Claude Code and What Comes Next

Skills solve this problem. They are instructions that the AI decides when to use, and they contain not just prompts, but also the sets of tools the AI needs to accomplish a task. Does it need to know how to build a great website? It loads up the Website Creator Skill which explains how to build a website and the tools to use when doing it. Does it need to build an Excel spreadsheet? It loads the Excel skill with its own instructions and tools. To make another movie reference, it is like when Neo in the Matrix gets martial arts instructions uploaded to his head and acquires a new skill: "I know kung fu." Skills can let an AI cover an entire process by swapping out knowledge as needed. For example, Jesse Vincent released an interesting free list of skills that let Claude Code handle a full software development process, picking up skills as needed, starting with brainstorming and planning before progressing all the way to testing code. Skill creation is technically very easy, it is done in plain language, and the AI can actually help you create them (more on this in a bit).