cdeistopened Skill Extractor
Turn raw source material into a list of buildable Claude Code skills. Not a knowledge base — skills are workflows Claude can execute, not facts Claude should know.
The Core Distinction
Skill = a repeatable workflow with inputs, steps, and outputs that Claude executes inside a coding environment. Writing a YouTube script. Running an SEO audit. Drafting a newsletter. Creating ad copy.
Not a skill = static knowledge, reference material, domain expertise. How to raise meat birds. The history of fasting. Nutritional science. These become wiki articles, books, or reference docs — not skills.
The test: Can Claude do this thing, repeatedly, with different inputs, and produce a useful output? If yes → skill. If it's something Claude knows and references → not a skill.
Skill Taxonomy
Score each candidate against these six hallmarks. A strong skill exhibits 2+ of these.
1. Repeated SOP / Workflow
Something done regularly as part of a content or business process. The more often it's done, the higher the leverage.
Examples: Newsletter drafting, social post creation, podcast show notes, SEO content briefs, weekly reporting
2. Disposable One-Shot
Valuable but infrequent. Done once per project or client. Still worth codifying because it saves hours when needed — and becomes an agency offering if done for others.
Examples: Writing a LinkedIn bio, Amazon category research, brand identity creation, book launch checklist, landing page copy
3. Specific Knowledge Applied as Process
Domain expertise distilled into a repeatable method — not raw knowledge, but knowledge operationalized into steps Claude can follow.
Examples: Kallaway's "7 Lego Bricks" for short-form → YouTube scriptwriting skill. Dan Koe's "one-person business" model → content strategy skill. NOT "the history of short-form video" (that's reference).
4. Step-by-Step Process
A clear sequence where order matters. Often teachable, often already described as numbered steps in the source material.
Examples: Video editing workflow, podcast production pipeline, email sequence writing, ad creative testing process
5. Example-Driven
Skills where having 3-5 concrete examples dramatically improves output quality. The examples ARE the skill — they teach by pattern, not by instruction.
Examples: Voice/style skills (Trung Phan, Tyler Cowen), ad creative frameworks, hook writing, cold open creation
6. Tool-Augmented
Skills that benefit from MCP servers, API calls, CLI tools, or other integrations. These extend Claude's autonomy — the model can work longer without human input.
Examples: SEO keyword research (DataForSEO), social media scraping (Apify), RSS curation, image generation (Gemini), video processing (ffmpeg)
Available Tool Ecosystem
When evaluating whether a skill candidate is tool-augmented, consider what's currently available:
MCP Servers (live in this workspace):
- Slack (channels, messages, search)
- Google Drive (docs, sheets, slides, folders)
- Google Calendar (events, scheduling, freebusy)
- Apify (web scraping actors — YouTube, Twitter, any site)
- Notion (pages, databases, search)
- Video-audio (trim, convert, subtitles, overlays, concatenate)
- Context7 (library documentation lookup)
CLI Tools:
- ffmpeg (video/audio processing)
- yt-dlp (YouTube downloading)
- Whisper (transcription)
- qmd (local markdown search / RAG)
- gh (GitHub CLI)
- Bun/Node (JS execution)
- Python (scripting, data processing)
APIs (via scripts):
- DataForSEO (keyword research, SERP, rankings)
- Gemini (deep research, image generation, large-context writing)
- ElevenLabs (voice cloning)
- HubSpot (email marketing)
- Webflow (CMS publishing)
When a source mentions a workflow that could be automated with these tools but the creator does it manually, that's a high-value skill candidate.
Extraction Workflow
Phase 1: Ingest and Scan
Input: Raw source material — transcripts, blog posts, course outlines, conversation logs, wiki chunks.
Read the material. Identify skill candidates based on pattern recognition from existing skills in this workspace. For each candidate:
### [Candidate Name]
- **What it does:** One sentence
- **Source:** Where in the material this was found
- **Hallmarks:** Which taxonomy items (1-6) it exhibits
- **Input → Output:** What goes in, what comes out
- **Frequency:** daily / weekly / per-project / one-time
Phase 2: Score and Rank
| Dimension | Question | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Leverage | How much time/effort does this save per use? | 1-5 |
| Frequency | How often would this be used? | 1-5 |
| Promptability | How well can Claude execute this with a skill file? | 1-5 |
Leverage × Frequency × Promptability = Extraction Priority
High-priority (50+): build immediately. Medium (25-49): build when needed. Low (<25): note or discard.
Phase 3: Spec the Winners
For each high-priority candidate, draft a skill spec for the skill-creator:
## Skill Spec: [name]
**Purpose:** What this skill accomplishes
**Trigger:** What would the user say to invoke this?
**Not for:** What this skill should NOT be used for
**Input → Output**
**Workflow:** [numbered steps]
**Bundled Resources:** scripts, references, assets needed
**Tool Dependencies:** MCPs, APIs, CLI tools required
**Examples Needed:** What examples would make this work well?
**Source Attribution:** Where this was extracted from
Phase 4: Present to User
- Top 5 high-priority skills with full specs
- Medium-priority as one-liners
- Non-skill material routed elsewhere
Ask: "Which should I build first?"
Routing Non-Skills
| Type | Destination |
|---|---|
| Domain knowledge / facts | Wiki article or reference doc |
| Opinion / philosophy | Blog post or book chapter |
| Personal story / anecdote | Narrative snippet for content |
| Tool recommendation | Relevant project's CLAUDE.md |
| Business strategy | Strategy doc or CIA-OFFER.md |
Test Corpora
Already chunked and indexed in wiki-projects:
- Kallaway — 66 chunks, framework-dense → should yield many skills
- Jenny Hoyos — 60 chunks, short-form methodology → should yield skills
- Colin & Samir — 119 chunks, strategy + interviews → mixed
Related Skills
- skill-creator — Takes a spec and builds the full skill. Extractor feeds into creator.
- voice-analyzer / voice-wizard — Specialized extractors for voice/style skills.
- anti-ai-writing — Example of a well-built skill.
- book-chapter-writer — Example of a complex multi-phase workflow skill.
Extract the workflow, not the knowledge. If Claude can DO it repeatedly with different inputs, it's a skill. If Claude can only KNOW it, it's a reference doc.