Your Skill Repo Awaits
I got a note this week from a developer who grabbed my free skills starter kit, and I've read it about five times now because it describes the exact thing I keep waving my arms about:
"I was reluctant to try this, because my usual setup 'just worked'. But this? Next level doesn't begin to describe this! I spent the time to edit the files as directed, then had Claude add skills for my specific disciplines, but after that… wow! Just took my roadmap and churned it out in one session, no errors, no distractions, just clear, concise output, just like I documented. I am genuinely in awe of the combination of Claude and your playbook."
The phrase that gets me is "just like I documented." Because the kit isn't the magic here, and honestly neither is Claude. He edited the files, added skills for his own disciplines, and what came out the other side were his standards, executed. Decades of judgment that used to live only in his head, finally written down somewhere an agent can run it. He compiled himself.
I really wish more senior developers understood about where we are right now. Every time you look at generated code and think "no, we don't do it that way," you're running a skill that you've just never written down. So you correct the same things in every session, forever, like some kind of Groundhog Day code review. I did this for months (I'd love to say weeks, but no) before it clicked that I was the bottleneck.
Here's something you can do today, no kit required: open a new markdown file (call it whatever you like) and write down the three things you correct most often when reviewing AI-generated code.
For me it would be something like:
The tests are never written as I like them, with a single assertion per test and descriptive titles that are easily readable.
I absolutely hate the Repository pattern and don't know why Claude insists on using it.
I want to see more and better git commits during long loop runs so I can have a better change log.
Now have Claude interview you:
Read @my-issues.md and help me create a set of skills to prevent this stuff from happening in the future. These are non-negotiables for me.
Spend some time here and let your inspiration take over. You'll soon be asking yourself things like "what about coding styles?" or "I like event-based systems I wonder if I could..." and yes, you can.
AI is a tool and is yours to weild as you know how. Take some time here friendo!
Your Skill Repo
Not so long ago it was common for most developers to have their "dot files" as one of their main public repos. Things like Vim settings, Git shortcuts, aliases, and other utility skills. Some folks (like Robby Russel from Oh My Zsh!) formalized theirs into a complete shell plugin ecosystem.
These days it's becoming more common to have your skills set up in a repo that you could then download directly into your project. Things you use for every project, at a team level or individual. If you don't have one, today's the day!
Go get my skill set and while you're at it, poke around the free resources I have ready for you!
Need Some Help Setting Up?
I'm putting on a live 2 to 3 hour workshop/live coding session next week as a "prequel" to my Summer Cohort. I'm calling it Turn Yourself Into a Plugin and it's on Wednesday, June 17 at 8am Hawaii time (11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern, 7pm in the UK). You bring a laptop and a codebase you know well, and we build your personal skill library together.
In hour one we mine your experience with an interview process I'll give you and ship your first skill, hour two we grow it into a real library wired into Claude Code, hour three we put it to work inside agent loops.
It's $149, capped at 50 seats, and everyone gets the recording, the transcript, and the starter repo. If you've been eyeing The AI Pro cohort, the $149 comes off the top when you join - so it's like a preview without the full commitment.
I read every reply, so if you've built something like this already, tell me about it. The notes like the one above are the best part of this job.
Cheers and thanks for reading, Rob
P.S. Yes, the free skill kit will work with Copilot, Codex, OpenCode, Pi, whatever - just have your LLM convert it for you. It will recognize Claude Code's set up and do the needful!