ChatGPT Skills: Make Your First One, Plus My 3 Starter Skills
Turn the prompt you keep pasting into a ChatGPT skill, then start with the 3 I'd make first: captions, meeting notes and email replies.
Back to all free guidesSo in the reel I said the long prompt you keep digging out of your notes should be a skill. ChatGPT has skills now, and it comes with one already installed, skill-creator, which builds the rest with you in a normal chat. I've got 42 skills set up in Claude in the same format. Here's where the tab is, how to make your first one, and the 3 starter skills I'd copy in on day one.
What a skill is
- One job, saved once. A skill holds the instructions for a task you keep doing. It can include instructions, examples and code.
- A folder with a SKILL.md file. That's the whole format. The file starts with a name and a description, then the instructions.
- Not stuck in one app. OpenAI's docs say ChatGPT's skills build on the open agent skills standard, the same format Claude uses. Build it once and you can take it with you.
Before you start
Skills are in ChatGPT on Business, Enterprise, Healthcare and Edu workspaces. If you don't see the tab, ask whoever runs your workspace to switch them on.
- Find the tab. In the sidebar, select Plugins, then the Skills tab.
- Check skill-creator is there. It comes installed. ChatGPT uses it whenever you ask it to make or change a skill.
Make your first one
- On the Skills tab, select Create, then Create with chat.
- Tell it what the job is and paste the prompt you keep reusing under it. For example:
Turn this into a skill. It rewrites my Instagram captions in my brand voice: short lines, British spelling, one question at the end.
Here's the prompt I use now:- ChatGPT asks you a few follow-up questions, like when the skill should kick in. Answer them.
- It writes the skill (the instructions, examples, and code if the job needs it) and prompts you to install it. Install it.
Use it
- Pick it yourself. In a new chat, type @ and choose the skill. In Claude you'd type a slash and the skill's name instead.
- Or let ChatGPT pick. When what you ask matches the skill's description, ChatGPT can reach for it on its own. That's why the description line matters: say exactly when it should be used.
My 3 starter skills
Paste one of these into Create with chat and say "Make this a skill and install it." Then swap my rules for yours. The more specific it is, the better it works.
1. Caption rewriter
---
name: caption-rewriter
description: Rewrites social media captions in my brand voice. Use whenever I paste a caption, post or hook and ask to rewrite, tighten or fix it.
---
Rewrite the caption I give you in my voice.
- Short lines. One idea per line.
- Plain words, the way I'd say it out loud. No hype words.
- Keep every fact, name and number exactly as I wrote it.
- End on one question that's easy to answer in the comments.
- Give me the rewrite first, then one shorter version under 150 characters.
Before the first rewrite, ask me for 3 captions I've already posted and learn the voice from them.2. Meeting notes to actions
---
name: meeting-actions
description: Turns rough meeting notes or a transcript into decisions, actions and owners. Use whenever I paste meeting notes, a call transcript or a voice memo.
---
From the notes I paste, give me three sections:
Decisions: what was agreed, one line each.
Actions: what needs doing, who owns it and the date, one line each. If no owner or date was said, write "owner?" or "date?" so I can fill it in.
Open questions: anything nobody answered.
Keep the wording close to what was said. Never invent an owner, a date or a number.3. Email reply drafter
---
name: reply-drafter
description: Drafts replies to client and supplier emails in my tone. Use whenever I paste an email and ask for a reply, a follow-up or a polite no.
---
Draft a reply to the email I paste.
- Answer every question they asked, in the order they asked it.
- Under 120 words unless I say otherwise.
- Friendly and direct. No "I hope this finds you well".
- If something needs a decision from me, put it on its own line starting "DECIDE:" so I spot it.
- End with one clear next step.
Give me the draft, then one line on anything I should check before sending.How I'd use it
Start with the job you did most this week, not the cleverest one. Make it a skill, use it for a few days, and tighten the description whenever ChatGPT picks it at the wrong moment or misses it. If you upload a skill file instead of making it in chat, ChatGPT scans it first, so only upload ones you trust.
OpenAI's own guide is at help.openai.com, under Skills in ChatGPT.