Turn Business Process into Skill

Section 01

What Is a Skill?

A skill is a reusable playbook that teaches your AIOS how to do a specific task.

Write it once. Invoke it whenever that process needs to happen. Consistent output every time.

Think of it as a smart SOP you give to an agent — but unlike a document a human reads, the agent can actually execute it. Every time you need to run that process, instead of starting from scratch or re-explaining the steps, you just trigger the skill. It knows exactly what to do, what tools to use, and how to structure the output.

In practice, a skill is a markdown file inside your .claude/skills/ directory. It contains natural language instructions for how the AIOS should approach a specific task — what steps to take, what tools to call, what output to produce, and what to save where.

Composable: Skills are designed to work together. Your AIOS picks up the right skill based on context cues — you can also chain multiple skills to create more complex, multi-step workflows.
Portable: Skills work across web Claude, Claude Code, and the API. A skill you build for your AIOS works anywhere Claude can be accessed.
Invocable or automatic: Set user_invocable: true for skills you trigger with a command. Set user_invocable: false for capabilities that activate automatically based on context (see Automation Primitives module).

Section 02

Skill vs. MCP — Two Different Things

There's a lot of terminology flying around. The MCP vs. Skill distinction trips people up because both are "things you add to AIOS." They're different layers that work together.

MCP vs. Skill — what each one actually does

MCP The Tool

A connector to external software — an API endpoint your AIOS can call
Provides real-time data access and tool invocation
Examples: Google Calendar MCP, Trello MCP, Fireflies MCP, Notion MCP
What the AIOS can do
Without a skill, the agent has to figure out how to use it fresh each time — wasting tokens and producing inconsistent results

Skill The Instructions

Instructions on how to use a tool (or multiple tools) in the right way
Captures workflows, best practices, and expected output format
Can be paired with an MCP to give the agent an exact roadmap of what to do
How the AIOS should do it
Ensures consistent, structured output every time — team members or the agent never have to figure it out from scratch

💡

MCP + Skill is the power combo. The MCP connects to Trello. The skill teaches the agent exactly which boards to create, how to structure the columns, what format the task descriptions should use, and who to assign each type of task to. The tool does the work; the skill provides the judgment and structure.

Section 03

Skill Anatomy — What's Inside

SKILL.md

Core instruction file — required

The markdown file with all the instructions: what the skill does, what steps to follow, what tools to call, what output to produce. This is the skill. Everything else is optional enrichment.

scripts/

Code execution — optional

Python or bash scripts for anything that needs to be deterministic — data processing, file operations, API calls that benefit from hardcoded logic. Referenced from SKILL.md when the skill needs to run them.

references/

Context documents — optional

SOPs, document templates, example outputs, reference materials. Anything the agent needs to consult when running the skill. Referenced from SKILL.md so the agent knows when to read them.

assets/

Customisation assets — optional

Logos, templates, media files, or anything the skill needs for output generation. Not commonly needed but available when you want to produce branded outputs.

🔧

Building a skill: Use the official skill-creator plugin from the Anthropic marketplace — it comes with most Claude Code installations. Access it with /plugins in Claude Code. The skill creator walks you through the structure and generates the initial files based on your description of the process.

Section 04

Why Skills Matter — Especially for Teams and Client Delivery

A skill becomes critical the moment more than one person — or more than one agent — needs to run the same process. Without a skill, every run is slightly different. With a skill, the result is consistent whether it's you, a team member, or a scheduled automation running it.

Team consistency. When you set up AIOS for a whole team, a skill ensures every team member gets the same structured output from the same process — without needing to understand how it works under the hood.
Repeatability without re-explanation. Every new client, every new project, every new week — the same process runs the same way. No starting from scratch. No "but last time you did it differently."
Automatable. Once a skill is dialled in, you can attach it to triggers or schedules. The skill runs, produces the output, and your involvement becomes reviewing results rather than doing the work.
Token efficiency. The agent doesn't waste tokens figuring out how to use a tool — the skill tells it exactly what to do. Faster, cheaper, more reliable execution.
Client deliverable. When you set up AIOS for a client, skills are the part that encodes your best practices — the "how we do things here" layer that makes the system actually valuable to their business.

Section 05

The Demo — Client Kickoff Skill

The workshop built a "Client Kickoff" skill live — a real-world example that most agency and service business operators will recognise. The process it automates: turning a discovery call transcript into a fully organised project setup.

🎯

The process being automated: Client has a discovery call on Google Meet. Fireflies records the transcript. Instead of manually reviewing, writing a spec, breaking it into tasks, and assigning them in Trello — the skill does all of that automatically in one invocation.

🎙

Fetch transcript

Pulls latest transcript from Fireflies via MCP. Or accepts a local transcript file if Fireflies isn't connected.

📋

Generate spec

Reads the transcript and produces a project spec document — description, requirements, scope — saved to a new client folder in AIOS.

✅

Break into tasks

Converts the spec into discrete tasks. Assigns each to a team member based on their role (or to yourself if working solo).

📊

Push to Trello

Creates a new Trello board for the client. Creates cards for each task, assigns team members. Team can immediately see their work.

⭐

The key insight: This workflow isn't just for software projects. Any client work — marketing agency, consulting, operations — follows the same pattern: discovery call → spec → tasks → assign. The skill handles the conversion. You just verify the output.

After running this skill, you have: a new project folder in AIOS named for the client, the transcript saved locally, a spec document, and a Trello board with tasks assigned — all from a single command. What would take 30–60 minutes of manual work happens in one skill invocation.

Section 06

Installation Walk-Through

The workshop walked through the full installation live. Here's the exact sequence, including the "gotchas" that came up during the session.

1

Drop the skill ZIP into your AIOS folder

Download the skill ZIP, place it in your workspace root (or wherever your AIOS folder lives). Works in terminal or Claude Desktop — the process is identical.

2

Ask Claude to install it

You don't need a special command — just tell Claude what you want. It will find the ZIP, unzip it, and place the skill in .claude/skills/.

"Please install the client kickoff skill from the zip"

3

Run the first setup — it will ask you questions

Trigger the skill for the first time. It walks you through setup: Do you have Fireflies? Enter Trello API key and token. Who is on your team (name, role, email)? The skill stores these answers and doesn't ask again.

"Let's kick off a new project"

4

Add API keys to .env

The skill installs two MCPs (Fireflies + Trello). Add the API keys to your .env file when prompted. Trello: get key from trello.com/power-ups/admin, generate a token. Fireflies: get key from the Fireflies dashboard.

5

Restart the session to load MCPs

After MCPs are installed, restart your Claude Code session so they load. Verify with /mcp — you should see Fireflies and Trello both connected.

/mcp

6

Run the full skill on a real transcript

Provide a client name, project name, and either let it fetch from Fireflies or point it to a local transcript file. It creates the folder structure, spec, and Trello board automatically.

🔑

Team access note: Team members added to the skill do not need Anthropic accounts or their own AIOS. They're just added to the Trello board so they can see their tasks. You run the AIOS; they work in Trello. Only upgrade to per-person AIOS when team members actually need to run prompts themselves.

💾

Team context is shared: The team roster you enter during setup gets saved to your AIOS context files — not just inside this skill, but available to your whole system. Other skills and workflows can reference team members without you entering the info again.

Section 07

How to Build Your Own Skill

The workflow for building a new skill from scratch. The key is to start with a real process you already repeat — document it clearly, then let the skill creator help you translate it into an executable playbook.

1

Identify a repeatable process

Find something you do more than once a month that has consistent inputs and expected outputs. Client onboarding, weekly reporting, content creation, lead qualification — any structured workflow is a candidate.

2

Document the steps clearly

Write out the process as you'd explain it to a smart assistant. What information do you start with? What are the steps? What tools do you use at each step? What's the expected output? This becomes the basis for your SKILL.md.

3

Use the skill-creator plugin

Access with /plugins in Claude Code. The official Anthropic skill creator is the fastest path to a well-structured SKILL.md. Feed it your process documentation and it generates the initial skill structure.

4

Add MCPs for any external tools

If the process interacts with external platforms (CRM, project management, calendar, email), identify the appropriate MCPs and install them. Add the instructions for using each MCP correctly inside your SKILL.md references.

5

Test, refine, and iterate

Run the skill on real data. See where it produces unexpected results. Update the instructions to cover those cases. Each iteration makes it more reliable. After 5–10 runs, most skills stabilise and become production-ready.

6

Version and share via GitHub

Commit your skill folder to your AIOS GitHub repo. Now it's versioned, portable, and shareable. Other team members can pull it. You can improve it over time and commit updates. This is how the plug-and-play module library is built.

Section 08

Skill Ideas for Your Business

Any recurring process that produces a structured output is a skill candidate. Here's a starting list organised by business function — use them as prompts for your own task audit.

Client onboarding: Discovery call transcript → project spec → task list → project management setup (exactly what was built in this workshop). Works for any service business.
Weekly reporting: Pull metrics from Data OS → compare to last week → format into a standard report → send to stakeholders or save to a shared folder.
Meeting intelligence: Fireflies transcript → extract action items → assign to owners → create follow-up tasks → draft follow-up email. Done in one trigger.
Content repurposing: Video/podcast transcript → LinkedIn post → Twitter thread → newsletter section → YouTube description. Consistent format every time.
Lead qualification: New lead info → research company → score against ICP criteria → draft personalised outreach → create CRM record.
Proposal generation: Client brief → scope breakdown → pricing calculation → formatted proposal document → send via email MCP.
SOW to statement of work: Scope discussion → structured SOW document → create contract in DocuSign or similar. Compresses hours of manual work into a single skill run.

🚀

The skill library compounds. Each skill you build can be shared across clients, refined over time, and reused. By the time you're delivering AIOS as a service, your skill library is your competitive advantage — the "default setup" for a given niche that no competitor can replicate quickly.

Key Takeaways

What to Remember

Takeaway 01

A skill is a smart SOP you give an agent

It tells the agent what to do, in what order, using which tools, producing what output. Once it's written, you invoke it instead of explaining the process each time. Write once, run many.

Takeaway 02

MCP = what AIOS can do. Skill = how it should do it

MCPs connect to external tools. Skills encode the judgment and workflow for using those tools correctly. Use them together: MCP for the connection, skill for the best practice.

Takeaway 03

Team context saves to AIOS globally

When a skill asks for your team roster during setup, those answers save to your AIOS context files — available to every other skill and workflow. You enter it once and it persists.

Takeaway 04

Skills are the client delivery layer

When you set up AIOS for a client, skills encode your best practices — the "how we do things here" that makes the system valuable. The skill library you build over multiple client engagements is a compounding asset.

Takeaway 05

Start with real processes you already repeat

Don't invent something new to build a skill. Find a process you run at least monthly that produces a structured output. Document it, use skill creator, add MCPs where needed, test and refine. That's the whole workflow.

Takeaway 06

Works the same in terminal and Claude Desktop

Install a skill ZIP, ask Claude to install it, run it by description — the exact same process works whether you're in VS Code terminal, cursor, or the Claude Desktop app. No difference.

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AIOS: Turn Business Process into Skill