| name | learn |
| description | Creates a new skill or updates an existing skill to capture new knowledge. Use when you want Claude to remember patterns, workflows, or project-specific guidance. |
Learning New Knowledge
Overview
Capture knowledge into reusable skills that persist across conversations. This can include:
- Project-specific patterns and conventions
- Workflow guidance for common tasks
- Technology-specific knowledge for this codebase
- Best practices discovered during development
The Process
1. Understand what to learn:
- Ask the user what knowledge they want to capture
- If invoked with context from the current conversation, identify the key insights
- Determine if this should be a new skill or an update to an existing one
- If existing skill is outdated, remove outdated information
2. Find or create the right skill:
- List existing skills in
.claude/skills/
- If the knowledge fits an existing skill, prepare to update it
- If it's a new domain, create a new skill directory
3. Write the skill content:
Structure the skill with:
- Clear, actionable guidance
- Code examples where relevant
- Common patterns and anti-patterns
- When to use this knowledge
4. Validate with the user:
- Show the proposed skill content
- Ask if anything should be added or changed
- Confirm before writing
Skill File Format
Skills live in .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md:
---
name: skill-name
description: Brief description shown in skill list. Explains when this skill should be activated.
---
# Skill Title
## Overview
What this skill covers and when to use it.
## Key Content
The actual guidance, patterns, examples, etc.
Guidelines
- Keep skills focused - One skill per domain/topic
- Be specific to this project - Generic knowledge doesn't need a skill
- Include examples - Show, don't just tell
- Update over improve - Prefer updating existing skills over creating overlapping ones
- Descriptive names - Skill names should clearly indicate their purpose
