Copy-Pasting the Same Orders? Automate with Cowork Skills

Every morning, are you copy-pasting the same order to your AI — "show me today's to-do sheet, and summarize unread mail too"? Cowork's skill feature lets you build these repeated orders once and reuse them forever. It's like a "recipe card" that writes down the tasks you frequently assign.

Definition

A skill is a pre-built bundle of tasks. Once you set "work in this order, in this way," from then on you just call it briefly and it runs accordingly. There are two ways to run it.

• Call it directly with a slash command like /skillname
• Just assign it by voice (Cowork pulls out the appropriate skill on its own)

You don't have to memorize commands — you can just assign by voice, so it's low-pressure.

How to use it (by difficulty)

Before you start — see what skills exist

It's good to first check what skills are available to you. Type this into Cowork.

/skills

This shows the list of currently available skills on screen. Each skill's name comes with a description of what it does. Check the name to call here.

Basics — run a skill directly

Prefix a slash to the skill name you saw in the list and enter it.

/daily-briefing

Then that skill runs in its set order. The example above organizes today's to-dos and mail into one screen. When it finishes, the result shows right in the chat box.

Applied — assign by voice without a command

tell me today's to-dos

You don't have to memorize slash commands. Ask in plain words like this, and Cowork thinks "ah, this is the daily-briefing skill" and picks and runs it on its own. Handy when you can't recall the command.

Advanced — chain several skills together

plan a topic, run research, and write a draft from the results

Chaining skills becomes a single workflow. The example above runs the three steps "topic planning → research → draft writing" in sequence. You can assign a frequently-done multi-step task in one sentence.

Common pitfall — a skill that doesn't exist won't run

If "I typed /my-custom-organize but nothing happens," there's actually no skill by that name. You can only call skills you've pre-built. If you're unsure which skills are ready, check the list with /skills first. Call it after seeing the name exactly.

A real case

Checking the sheet's to-dos and mail separately every morning was a hassle. I built a daily-briefing skill bundling the two, and now I start the day with one phrase, "tell me today's to-dos." Sheet tasks and unread mail come organized into one screen, so my morning routine shrank to 30 seconds.

Use it like this too

• /skill or by voice: You don't have to memorize every command. Both work.
• Chain skills: Connect steps like planning → research → writing to build your own workflow.
• See the list: Check which skills are ready anytime with /skills.
• Turn it into a skill: If there's a task you assign the same way every time, build it into a skill once. From then on, it's reuse forever.

Tip: If you think "I'll probably do this task again next time," that's a skill candidate. Try telling Cowork "turn the task I just did into a skill."

Wrap-up

The key is one sentence. Bundle repeated tasks into a skill. Build it once and from then on it's done with a short phrase. If you can't recall the command, assign by voice; if you don't know what's there, see it with /skills. If there's an order you copy-paste every day, that's the candidate to make into your first skill.

Based on: Claude Code v2.1.154 (2026.05)