Chat to skill

Chat to Skill

Transform conversation history into reusable skills — long-term memory for Claude.

Process

1. Analyze Dialog

Scan the entire conversation to identify:

• Primary goal: What was the user trying to achieve?
• Secondary goals: Any related objectives discovered along the way
• Errors encountered: Mistakes, dead ends, wrong approaches
• Successful path: What actually worked

2. Abstract to Reusable Patterns

Critical: Do NOT create skills for specific cases. Abstract to general patterns.

Ask yourself:

• What CATEGORY of problem was solved? (not the specific instance)
• What would this look like with different data/context?
• Would this skill be useful in other projects?

Abstraction levels (from bad to good):

Too specific (BAD)	Good abstraction
"Seed users from client Excel"	"Import spreadsheet data into Rails"
"Parse names into fields"	(implementation detail, not a skill)
"Fix pytest in project X"	"Configure pytest for monorepos"
"Add dark mode to app Y"	"Implement theme switching in React"

Rules:

• Remove project names, organization names, specific entities
• Focus on the TECHNIQUE, not the specific data
• If something is just an implementation detail (name parsing, date formatting), it's not a separate skill
• One dialog = usually one skill (the main workflow), not multiple micro-skills

3. Extract Context-Specific Details

Depending on the task type, look for:

Development tasks:

• Commands and flags that worked
• Versions and compatibility (what works with what)
• Configuration that was needed
• Code patterns and architectural decisions
• Debugging process (how the root cause was found)
• Tool/library choices and why

Research/analysis tasks:

• Sources that proved useful
• Search strategies that worked
• How to validate findings

Process/workflow tasks:

• Order of operations (what must come first)
• Decision criteria (how choices were made)
• Stakeholders or dependencies

Any task:

• Prerequisites that weren't obvious
• Context that matters for success
• Signs that indicate the right/wrong path

4. Choose Topic (if multiple found)

If dialog contains several distinct learnable patterns, use AskUserQuestion:

Question: "I found several skill candidates. Which to create?"

Options: List 2-4 abstracted topics (not specific tasks), plus "All of them"

5. Validate Skill Candidate

Before proposing, check:

• Is this reusable in other projects/contexts?
• Is this a workflow/technique, not just a one-off fix?
• Would future-me benefit from having this skill?
• Is it abstracted enough to apply broadly?

If NO to any — either abstract further or skip skill creation.

6. Propose Topic (if valid)

Present ONE main skill (not a list of micro-topics):

Skill candidate: [Abstracted name]

What it captures: [1-2 sentences about the reusable pattern]

Key learnings:
- [Main insight 1]
- [Main insight 2]
- [Mistake to avoid]

Then ask using AskUserQuestion tool:

Question: "How does this skill proposal look?"

Options:

1. "Good, create it" — proceed to step 7
2. "Too specific" — re-abstract: remove project/entity names, find broader pattern
3. "Wrong focus" — re-analyze: what was the MAIN technique vs implementation details?
4. "Not reusable" — reconsider: is this a one-off task or a recurring pattern?

7. Revise (if needed)

Based on user's choice, fix the specific issue:

"Too specific":

• What broader category does this belong to?
• Would this apply with different tools/platforms? Generalize.

"Wrong focus":

• What would you google to solve this problem?
• The answer is probably the real skill name.

"Not reusable":

• How often would this exact situation repeat?
• If rarely — maybe no skill needed. Ask user what they hoped to capture.

8. Prepare Knowledge Package

Goal: One sentence — what this skill helps achieve

Trigger: When should this skill activate? (keywords, file types, contexts)

Mistakes to avoid:

• Specific errors from the dialog
• Why they were wrong
• What they cost (time, confusion)

Optimal path:

• Shortest working sequence
• No exploration, only essentials
• Include specific commands/configs if applicable

Key details:

• Versions/compatibility if relevant
• Non-obvious prerequisites
• How to verify success

9. Create Skill

Use /skill-creator with the prepared knowledge package.