Most skills automate WHAT Claude does (build a report, run an audit, draft an email). A special category changes HOW Claude thinks about problems. These are often the highest-leverage skills you can build - and also the easiest to write.

Two categories of skills

Workflow skills

Execute a specific task. Weekly report, audit, email draft, dashboard. Covered in Lessons 1-4.

Thinking + process skills

Change Claude's approach to problems. Not a specific output - a way of reasoning. Often just a single SKILL.md file with no supporting files.

Download the 7 starter skills

Claude Code doesn't ship with thinking skills by default. So we've built 7 ready-to-install ones for you. Download whichever sound useful, save to your ~/.claude/skills/ folder, and they're available as slash commands in every session.

📎 Download 1: first-principles-SKILL.md Strips assumptions, decomposes to base truths, rebuilds. Use when the obvious answer feels wrong.

📎 Download 2: red-team-SKILL.md Adversarial analysis. Poke holes in a plan. Ranks top 3 critiques by severity. 📎 Download 3: council-SKILL.md Multi-perspective debate. Sceptic, optimist, pragmatist, contrarian speak; then synthesis.

📎 Download 4: creative-SKILL.md Divergent thinking. 15-20 ideas first, then 5-10 genuinely distinct ones. No premature filtering.

📎 Download 5: iterative-depth-SKILL.md 3-pass analysis. Surface → underneath → root + system. Pass 3 is where the insight usually lives.

📎 Download 6: anti-fabrication-SKILL.md Enforces source-traceability on every metric. Refuses to generate unsourced numbers. Use on every client-facing deliverable.

📎 Download 7: claude-md-audit-SKILL.md Walks through a CLAUDE.md line by line, flags each for keep/move/delete/tighten. Run monthly.

Install them

Tell Claude Code (attach the files to the prompt or tell Claude where you saved them):

I'm attaching [N] SKILL.md files. Install each one to my Claude Code skills folder as its own skill - the skill name is in the filename before -SKILL.md. For example, first-principles-SKILL.md becomes ~/.claude/skills/first-principles/SKILL.md. Confirm all installed and available as slash commands.

Restart Claude Code after install so the new skills load. Type / to see them listed.

Common thinking-skill patterns

/first-principles Strips assumptions. Decomposes problems to base truths. Rebuilds from there. Use when the obvious answer feels wrong or you're stuck in a frame.

/first-principles What's actually causing the drop in Google Ads ROAS? Don't start from the usual diagnostic - start from what we actually know.

terminal
/red-team

Claude takes the role of someone trying to poke holes in your plan. Finds the 3 most severe critiques.

/red-team Here's our Q2 strategy. Attack it. What are we missing? What will break first?

terminal
/council

Claude simulates several viewpoints (skeptic, optimist, pragmatist) and you hear the debate before getting a synthesis.

/council Should we pause Meta and put the budget into Google Ads? Have the different perspectives weigh in.

terminal
/creative

Generate volume. Explore unexpected connections. Avoid early convergence on the obvious answer.

/creative I need 20 different angles for the Spring promo. Don't give me variations of the same idea - give me genuinely different angles.

terminal
/iterative-depth

Examine one problem from multiple angles, going deeper each pass. Good for complex decisions.

/iterative-depth Why is Meta performance declining? Multi-pass analysis.

Process skills that enforce discipline

Different variant - enforce a rule or habit rather than change thinking style. Two are included in the downloads above:

terminal
/anti-fabrication

Every metric in a deliverable must trace to a verifiable source. Claude refuses to generate unsourced numbers. Run on every client-facing report before shipping.

/anti-fabrication Check this report - every metric must trace to source.

terminal
/claude-md-audit

Walks through your CLAUDE.md file line by line, flags each line as keep / move / delete / tighten. Use monthly to keep CLAUDE.md lean.

/claude-md-audit Audit my global CLAUDE.md at ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md.

Also process-skill pattern: /wrapup (from Module 04) is this pattern too - end-of-session enforcement. Every session must save to memory before closing.

Why these matter more than workflow skills

Workflow skills make you faster at ONE thing. Thinking skills make you better at EVERY thing.

A 30-line SKILL.md that tells Claude "approach problems using first-principles decomposition - strip assumptions, identify base truths, rebuild" changes how Claude handles every instruction in a session.

Writing a thinking skill

Simpler than a workflow skill. Structure

--- name: red-team description: Adversarial analysis. Poke holes in strategies + plans. Surface weaknesses, missed assumptions, failure modes.

Red Team

When invoked, take the role of a skeptical analyst whose job is to find problems with the plan, argument, or decision being discussed.

Approach

1. Identify the key assumptions the plan depends on
2. For each, ask: what if this is wrong? What would happen?
3. Find the weakest link - the assumption whose failure has the biggest impact
4. Identify failure modes that haven't been considered
5. Present the 3 most important critiques clearly

Rules

• Be direct - no hedging
• Focus on the 20% of critiques that account for 80% of the risk
• Don't just list objections - rank them by severity
• Offer alternative framings where useful, but don't solve the problem for them

Short. Specific. Forces a certain mode of thinking. 30 lines, finished.

Build your own beyond these 7

The 7 downloads cover common patterns. You'll have your own. Build more:

1. Pick a thinking pattern you use mentally but haven't shared with Claude (pre-mortem, 5 whys, inversion, Jobs-to-be-Done, whatever)
2. Run /skill-creator from Lesson 3 and describe the pattern
3. Save to ~/.claude/skills/[name]/SKILL.md, restart Claude, invoke with /name When to build your own thinking skill

• You've repeated the same "think about this differently..." instruction 5+ times
• You work in a specific analytical framework you want to apply consistently
• You want Claude to challenge you, not just agree
• You want to encode a voice or perspective you bring to work

Combining thinking + workflow

Stack skills for more effect

/first-principles /red-team

What would be the highest-impact change to this campaign strategy?

Claude applies first-principles decomposition, then red-teams its own conclusions. Result is meaningfully better than running either alone. (This assumes you've built both skills yourself.)

Power-user tips

• Encode thinking patterns you already use mentally - you already know what works; just teach Claude to do it
• Keep them short - 30-50 lines is usually enough
• Name them memorably - you'll invoke these often, short snappy names win
• Stack with workflow skills - /first-principles + /weekly-report makes the analysis deeper
• Share the ones that work - drop the SKILL.md in the Academy community when you find one that's a game-changer

Action items

☐ Download all 7 SKILL.md files attached to this lesson ☐ Tell Claude to install them to ~/.claude/skills/ (each skill gets its own subfolder named after the skill)

☐ Restart Claude Code and type / - confirm all 7 appear

☐ Try one on a real problem this week (/red-team on a plan is the fastest win)

☐ Run /anti-fabrication before shipping your next client-facing report

☐ Set a monthly reminder to run /claude-md-audit

☐ If you build a new thinking skill beyond these 7, share it with the Academy community

Module complete. Next: Module 10 - Build Routines.

Resources

anti-fabrication-SKILL.md

terminal
claude-md-audit-SKILL.md

council-SKILL.md

creative-SKILL.md

first-principles-SKILL.md

iterative-depth-SKILL.md

red-team-SKILL.md

Exercises

1. Review the concepts covered in this lesson: Thinking + process skills.
2. Write down your key takeaway from this lesson.
3. Practice running any commands or prompts mentioned above inside your terminal.