Use Skills to Teach Claude Reusable Project Workflows

If you keep giving Claude the same instructions across sessions — "always use Pest for tests", "follow our API response format", "run lint after every edit" — it's time to turn those into a skill.

mkdir -p .claude/skills/my-workflow
cat > .claude/skills/my-workflow/SKILL.md << 'EOF'
# My Project Workflow

When writing code in this project:
1. Always write Pest tests alongside new features
2. Use strict PHP types and return types
3. Run `./vendor/bin/pint` after editing PHP files
4. Follow the JSON:API response format for all endpoints
EOF

Skills live in .claude/skills/ and get loaded automatically when Claude starts a session in that project. Think of them as reusable playbooks — they survive context resets, work across sessions, and keep Claude consistent without you repeating yourself.

You can scope skills globally too:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/global-rules

Stack multiple skills for different concerns — one for testing conventions, one for commit style, one for deployment checks. Claude reads all of them.

The difference between a skill and a CLAUDE.md entry is intent: CLAUDE.md is project context and preferences, while skills are workflows — step-by-step instructions Claude should follow when performing specific tasks.

Stop repeating yourself — teach Claude once, and it remembers every session.