I don’t know if I Claude has changed something since the Field Guide was created, but I still don’t understand where or what the skills are. Is it an issue that we have two different things that we’re calling skills? If I ask it where are my skills it responds:
The Skill tool loads from .claude/skills/ (and plugin skill paths) — those are the ones listed in <available_skills> like docx, pptx, pdf, obsidian-markdown, etc.
Your Starter Kit/Skills/ folder is separate — those are your custom workflow skills (meeting-notes, daily-briefing, etc.). They’re plain markdown files I read via the Read tool after consulting _skill-index.md. They’re not registered with the Skill tool.
You probably need to add the following to your skills index to tell Cowork to not use Claude native skills. One thing that someone recommended that I am going to follow is to not call them skills but routines.
This is the source of truth for all workflows. The Skills versions in Obsidian are actively maintained and take priority over any installed skill files in .skills/. Never rely on installed skills alone — always check the vault version.
Is it better to place this in claude.md rather than the _skill-index? Is the issue just the terminology? Are there two different types of skills we’re talking about?
Yes, as your Claude quote indicates, Skills are a thing in Claude. I think David acknowledged that he should have called the skills in the kit something different. I keep thinking I’ll change all mine but in practice, I work in a Cowork folder so Claude reads CLAUDE.md which says to read the skill index before processing any request. Because I use the trigger texts (listed in the index) that generally don’t mention the skill word I’ve never had a problem.
That’s interesting. I’ve been reading a few threads about ppl keeping their skills outside of Claude with some curiosity, given the obvious downsides of doing that. But skills in this context are different from Claude’s skills it seems. What’s the difference if I may ask?
I don’t think they are different, although I don’t know what Claude’s ‘internal’ skills actually look like. The point I was trying to make was that if you don’t use the ‘Skill’ word in your interactions with Claude it won’t erroneously look for internal skills when you’re trying to refer those you’ve created ‘outside’. So, I say, “run the shutdown routine” (a trigger text in my skills index) and not “use the shutdown skill”.
In the context of ‘Robot Assistant’ in Obsidian; visibility. The skills are there in your vault, easy to see and edit. The system is portable and with Obsidian Sync easy to use on multiple machines.
So yes, technically it’s editable but would I want to edit it myself? And is it portable, say to another AI? For me, no to both. I’d rather have plain Markdown that I can read and easily understand - no code or pseudocode. YMMV
It has a full markdown editor in there, or it can be opened into a chat for updating. And they’re automatically synced across all your Claude devices, including on iOS.
Ok fine. So your mileage does vary. I’m guessing you made those yourself/with Claude. Since I haven’t done that all my built-in skills have code and don’t look like yours.
I still prefer the MacSparky RA organisation of having the skills in Obsidian, along with the skill index and associated files. The skill oftens references other, related files. They are often works in progress so for example, a separate log file is also useful. A lot of my skills are project-based so each project folder also has a README that the skill might also need to look at. I can see how if you’ve got a locked-down eg ‘process a powerpoint’ skill that only references the doc you give it and you don’t use Obsidian (or some other MD app) then you may as well keep it in Claude.
Skills in Claude aren’t limited to the skill.md. They can be bundles, with things like logos, templates, scripts, json etc. Whatever you need for the skill to work.
There’s also nothing to stop your skill in Claude referencing external files, many of mine grab things from the company SharePoint for example as part of a workflow. The location of the skill has no bearing on what Claude can do.
Anyway, Im not trying to be argumentative so Ill leave it there.
