Book To Skill

book-to-skill

Convert a book's method into the structured input SkillForge needs, then hand off. This skill does NOT generate SKILL.md, score timelessness, triage duplicates, or run activation tests. Those are SkillForge's job.

Triggers

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• An operator has a book in hand and wants the method captured as one or more skills.
• The book contains a repeatable method (numbered steps, named rules, recurring questions, identified failure modes), not just narrative or argument.
• You want SkillForge's Phase 0-4 gates (triage, timelessness, multi-agent review) to decide whether the skill ships, instead of writing SKILL.md by hand.

Use a different skill when:

• The source is a transcript, voice memo, or unstructured capture. Use panning-for-gold.
• The goal is reference knowledge, not executable procedure. Use llm-wiki.
• You already know exactly what skill you want and need it produced from a goal description rather than a book. Invoke SkillForge directly.
• You want to compose existing skills into a slash command. Use slashcommandcreator.

Out of Scope (do NOT do these)

• Source acquisition. PDFs, ePubs, Kindle decryption, paid summaries. Operator-and-legal problem.
• Producing SKILL.md. SkillForge owns this.
• Triage against existing skills (the 80% duplicate scan). SkillForge's Phase 0 owns this.
• Timelessness scoring. SkillForge's Phase 2.
• Activation tests, paraphrase tests, negative tests. SkillForge's Phase 4 multi-agent panel.
• Fiction, memoir, or pure-narrative books. Halt at Phase 1 pre-condition.

Process

Three phases. Each has a clear input, output, and halt condition.

Phase 1: Extract the method

Apply five forcing questions to the book content. Record answers in method.json (the structured payload SkillForge consumes).

1. What problem does this book solve?
2. What are the steps of the method, in order?
3. What rules does the author repeat across chapters?
4. What mistakes does the author warn against?
5. What questions does the author ask the reader?

Pre-condition halt. If you cannot answer Q2 with at least two ordered, concrete steps, the book has no extractable method. Stop. Report to the operator: "This book has no extractable method. Steps required for Phase 2 are absent." Suggest llm-wiki if the operator wants a reference page instead.

Worked template: see references/method-extraction-template.md.

Phase 2: Decide diagnose/apply split

Some books carry two distinct layers:

• Elicitation questions (Q5 returned non-trivial questions the operator can run on their own situation): "are you doing this wrong?"
• Transformation templates (Q2 returned a multi-step output recipe): "here is how to do it right."

Decision rules:

• Q5 non-trivial AND Q2 multi-step → split. Two SkillForge invocations: <book>-diagnose (questions, runs on operator's situation) and <book>-apply (steps, produces output).
• Only one layer → single skill.
• Unsure → default single. Refactor to split later if usage shows two distinct invocation modes.

Worked example (The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick): Q5 returns the leading-question detector, Q2 returns the Rob Fitzpatrick rewrite format. Split. Produces momtest-diagnose (finds leading questions in a draft interview) and momtest-apply (rewrites them).

Worksheet: see references/split-decision-worksheet.md.

Phase 3: Hand off to SkillForge

Emit one or two SkillForge invocations using this format. Do not edit the payload after this point; SkillForge owns everything downstream.

SkillForge: create skill <book-slug>[-diagnose|-apply]

Source method:
- Problem: <Phase 1 Q1>
- Steps: <Phase 1 Q2, ordered>
- Rules: <Phase 1 Q3>
- Mistakes: <Phase 1 Q4>
- Questions: <Phase 1 Q5>

Source attribution: "<book title>" by <author>, <year if known>
Diagnose/apply split decision: <single | diagnose | apply> (with one-line rationale)

Do NOT use this skill for:
- <adjacent-but-wrong task 1>
- <adjacent-but-wrong task 2>
- <adjacent-but-wrong task 3>

SkillForge triage feedback loop

When SkillForge's Phase 0 returns >=80% match against an existing skill, do NOT silently proceed and do NOT second-guess the triage. Report the match to the operator with these three options:

1. Abandon. The existing skill already covers it.
2. Refine. Phase 1 extraction may have been too generic; re-run with sharper scope.
3. Override. Proceed despite the match (operator owns the decision).

Anti-patterns

• Producing SKILL.md yourself. Hand off, do not generate.
• Skipping the pre-condition halt for fiction. The check is cheap; running Phase 1 on a novel is not.
• Forcing a split when the book only has one layer. Default single, refactor later.
• Acquiring the source for the operator. Out of scope.
• Editing the hand-off payload to flatter SkillForge's triage. The whole point is letting SkillForge decide.
• Running activation tests in this skill. SkillForge owns Phase 4.

Relationship to other skills

Source

• Ruben Hassid, "How to AI" infographic, r/Agent_AI 2026-05-09. Origin of the five-question template and the diagnose/apply split idea.
• The hand-off-to-SkillForge architecture (instead of duplicating SkillForge's Phase 0-4 work) is this skill's contribution.

Verification

Run this skill on a real book before declaring it done. Suggested first run: The Mom Test.

• Phase 1 produced answers to all five forcing questions (or halted with the pre-condition message).
• Phase 2 emitted a single decision (single | diagnose | apply) with a one-line rationale.
• Phase 3 emitted one or two SkillForge invocations in the documented format, with source attribution.
• No SKILL.md was produced by this skill; SkillForge owns that step downstream.
• When SkillForge's Phase 0 returned a >=80% duplicate match, the operator was given the three options (abandon, refine, override) before any downstream action.

If SkillForge later rejects either output at Phase 0, 2, or 4, this skill still passed: it produced a clean input. Rejection is signal, not failure.