Tips for Better Results

Invoking Your Skill

The simplest way to activate a skill is to reference it explicitly in your message:

Using recruiting-engineering-talent, screen this candidate profile
for a senior backend engineer role.

Most AI assistants will recognize the skill name and apply the associated methodology.

Iterating on Your Skill

Skills generated by SkillThis are starting points. To refine:

1. Test it - Use the skill in a real conversation and see how the AI performs
2. Identify gaps - Note where the AI gives generic responses instead of following your process
3. Regenerate - Return to skillthis.ai with a more detailed description
4. Edit manually - Copy the generated skill and modify it directly. Add examples, remove sections that don’t apply, adjust the workflow

Tip

The generated skill is plain markdown. You own it. Edit freely to match your exact needs.

Combining Multiple Skills

If you work across multiple domains, you can use multiple skills:

• Claude Projects: Add multiple skills to different projects, or combine related skills in one project’s instructions
• Claude Code: Place each skill in its own directory under .claude/skills/. Claude automatically picks the right one based on context.
• ChatGPT: Combine skills in Custom Instructions, or switch between them by updating the instructions
• Cursor: Combine multiple skill contents in your .cursorrules file with clear section headers

Platform-Specific Tips

Claude

• Claude respects the YAML frontmatter and uses the description to determine relevance
• Long skills work well in Claude Projects (generous context)
• For Claude Code, the skill is loaded at startup and persists across the session

ChatGPT

• Custom Instructions have a character limit, so prioritize the most important sections
• Skills apply to all new conversations once set
• Consider keeping only Quick Start, Workflow, and key Examples if you hit the limit

Cursor / IDE

• Skills loaded from project files apply to all AI interactions within that project
• Project-specific skills are ideal (e.g., a code review skill for your codebase)
• You can version control your skills alongside your code

Getting More from Your Skills

Be Specific in Requests

Instead of:

Review this code

Try:

Using reviewing-code-security, review this authentication
endpoint. Focus on the session management and JWT handling.

Provide Context

Skills work best when the AI has both the methodology (from the skill) and the specifics (from your message):

Using managing-product-launches, create a launch checklist for
our new billing feature. We're targeting March 1, need legal
review for EU compliance, and the marketing team needs 2 weeks
lead time for the announcement.

Give Feedback

If the AI doesn’t follow your skill’s methodology, tell it:

You're not following the MATCH framework from the skill. Please
re-evaluate this candidate using all 5 dimensions: Motivation,
Aptitude, Technical depth, Culture fit, and Hunger.