# Skillcam Distill > Use when a coding session just produced a reusable pattern and should be preserved for future reuse. Triggered by phrases like "save this as a skill", "distill this session", "skillcam this", "I want to remember how we solved this", or when the user wraps up a productive session and wants it captured. Reads the current session log from ~/.claude/projects, extracts the causal chain to success, and writes a SKILL.md that Claude Code will auto-discover on the next session. - Skill: `martin-minghetti/skillcam-distill` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add martin-minghetti/skillcam-distill` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/martin-minghetti/skillcam-distill/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: martin-minghetti (https://skillmd.com/u/martin-minghetti) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/martin-minghetti/skillcam-distill --- # skillcam-distill Native Claude Code port of the `skillcam` pipeline. The CLI needs an API key to make its own LLM calls; this skill runs inline on the active Claude session and skips the duplicate call entirely. ## When to use Invoke when **all** of the following hold: 1. The current session reached a successful outcome (tests passed, deploy worked, bug fixed, feature built end-to-end, etc.). 2. At least one file was modified OR a concrete sequence of tool calls produced an artifact. 3. The pattern is **reusable** — next week, with a similar problem, another run would follow the same causal chain. Exploratory "learning" sessions without a concrete pattern should abort. 4. The user explicitly asked to preserve it, OR the session has the shape of a reusable pattern and preserving it is clearly in scope. If any fails → **abort** with a brief reason. Do not write a half-formed skill. ## Judge (before doing anything) Before writing a SKILL.md, silently ask yourself: - **Q1 artifact**: Did a file get modified or a concrete artifact get produced? If no → abort `no_artifact`. - **Q2 reusable pattern**: If the same task appeared in a different project next month, would the steps in this session apply with minor adjustments? If no (one-off debugging, personal vault work, chat-only sessions) → abort `no_reusable_pattern`. - **Q3 scope**: Is the session focused on a single outcome, or is it a multi-goal marathon? Marathon sessions (100+ tool calls spanning unrelated tasks) rarely produce one clean skill. If marathon → abort `too_broad` and suggest the user narrow the request. When aborting, write nothing and print: *"Skipping skillcam-distill: . ."* ## Input discovery 1. Read the current project root from the Claude Code session context (it's already in your working directory). 2. Build the expected session log dir: `~/.claude/projects//` where `` is the cwd with `/` replaced by `-` and leading `-` preserved. Example: `/Users/martinminghetti/Projects/foo` → `-Users-martinminghetti-Projects-foo`. 3. List `*.jsonl` files in that dir, sorted by mtime desc. Take the most recent one — that's the current session. The session file has the same `sessionId` as the current conversation. 4. Parse the JSONL. Each line is an entry with `type` (`user` / `assistant` / `tool_result`), `message`, `timestamp`, `toolUseId`. Skip parsing if you can reconstruct the session from your in-conversation context (you have it in memory). Read the JSONL only to verify timestamps / confirm filesModified / grab specific tool_result content. ## Distillation schema The output SKILL.md has: ### Frontmatter (required) ```yaml --- name: description: --- ``` **Description format — non-negotiable.** Must follow: *"Use when [context condition]. Triggered by [paraphrases the user might say] OR [signals in the task]. Handles [short specific scope]."* Wrong: *"First-time production deploy of a Next.js app..."* (narrative, no trigger) Right: *"Use when promoting a Next.js + Supabase + Vercel + Trigger.dev app from local to production for the first time. Triggered by 'first deploy to prod', 'link supabase and deploy', or when the user lists a prod-deploy checklist. Handles supabase/config.toml version alignment and Trigger.dev build-time env failures."* Max 400 chars. Specific > generic. Reference concrete stack names, error signatures, tool names. ### Body sections (in this order, all required) 1. **## When to use** — 1-3 sentences. Expand the trigger condition with nuance. Explicitly say when NOT to use it (typical edge case or anti-match). 2. **## Steps** — numbered list, ≤ 8 items. Each step is imperative, describes **what was accomplished**, not which tool was invoked. No "Use `Bash` on ..."; yes "Run the DB migrations with `supabase db push`". 3. **## Key decisions** — ≤ 5 bullets. The non-obvious choices and WHY, not WHAT. Failed alternatives count here. 4. **## Gotchas** — the specific traps (error messages, silent no-ops, version mismatches) an executor hits without this skill. Keep tight. 5. **## Example (optional)** — one concrete run as narrative. Project-agnostic but keeps names for memorability. ### Path anonymization (required) - Absolute paths → relative to project root where possible: `/Users/martinminghetti/Projects/foo/src/a.ts` → `src/a.ts`. - Project-specific identifiers (Supabase project refs, Vercel URLs, API tokens) → placeholders: ``, ``, ``. - `/Users//` or `/home//` never appear in output. - Keep generic OS paths (`/tmp`, `~/.claude/`) since they are reference points, not leaks. ### Output location Write to: `~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` Create the parent dir if missing. Use the same slug as the `name` in frontmatter. That's the path Claude Code scans on next session start. If a SKILL.md with that slug already exists, do a **dedup check**: compare descriptions. If similar (same stack + same error class), abort with `duplicate_skill: ` and suggest the user edit the existing one instead. If different, suffix the slug with `-2`, `-3`, etc. ## Closed tag taxonomy (optional, for future tooling) Frontmatter may include `tags:` drawn only from this list (no free-form tags): `deployment · migration · testing · debugging · refactoring · infrastructure · auth · database · frontend · backend · api · cli · tooling · build · ci · env-vars · security · performance` ## Anti-patterns **Do NOT**: - Paste raw tool-call transcripts ("Use `Bash` on `supabase db push`") into Steps. Steps describe outcomes. - Describe more than one task. One session → one skill. If the session did two unrelated things, pick the primary one and skip the other (or abort `too_broad`). - Copy the user's intent message verbatim as the description. The description is a trigger phrase for future matching, not a session summary. - Leave failed attempts in the Steps list. They belong in Key Decisions as explicit "tried X, it failed because Y, so we did Z". - Write SKILL.md to `./skills/` (cwd-relative). Claude Code does not scan that path.