learn

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• If existing skill is outdated, remove outdated information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