Create your first Claude Skill: a complete meeting-notes example

Decide whether you need a Skill

A prompt is sufficient for an occasional task. A Skill becomes useful when you repeat the procedure, need a stable output format or share a method with colleagues. The Claude Code documentation describes the implementation; the Agent Skills specification defines the portable format.

Avoid a first scope such as “manage my business.” It does not define inputs, outputs or limits. Our Skill reads notes and drafts a structured record. Sending emails, changing a CRM and booking meetings would require separate authorization and verification.

Define the input and output contract

The input contains the meeting date, known participants and raw notes. Missing information stays missing. A suggested action must not become an agreed decision simply because it sounds reasonable.

The output has four sections: summary, decisions, action table and open questions. Each action includes an owner, deadline and supporting note. If no owner is given, write “not specified.” This makes omissions visible to the reviewer instead of concealing them behind polished prose.

Write a minimal SKILL.md

Create a directory named meeting-notes with a SKILL.md file. The required metadata describes both the task and when it should be used. Keep the body concise and move long reference material into supporting files when necessary.

---
name: meeting-notes
description: Turn supplied meeting notes into decisions, actions and open questions. Use when drafting a meeting record from notes or a transcript.
---

Use only the supplied notes.
Separate agreed decisions from suggestions.
Produce: Summary, Decisions, Actions, Open questions.
For each action include owner, deadline and supporting evidence.
Write "not specified" for missing owners or dates.
Do not send messages or modify external systems.

Follow the installation instructions for your chosen Claude surface. A folder recognized by Claude Code is not automatically available in every other product interface. Check that the Skill can be discovered before evaluating its quality.

Test with a deliberately ambiguous meeting

Use these fictional notes: “Maya will send the draft on Friday. Lucas suggests contacting the supplier. No decision yet. The launch date remains open.” The expected output includes Maya’s action, preserves Lucas’s suggestion as a proposal and does not invent a launch date.

Run a second case with no deadlines and a third with contradictory dates. The acceptable result should expose uncertainty. Exact wording may vary; fidelity and structure are the criteria that matter.

Create a meeting record using only the supplied notes. Separate decisions, suggestions, actions and open questions. Include owner, deadline and evidence for each action. Mark missing information as not specified. Do not send messages or change external systems.

Maintain the procedure

Record which examples passed and why a revision was made. After changing instructions, rerun the earlier tests: improving one case can make another worse. Keep a version history and a clear owner for the Skill.

If you later add scripts, use them for deterministic operations and verify their inputs and outputs. Do not hide broad file access or external actions inside a meeting-notes procedure. Start with the downloadable template and continue with our complete Skills guide.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to code? Not for this text-only example. Scripts are an optional extension when a specific operation benefits from deterministic execution.

Does a Skill remove the need to review? No. It makes the review criteria more explicit, but the output still needs checking against the notes.

Sources

• →Claude Code: Skills.
• →Agent Skills specification.
• →Claude Code: verification and other best practices.