# Skills starter guide: which skill to reach for

Borrow skills, don't build everything. But first:

> **Hard rule: read the SKILL.md before you install.** A skill is instructions your agent will follow, and it runs with your agent's permissions. Same scrutiny as any other dependency. Official and curated sources first; anything unvetted is amber.

## The shortlist, lowest friction first

| Skill | What for | First thing to ask it | Where | Proof hook |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `docx` / `pdf` document skills | Business artefacts straight from the CLI | "Turn these notes into a one-page Word doc" | anthropics/skills (official) | Open the file it made |
| `xlsx` spreadsheet skill | Tables and working sheets without Excel wrangling | "Summarise this CSV into a formatted sheet" | anthropics/skills (official) | Open the sheet; check one number |
| Mock-data | The "mock data is the fast path" route from the brief | "Generate 50 realistic-but-fake loan applications as CSV" | brief's curated sources | Show a row; confirm nothing real |
| `frontend-design` | Demo-quality UI, fast | One requirement paragraph → a clickable screen | anthropics/claude-plugins-official | Open it in a browser, change one thing live |
| MCP-builder | A leaner custom Jira MCP instead of the full Atlassian one | Scaffold a one-tool MCP and list its tools | anthropics/skills (official) | `/context` before and after: fewer tokens than the full Atlassian MCP |
| Brand/deck assets | Decks & one-pagers in *your* house style | Point it at Oodle's saved brand assets → one styled slide | curated community (read SKILL.md first; amber until vetted) | Put the result next to a real Oodle slide |

Start at the top. Each row asks a bit more of the terminal than the one above it.

## The 90-second live demo (leave-behind)

The full loop: browse, read, install, run.

    # 1. Browse: list what's in the official repo
    npx skills add anthropics/skills --list

    # 2. Read its SKILL.md first. Open it in the repo, e.g.
    #    https://github.com/anthropics/skills → document-skills/docx/SKILL.md

    # 3. Install (project-level)
    npx skills add anthropics/skills -s docx -y

    # 4. Run it on a safe task, and show the before/after
    claude
    > turn notes.md into a formatted one-page Word doc
    # the agent can't produce this properly without the skill

The install lands in `./.agents/skills/<name>/`, SKILL.md included. Read it again if you skimmed. Remove with `npx skills remove docx`.

Approved sources: [anthropics/skills](https://github.com/anthropics/skills) · [anthropics/claude-plugins-official](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official) · [skillsmp.com](https://skillsmp.com/) · [awesome-claude-skills](https://github.com/travisvn/awesome-claude-skills). [skills.sh](https://www.skills.sh/) is fine for browsing, but install from the approved repos above. The workshop's own stage-by-stage prompts live in the workshop hub's skills catalog.