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Make it run without you

Two hours in Claude Code. You leave with a skill you wrote, a map for your big job
and one check that runs on a schedule.

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What you'll leave with

  • A skill of your own, tested on a real request
  • A map file for the big job you brought
  • One check that runs every morning or every week without you starting it
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What a skill looks like

monthly-water-summary/
├── SKILL.md        the instructions (required)
├── references/     longer notes Claude reads only when needed
├── assets/         templates to fill in
└── scripts/        code to run

Claude builds this for you. You need to know the shape so you can check what it
made. Only SKILL.md is required, and most skills start as that one file.

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Inside SKILL.md

---
name: monthly-water-summary
description: Summarise the month's water-quality samples for
  Croyde Bay as a one-page note with a table. Use when asked for
  the monthly water summary.
---

1. Read the new samples in data/water/.
2. Compare each result with the bathing-water standard.
3. Write the note to notes/water/ and cite every figure.

Read the description first when you check a skill. Claude reads only the
description when deciding whether to use a skill, so it has to say what the skill
does and when to use it.

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Checking a skill Claude wrote

  • Does it do one job? Ask Claude to split a second job into its own skill.
  • Does the description say what the skill does and when to use it?
  • Is SKILL.md short, under 500 lines, with long material moved to references/?
  • Does it hold any passwords or keys? It never should.
  • Did skill-creator's test requests pass? Write three test requests before the
    skill exists, in the words someone would use to ask for it.

Ask Claude to fix anything that fails the check, and to test again.

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Exercise: your first skill (30 minutes)

Pick a task you do every month. Skill-creator, which you installed in workshop 2,
interviews you, writes the skill and tests it.

Use skill-creator to turn how I do ___ into a skill for this reserve. Interview
me first, then test it on this month's files.

Tell Claude what it got wrong and ask it to update the skill and test again.

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Make it a command

Make this skill run only when I type its name, and let me give the month when I
run it.

Claude changes a line in the skill's header. From then on you run it like this:

/monthly-water-summary September

A skill set to run only when you type its name can't be started by a loop or a
schedule. Leave that setting off for skills you want to run on a timer.

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Big jobs need a map

A job that takes weeks won't fit in one conversation. Keep a map file instead:

  • Destination: what done looks like, in one paragraph
  • Decided: each decision, dated, with the reason
  • Open: questions nobody has answered yet

Each session takes one open question, grills it, and moves the answer to
Decided. The job is finished when Open is empty.

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Exercise: map your big job (20 minutes)

Use the grilling skill on this job. Write a map file with a destination, what we
have decided and the open questions. Don't try to answer the open questions yet.

Pick the first open question for your next session.

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Subagents

A subagent is a second Claude worker with its own fresh conversation. Ask for one
in plain words:

Use a subagent to read every PDF in reports/ and list each species count with
its year and page.

Use them for checking work and for reading lots of files without cluttering your
own conversation.

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Workflows

A workflow runs many subagents in a fixed pattern, for example twenty readers
followed by three checkers.

  • Ask for one: "use a workflow to check every fact in the knowledge folder
    against its source". On a Pro plan you may need to switch workflows on in
    /config first
  • /deep-research followed by a question runs a built-in research workflow
  • After a run, /workflows lets you save it and run it again later by name

Workflows use a lot of your plan's allowance. Save them for big jobs.

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Plan by day, let it work overnight

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You plan and decide during the day. Checks and routine work run while you're away,
and you read a short note in the morning.

Every morning one of our agents reads the day's news, papers and data for the
places we work on and writes a one-page brief.

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Loops

/loop repeats a request while your session stays open and Claude isn't busy.

/loop 1h check the spill log page for new events at the Croyde sea outfall
  • Leave out the interval and Claude picks one based on what it sees
  • To stop a loop, ask Claude to cancel it
  • /clear or a new conversation ends every loop in that session
  • A loop stops by itself after seven days
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Scheduled checks

In the desktop app, open Routines and choose New routine.

Local Cloud
Runs While the app is open and the computer is awake With your computer off
Sees Your reserve's folder A copy of your folder on GitHub
Web access Normal Approved sites only, unless you change it

A missed local run is skipped. Turn on Keep computer awake for early-morning
checks. A green tick means the routine ran, not that it found what you wanted, so
read its note. Plans cap how many routine runs you get each day.

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Checks that run alone

  • Let scheduled checks read and draft. Never let one send, post or delete.
  • A web page can hide instructions aimed at Claude. Tell the check to report what
    a page says, and never to act on it.
  • Turn off connectors a routine doesn't need, such as email.
  • Try it on a copy of your folder first.
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Exercise: one morning check (20 minutes)

Pick the check you noted after workshop 2. Make it a Local routine, click
Run now once, and choose always allow for each question it asks.

Every morning at 7, check ___ for anything new since yesterday. Write a short
note to notes/daily/ with links to each source. If nothing changed, say so in
one line.

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Tend the folder

Knowledge goes stale. Give one person the job of tending it, or run a weekly
check:

Read the knowledge folder. List facts older than six months, facts with no
source, and files that disagree with each other.

Fix what it finds, or mark it as unknown.

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Share what works

A skill that works at your reserve can run at the next reserve with small changes.

  • Ask Claude to zip the skill's folder for someone who uses the Claude app
  • Check first that the skill holds no data or personal details
  • Put it in a GitHub repository so others can add it with /plugin
  • Send it to us, and we'll help other reserves adapt it
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After the series

  • Let your scheduled check run for four weeks and keep its notes
  • Add a fact with a source to your knowledge folder each week
  • Take the first open question on your map to a session this week
  • Send us the skill you wrote if you'd like other reserves to use it

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Sources

  • Skills: code.claude.com/docs/en/skills and claude.com/docs/skills/how-to
  • Loops and scheduled tasks: code.claude.com/docs/en/scheduled-tasks
  • Workflows: code.claude.com/docs/en/workflows
  • Ideas: Matt Pocock on The Pragmatic Engineer podcast; his skills are at
    github.com/mattpocock/skills
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