Create Your First Skill

Prerequisites

Before starting, confirm your Claude integration (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) supports Skills and locate the Skills root directory:

• Cursor: ~/.cursor/skills/ or project-level .cursor/skills/
• Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/

Step 1: Create Skill Directory

We'll create a "Meeting Notes" Skill:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/meeting-notes
cd ~/.claude/skills/meeting-notes

Step 2: Write SKILL.md

Create SKILL.md in the meeting-notes directory with the following content:

# Meeting Notes Skill
Trigger Conditions
Use when the user wants to:
Organize meeting records or meeting notes
Turn meeting recordings/notes into structured documents
Extract decisions, action items, and key points from meetings

Use when the user mentions "meeting notes", "meeting records", or "organize meeting".

Capability Description
Organize scattered meeting content into structured notes
Extract: attendees, time, topics, discussion points, decisions, action items
Output Markdown format for easy reference and follow-up

Execution Steps
Obtain meeting content from the user (text, bullet points, or transcript)
Identify and extract:
   - Basic meeting info (time, participants, topic)
   - Main discussion topics and conclusions
   - Decisions made
   - Action items (owner, deadline if available)
Output Markdown in this structure:
## Meeting Notes
   ### Basic Info
   ### Discussion Points
   ### Decisions
   ### Action Items
Use - [ ] format for action items so they can be checked off later
Example
Input
User: Help me organize this meeting record:
[Attached meeting content]
Output
Meeting Notes
Basic Info
Time: 2026-03-15 14:00
Participants: Alice, Bob, Carol
Topic: Q2 product planning discussion

Discussion Points
...
Decisions
...
Action Items
[ ] Alice: Complete requirements doc by March 20
[ ] Bob: Coordinate design resources

Step 3: Save and Enable

After saving SKILL.md, most environments automatically scan and load it. For manual refresh, refer to your tool's documentation.

Step 4: Test the Skill

In a conversation, type:

> Help me organize this meeting record: We had a product meeting this afternoon with Alice, Bob, and Carol. We discussed Q2 feature priorities and decided to focus on the user feedback module first. Alice will write the requirements doc by March 20, and Bob will coordinate design resources.

If the Skill works, Claude should output structured meeting notes with basic info, discussion points, decisions, and action items.

Common Issues

Skill not triggering

• Check if trigger conditions match your phrasing
• Try using keywords explicitly listed in the Skill

Output format doesn't match expectations

• Add more complete input/output examples
• Specify format requirements more clearly in the steps

Steps not fully executed

• Break steps into smaller parts or add checkpoints
• Add a constraint like "must complete all steps"

Summary

By creating the directory, writing SKILL.md, and defining trigger conditions and steps, you've built your first Skill. From here, you can add more examples, refine constraints, or create Skills for other domains.