Claude Skills & Projects Intensive — Pre-Work

Purpose: Prepare for hands-on building in session. You'll arrive ready to create — not learn what these features are.

Time commitment: ~2 hours

Part 1: Understand the Building Blocks (~85 mins)

Watch: Intro to Projects (7 mins) How Projects organize work into dedicated workspaces with persistent context, documents, and custom instructions.
Read: What are Projects? (10 mins) Detailed documentation on the 200K-token context window, uploading documents, and setting project instructions.

Watch: Teach Claude Your Way of Working Using Skills (8 mins) See how Skills package your preferred approaches so Claude applies them automatically — no repeated explanations needed.
Read: What are Skills? (10 mins) Skills transform Claude from generalist to specialist by loading instructions, scripts, and resources dynamically. Understand the folder structure and how Claude accesses them.
Read: Using Skills in Claude (10 mins) Guide on enabling, discovering, and using Skills — including the Skills Directory and custom skill uploads.
Read: The Complete Guide to Building Skills for Claude (20 mins) Anthropic's official deep-dive on skill design — covers progressive disclosure, the 3 skill categories (document creation, workflow automation, MCP enhancement), testing strategies, and distribution. The definitive reference for building production-quality skills.

Watch: Intro to Artifacts (5 mins) Artifacts display content in a dedicated window for real-time iteration — essential for building Skills and testing outputs.

Watch: Intro to Connectors (5 mins) How connectors give Claude access to your files, apps, and workflows.
Watch: Using Research and Google Workspace (10 mins) See Claude searching across Gmail, Calendar, and Drive simultaneously. Pay attention to how connectors extend Claude's reach into your existing tools.

Think about the work you do every week. Identify 2-3 recurring tasks that would benefit from:

A dedicated Project — tasks that need persistent context, reference documents, or custom instructions (e.g., "I prepare client briefings and always need the same background docs")
A Skill — tasks with repeatable processes or output formats (e.g., "I write weekly status updates that follow the same structure every time")
Connector access — tasks that require pulling information from Gmail, Calendar, or Drive (e.g., "I summarize meeting notes and action items from my calendar")

Write these down. We'll use them as raw material for building in session.

Paid Claude account confirmed (Pro or Team — required for session features)
Google Workspace connector enabled: Settings → Connectors → Google Workspace → Authenticate

If you hit issues with the connector, document them — we'll troubleshoot together.

For participants who want additional context before the session:

Read: Model Context Protocol (MCP) Introduction (15 mins) MCP is the open standard that powers connectors. Understanding the protocol helps you see what's possible beyond the built-in integrations.
Explore: MCP Example Servers (15 mins) Browse existing MCP implementations to see the range of what's possible — databases, APIs, local files, and more.
Read: Claude 4 Best Practices (10 mins) Claude 4 follows instructions precisely. Knowing this changes how you write Project instructions and Skill definitions.