence or a subscription?

No. You need your own tools and your own account. This is written material: prompts, patterns and workflows you paste into whatever you already use.

AI changes constantly. Will this be out of date next month?

Every guide is dated on the cover as the 2026 Edition, and each one includes a chapter on what tends to change between versions and how to adapt a prompt when it does. The patterns outlast the version numbers; the specific outputs will not, and we say so plainly rather than pretending otherwise.

Do I need to be an experienced developer?

You need to be comfortable running a coding agent on your own project. The prompts are written in plain English and explained, but they assume you already have a codebase you're working on.

What if it isn't for me?

You're protected by a 60-day money-back guarantee. If it doesn't help, email us within 60 days for a full refund. No questions asked.

Write skills that actually get used

Get the full reference: descriptions, scope, disclosure and the test procedure. Stop wondering why your setup is being ignored.

Yes, I want skills I wrote that actually fire — Only $12.90

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