Workshop 4: Build and Automate illustration
Workshop 04Intermediate90 minEveryone

Build and Automate

Create your own skill, schedule it, and chain it into a pipeline that runs without you

What you'll learn4 objectives
  • Build a custom skill from scratch using /skill-creator that automates a real, recurring task from your personal workflow
  • Set up scheduled tasks that run automatically on a daily or weekly cadence with safety gates and monitoring
  • Understand Dispatch for sending tasks from your phone and receiving results on your desktop
  • Chain multiple skills into an automation pipeline with verification and publishing stages
0 of 10
1

Promise Check-In

Intro

Who processed their real department pile from Workshop 3? Two sentences on what was different about real data vs workshop data.

2 min

Who processed their real pile this week — not workshop data, actual Monday backlog? Two sentences each. Real data is messier; the process still works.

Who processed their actual department pile this week?
What was different about real data vs workshop data?
Did anyone share their triage output with their team?
2

From Consumer to Creator

Intro

For 3 workshops you used pre-built skills. Today you build your own — one that runs without you, on a schedule, for your specific recurring task.

3 min

Three workshops as consumer. Today, creator. Build one skill that solves YOUR problem, schedule it, chain it. By end of today something that used to need you happens without you.

The best skills are not the most complex ones. They are the ones that eliminate a specific 15-30 minute task that you do every single week. Fifteen minutes of saved time, 50 weeks per year, is 12.5 hours reclaimed.
3

Build Your Skill

Try It

Use /skill-creator to build a custom skill for a real weekly task — one that takes 15-30 minutes manually and will run automatically after today.

25 min
Challenge

Pick a weekly task that eats 15+ minutes — repetitive, structured, low-judgment. /skill-creator walks you through five decisions in plain language. No code.

Download the data pack first. Study example-skill/SKILL.md — that's the shape your skill will take.

0/5 complete

You are not writing code. You are describing a process in plain language. The skill-creator wizard turns your description into a repeatable automation. If you can explain the task to a new colleague, you can build a skill.
4

Break Your Own Skill

Exercise

Your skill works on clean data. Now deliberately break it — edge cases, missing columns, malformed inputs — before your stakeholders find the cracks.

20 min

A skill that works on clean data is a demo. One that survives edge-cases.csv is a tool. Test → break → fix. Watch for silent failures — a crash is obvious; a skill that quietly adds a negative amount to a total is worse.

1
Test It · 5 min
Run your skill against test-input.xlsx. Verify output matches expectations: correct row count, correct categories/totals, correct file format.
2
Break It · 10 min
Run your skill against edge-cases.csv. Watch for crashes, silent wrong output, and unhandled edge cases.
  • Empty ID field
  • Wrong date format (DD/MM/YYYY instead of YYYY-MM-DD)
  • Negative amount
  • Duplicate ID (same as row 1 of test-input)
  • 500-character description
  • Special characters (& < > " ')
  • Date in 2027
  • Completely blank row
3
Fix It · 5 min
Add constraints to handle at least 2 edge cases gracefully. Use /skill-creator to update the skill definition.
  • If any required field is blank, flag as NEEDS MANUAL REVIEW instead of crashing
  • If date format is not YYYY-MM-DD, attempt to parse or flag it
  • If amount is negative, include in 'Data Quality Issues' section with original value
  • If row is completely blank, skip and note skipped row count in summary
A skill that works on clean data is a demo. A skill that handles messy data gracefully is a tool. The difference is 10 minutes of testing with broken inputs.
5

Scheduled Tasks

Step-by-Step

A skill you have to remember to run is useful. A skill that runs itself is powerful. Set your skill on a timer — daily, weekly, or triggered — so it runs without you.

15 min

A skill that runs itself is the real unlock. Two scheduled tasks today — your custom skill weekly, a Jira briefing daily. Three on-demand tests before you turn recurring on.

Custom Skill — Weekly · Every Monday at 7am
Schedule my custom skill to run every Monday at 7am.
Input: the latest Excel file in my workspace folder matching [pattern].
Output: save the result to ~/Cowork-Workspace/reports/[skill-name]-{date}.docx.
Test it now as an on-demand run first.
  • Choose the trigger — match schedule to when the output is most useful
  • Define the input — file must exist or MCP must be authenticated before run time
  • Set the output destination — subfolder with date-stamped filenames
  • Test on-demand first — 3 successful runs before enabling recurring
Daily Briefing · Every weekday at 8am
Schedule a daily task at 8am on weekdays.
Pull my Jira board updates from the last 24 hours.
Summarise: new issues, status changes, approaching deadlines.
Save to ~/Cowork-Workspace/briefings/daily-{date}.docx.
  • Verify MCP connection to Jira is active
  • Test the briefing prompt on-demand
  • Schedule for weekdays only
  • Check output folder each morning
Never schedule tasks that send communications (emails, messages, posts) without a human review step. A scheduled task that generates a report in your workspace is safe. A scheduled task that auto-posts to a channel is not safe.
6

Dispatch

Step-by-Step

Send tasks to Cowork from your phone. Describe what you need in a message — Cowork runs it on your desktop using your full workspace — result waiting when you return.

10 min

Send a task from your phone. Your desktop Cowork runs it on your full workspace. Output waiting when you get back. Any moment with your phone becomes a moment you can kick something off.

0/4 steps complete

1

Open Claude on your phone

2

Type a quick prompt: 'Run /sun:jira-briefing for project GATE. Save to my workspace.'

3

Cowork on your desktop picks it up and runs it

4

When you return to your desk, the briefing is in your workspace folder

Dispatch turns dead time into productive time. Commutes, waiting rooms, coffee runs — any moment you have your phone is a moment you can kick off a task.
7

Chain It

Exercise

Wire your custom skill into a pipeline: skill → verification → publish. One command triggers the whole chain — output delivered without manual handoffs.

15 min

One skill produces an output. A chain runs it through verification and publishing — a tool becomes a pipeline. Same produce-verify-publish shape works for every skill you ever build.

1
Produce
Your custom skill generates the output (.xlsx, .docx, .pptx)
2
Verify
/sun:verify checks the output against the 5 Failure Modes — returns GREEN / YELLOW / RED ratings
3
Publish
If verified (GREEN/YELLOW), /sun:publish sends to Confluence or saves to workspace. If RED, stop for human review.
The chain pattern — produce, verify, publish — applies to every automation you build. The verification and publishing steps are always the same regardless of what the skill produces.
8

Stress Test

Safety

Feed your pipeline deliberately messy data — missing columns, malformed inputs, conflicting values — and find out what breaks before Monday does.

10 min

Break it on purpose so you can patch it before Monday. Workshop data is designed to work. Monday data is not.

Fix Patterns

  • Missing fields → add constraint: flag row under 'Missing Data', do not guess
  • Duplicates → add step: check for duplicates by key column, process most recent only
  • Date formats → add constraint: specify expected format, flag mismatches as errors

Missing required fields

Remove values from 5-10 cells in a critical column

Does it crash, skip rows, or hallucinate values?

Duplicate entries

Copy 3 rows with slightly different timestamps

Does it notice duplicates? Does the summary reflect inflated numbers?

Wrong date formats

Change 5 dates to MM/DD/YYYY or text format

Does it parse correctly? Does it misinterpret 03/04/2026?

Unexpected columns

Add a column the skill does not expect

Does it ignore, incorporate, or break?

Testing with messy data is not extra credit. It is the minimum bar for running a skill on real data. Workshop data is designed to work. Monday data is not.
9

Skill Swap

Exercise

Exchange skills with someone from a different department. If they can't understand it without your explanation, it needs a better description.

7 min

Pair with a different department. Hand over the skill name and a one-liner — no walkthrough. If they can't figure it out, your description needs work.

Your turn
1

Pair up with someone from a different department.

2

Share your skill — name and one-sentence description only. No walkthrough.

3

They try it on their own data or a test file. 2 minutes.

4

Feedback — one specific improvement suggestion from your partner.

5

Iterate — decide whether to apply the feedback now or add to backlog.

The skill swap is a preview of how department skill libraries work. One person builds, shares, gets feedback, iterates. The next person starts from the improved version. Teams compound automation by building on each other's work.
10

Monday Promise

Practice

Two commitments: your custom skill runs on real data this week, and you schedule it so it fires automatically next Monday morning.

5 min

Two parts. Part 1: your skill runs Monday on real data. Part 2: it's scheduled so it fires without you next time. Next week you arrive and the output is already waiting.

Compliance

Monday at 9am, run /my-compliance-alert-summary on this week's screening export.

Daily briefing scheduled at 8am with Jira CDD updates.

Finance

Monday at 8:30am, run /my-finance-close-checklist on reconciliation data.

Daily task checks for unmatched items at 7am.

Inside Sales

Monday at 8am, run /my-sales-pipeline-check on the current pipeline.

Daily briefing pulls stale deals at 7:30am.

Customer Relations

Monday at 9am, run /my-support-triage on the weekend queue.

Daily task checks SLA-breaching tickets at 7am.

Next week you arrive and something is different. Your scheduled task has already run. The output is in your workspace. You review it with your first coffee. You built this. It runs without you. That is the shift.

Steal This Prompt

Copy these prompts, customize the file paths to match your workspace, and use them in Cowork. Replace ~ with your actual home directory path if needed.

Daily Bank Reconciliation Skill

Start here
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7:30am. It should: 1. Read the latest bank-statement.csv and ledger-entries.csv from the workspace 2. Match entries by Reference_Number and...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7:30am.
It should:
1. Read the latest bank-statement.csv and ledger-entries.csv from the workspace
2. Match entries by Reference_Number and Date
3. Separate into matched, variances, unmatched-bank, and unmatched-ledger
4. Produce a reconciliation report (.docx) with four sections, summary stats, and variance highlights
5. If any single variance exceeds 1,000 or total unmatched entries exceed 10, flag as CRITICAL and prepend a warning banner
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Accounting

Weekly Case Summary Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7am. It should: 1. Read all cases updated in the past 7 days from Jira 2. Group by scheme (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX) 3. Calculate approaching ...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7am.
It should:
1. Read all cases updated in the past 7 days from Jira
2. Group by scheme (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX)
3. Calculate approaching deadlines (< 7 days warning, < 3 days critical)
4. Produce a Word document (.docx) summary with deadline warnings
5. If any case is < 3 days from deadline, flag as CRITICAL in the summary
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Chargebacks

Daily Alert Triage Summary Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 7am. It should: 1. Read the daily screening alert export from the workspace (compliance-alerts.xlsx) 2. Categorise each alert as FALSE POSI...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7am.
It should:
1. Read the daily screening alert export from the workspace (compliance-alerts.xlsx)
2. Categorise each alert as FALSE POSITIVE, NEEDS REVIEW, or ESCALATE based on similarity score and match type
3. Flag cross-alert patterns (same merchant appearing in multiple alerts)
4. Produce a triage summary (.docx) grouped by disposition with counts, escalation cases detailed, and pattern analysis
5. Any ESCALATE case must include the note: DRAFT — analyst must verify all match details before final disposition
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Compliance / CDD

Weekly Country Performance Digest Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am. It should: 1. Read country-metrics.csv from the workspace covering the past 7 days 2. Calculate week-over-week changes for sales, ticke...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am.
It should:
1. Read country-metrics.csv from the workspace covering the past 7 days
2. Calculate week-over-week changes for sales, ticket volume, onboarding, and activation per country
3. Rank countries by performance and flag any metric that dropped more than 15% week-over-week
4. Produce a one-page digest (.docx) with tables, trend arrows, and a top wins / top concerns section per country
5. If any country shows three or more declining metrics simultaneously, flag as NEEDS ATTENTION at the top of the report
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Country Operations

Daily Ticket Triage Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 7:30am. It should: 1. Read all Zendesk tickets received in the past 24 hours from support-tickets.xlsx 2. Categorise each as Onboarding Sta...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7:30am.
It should:
1. Read all Zendesk tickets received in the past 24 hours from support-tickets.xlsx
2. Categorise each as Onboarding Status, Terminal Issue, Settlement Query, Chargeback, Complaint, or Other
3. Assign priority (URGENT if merchant cannot process payments, HIGH if revenue impacted, NORMAL otherwise) and route to CR, Tier 2, Chargebacks, Retentions, or CDD
4. Produce a triage report (.docx) sorted by priority with suggested first response for each ticket
5. Any ticket categorised as Complaint must be flagged separately with a reminder to log a formal complaint record
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Customer Relations

Daily Data Quality Anomaly Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 6am. It should: 1. Read the latest data-quality-checks.csv from the workspace (null rates, row counts, freshness per table) 2. Compare each...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 6am.
It should:
1. Read the latest data-quality-checks.csv from the workspace (null rates, row counts, freshness per table)
2. Compare each metric against the 30-day rolling average and flag deviations greater than 2 standard deviations
3. Classify anomalies as STALE (freshness), VOLUME (row count shift), or INTEGRITY (null rate spike)
4. Produce an anomaly report (.docx) with a summary dashboard, per-table detail, and suggested investigation steps
5. If any anomaly affects a table feeding the commission pipeline or SAP integration, flag as FINANCIAL IMPACT and escalate to the Data team lead
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Data / Analytics

Daily Settlement Check Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 8am. It should: 1. Check for new settlement files in the workspace 2. Run a quick reconciliation against the internal ledger 3. Flag any di...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 8am.
It should:
1. Check for new settlement files in the workspace
2. Run a quick reconciliation against the internal ledger
3. Flag any discrepancies > 500
4. Produce a brief summary (.docx) — green if clean, yellow if minor issues, red if critical
5. Save to workspace with today's date in filename
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Finance

Weekly Chargeback Ratio Monitor Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7am. It should: 1. Read merchant-chargeback-ratios.csv from the workspace covering the trailing 3 months 2. Calculate current chargeback rat...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7am.
It should:
1. Read merchant-chargeback-ratios.csv from the workspace covering the trailing 3 months
2. Calculate current chargeback ratio per merchant and compare against Visa VAMP and Mastercard MATCH thresholds
3. Flag merchants within 20% of either threshold and classify trend as increasing, stable, or decreasing
4. Produce a threshold monitoring report (.docx) with a summary table, flagged merchants detailed section, and 3-month trend charts
5. Any merchant that has crossed or is within 10% of a scheme threshold must be marked CRITICAL — senior fraud analyst review required before any action
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Fraud

Weekly Pipeline Health Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7:30am. It should: 1. Read hubspot-pipeline-export.xlsx from the workspace 2. Identify stale deals (not updated in 7+ days), stage bottlenec...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7:30am.
It should:
1. Read hubspot-pipeline-export.xlsx from the workspace
2. Identify stale deals (not updated in 7+ days), stage bottlenecks, and top 10 deals closest to close
3. Flag at-risk deals where CDD is blocking or a competitor is mentioned in notes
4. Produce a pipeline health report (.docx) with three sections: stale deals with suggested actions, bottleneck analysis, and top 10 priority list
5. Deals stale for more than 14 days must be flagged as REQUIRES IMMEDIATE UPDATE — rep must add a note or close
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Inside Sales

Weekly Licence Audit Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am. It should: 1. Read software-licences.csv (tool, licence count, assigned users, last login date) from the workspace 2. Identify unused l...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am.
It should:
1. Read software-licences.csv (tool, licence count, assigned users, last login date) from the workspace
2. Identify unused licences (no login in 30+ days) and orphaned accounts (user left company per HiBob export)
3. Calculate potential cost savings from reclaiming unused seats
4. Produce a licence audit report (.docx) with per-tool summary, unused seat detail, orphaned accounts, and estimated monthly savings
5. Any tool where unused licences exceed 20% of total must be flagged for manager review before reclamation
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
IT / Helpdesk

Weekly Legal Request Tracker Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 9am. It should: 1. Read the JSM ticket export for Legal Help Desk requests from the past 7 days (legal-tickets.csv) 2. Categorise by type: N...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 9am.
It should:
1. Read the JSM ticket export for Legal Help Desk requests from the past 7 days (legal-tickets.csv)
2. Categorise by type: NDA, contract review, GDPR request, regulatory submission, or other
3. Calculate ageing for each open request and flag any approaching SLA breach
4. Produce a legal workload report (.docx) with open items by category, ageing distribution, SLA risk items, and completed items summary
5. Any GDPR subject access request older than 20 days must be flagged as SLA CRITICAL — escalate to Data Privacy team immediately
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Legal

Daily Delivery Status Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 7am. It should: 1. Read delivery-queue.csv from the workspace covering all open terminal orders 2. Classify each order as On Track, Arrivin...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7am.
It should:
1. Read delivery-queue.csv from the workspace covering all open terminal orders
2. Classify each order as On Track, Arriving Today, or Overdue based on expected delivery date
3. Count orders by type (new, swap, collection) and summarise returns pending QA
4. Produce a delivery status report (.docx) with today's schedule, overdue orders with courier details, and QA backlog
5. Any order overdue by more than 3 business days must be flagged as ESCALATE — contact courier and notify the merchant
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Logistics / Supply Chain

Weekly Campaign Performance Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am. It should: 1. Read campaign-results.csv from the workspace covering all active campaigns from the past 7 days 2. Calculate week-over-we...
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Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am.
It should:
1. Read campaign-results.csv from the workspace covering all active campaigns from the past 7 days
2. Calculate week-over-week change in open rate, click rate, conversion, and cost per acquisition per campaign
3. Flag any campaign with declining performance for two consecutive weeks
4. Produce a campaign performance digest (.docx) with per-campaign summary table, channel comparison, and top/bottom performers
5. If any campaign shows a conversion drop greater than 30% week-over-week, flag as REVIEW URGENTLY before next spend is committed
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Marketing

Daily Onboarding Pipeline Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 8am. It should: 1. Read onboarding-pipeline.csv from the workspace listing all merchants in the onboarding journey 2. Identify the current ...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 8am.
It should:
1. Read onboarding-pipeline.csv from the workspace listing all merchants in the onboarding journey
2. Identify the current stage for each merchant (Registration, KYC, CDD, Terminal, Activation) and calculate days in stage
3. Flag merchants as AT RISK if stuck in any stage for 14+ days, or BLOCKED if CDD pending for 21+ days
4. Produce a pipeline status report (.docx) with full pipeline table, bottleneck summary, and conversion funnel metrics
5. Any merchant in BLOCKED status for 28+ days must trigger a note: ESCALATE to Onboarding Lead — potential merchant loss
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Onboarding

Daily workflow automation platform Failure Summary Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 7:30am. It should: 1. Read workato-failures.csv from the workspace listing all workflow automation bot recipe failures in the past 24 hours...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7:30am.
It should:
1. Read workato-failures.csv from the workspace listing all workflow automation bot recipe failures in the past 24 hours
2. Group failures by recipe name and error type, and count occurrences
3. Identify repeat offenders (recipes that failed 3+ times) and newly failing recipes (first failure in 7 days)
4. Produce a failure summary (.docx) with total failures, top failing recipes, error patterns, and suggested reprocessing steps
5. If any recipe failure affects merchant settlements or financial corrections, flag as FINANCIAL IMPACT — must be manually reprocessed before end of day
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Operations

Monthly Commission Reconciliation Skill

Build a skill that runs on the 1st of each month at 8am. It should: 1. Read commission-data.csv and partner-activity.csv from the workspace for the previous month 2. Calculate tota...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs on the 1st of each month at 8am.
It should:
1. Read commission-data.csv and partner-activity.csv from the workspace for the previous month
2. Calculate total commission per partner with breakdown by merchant, applying clawback rules for cancelled merchants
3. Flag anomalies: commissions changing more than 50% month-over-month, duplicate entries, or partners earning across multiple countries
4. Produce a commission report (.docx) with per-partner summary, detailed breakdown, anomaly section, and comparison vs prior month
5. Any flagged anomaly must include the note: REQUIRES SIGN-OFF — commission governance process mandates documentation before payment to SAP
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Partnerships

Weekly New Joiner Readiness Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am. It should: 1. Read upcoming-joiners.csv from the workspace listing all new joiners starting in the next 14 days 2. Check readiness for ...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am.
It should:
1. Read upcoming-joiners.csv from the workspace listing all new joiners starting in the next 14 days
2. Check readiness for each: HiBob account created, IT ticket raised, equipment ordered, onboarding schedule drafted
3. Flag any joiner starting within 5 days who has incomplete items as AT RISK
4. Produce a new joiner readiness report (.docx) with per-joiner checklist, completion status, and department breakdown
5. If any joiner is starting in 2 or fewer business days with missing system access, flag as URGENT — escalate to IT Helpdesk immediately
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
People / HR

Daily Non-Transacting Merchant Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 8am. It should: 1. Read activation-data.csv from the workspace for all merchants onboarded in the past 30 days 2. Identify merchants with n...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 8am.
It should:
1. Read activation-data.csv from the workspace for all merchants onboarded in the past 30 days
2. Identify merchants with no first transaction and classify the likely blocker (KYC incomplete, terminal not delivered, technical issue, or unknown)
3. Flag merchants 14+ days post-onboarding with no transaction as AT RISK
4. Produce a non-transacting merchant report (.docx) with full status table, blocker breakdown, and suggested outreach actions per merchant
5. Before sending any outreach, check with Sales to avoid duplicate messaging — include a coordination note on every merchant flagged for contact
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Product Activation

Weekly Sprint Summary Skill

Build a skill that runs every Friday at 4pm. It should: 1. Read jira-sprint-export.xlsx from the workspace for the current sprint 2. Calculate completed vs carried-over story point...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Friday at 4pm.
It should:
1. Read jira-sprint-export.xlsx from the workspace for the current sprint
2. Calculate completed vs carried-over story points, bugs found vs fixed, and velocity trend over the last 4 sprints
3. Extract blockers and open dependencies from ticket comments and labels
4. Produce a sprint summary (.docx) with completion stats, carried-over items with reasons, blocker list, and next sprint risks
5. Any blocker that has been unresolved for more than 5 business days must be flagged as ESCALATE — PM to raise in next leadership sync
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Product Management

Weekly Recurring Issue Pattern Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am. It should: 1. Read tier2-tickets-month.csv from the workspace covering all Tier 2 escalations from the past 7 days 2. Group tickets by ...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 8am.
It should:
1. Read tier2-tickets-month.csv from the workspace covering all Tier 2 escalations from the past 7 days
2. Group tickets by issue category and count occurrences, comparing against the previous week
3. Identify the top 5 recurring themes with root cause hypothesis and affected merchant segment
4. Produce a recurring issue report (.docx) with pattern table, trend comparison, and product fix recommendations for each theme
5. Any issue category that increased more than 50% week-over-week must be flagged as TRENDING — notify Product team for prioritisation
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Product Operations

Weekly Churn Early Warning Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7:30am. It should: 1. Read merchant-activity.csv from the workspace covering transaction volumes, support tickets, and fee enquiries for the...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7:30am.
It should:
1. Read merchant-activity.csv from the workspace covering transaction volumes, support tickets, and fee enquiries for the past 30 days
2. Flag merchants showing early warning signals: volume decline greater than 20% month-over-month, recent complaints, fee enquiries, or terminal issues
3. Rank flagged merchants by estimated churn probability based on signal count and severity
4. Produce a churn early warning report (.docx) with ranked at-risk merchants, signal detail per merchant, and suggested intervention (call, reprice, or escalate)
5. Any merchant with monthly volume above 50K showing 3+ warning signals must be tagged as HIGH VALUE AT RISK — Retentions lead must review before outreach
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Retention

Weekly Merchant Threshold Monitor Skill

Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7am. It should: 1. Read merchant-risk-data.csv from the workspace with chargeback ratios, refund rates, and transaction patterns per merchan...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every Monday at 7am.
It should:
1. Read merchant-risk-data.csv from the workspace with chargeback ratios, refund rates, and transaction patterns per merchant
2. Calculate distance from Visa VAMP and Mastercard MATCH thresholds for each merchant
3. Classify 3-month trend as increasing, stable, or decreasing and flag merchants within 20% of any threshold
4. Produce a threshold monitoring report (.docx) with summary dashboard, flagged merchants with full detail, and trend analysis
5. Any merchant that has breached or is within 10% of a scheme threshold must be marked as CRITICAL — senior risk analyst must review before any restrict or block action
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Risk

Monthly Scheme Fee Reconciliation Skill

Build a skill that runs on the 5th of each month at 8am. It should: 1. Read scheme-fees.csv (billed by schemes) and internal-estimates.csv (our calculations) from the workspace 2. ...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs on the 5th of each month at 8am.
It should:
1. Read scheme-fees.csv (billed by schemes) and internal-estimates.csv (our calculations) from the workspace
2. Match by Scheme, Month, and Fee_Type, then calculate variance in amount and percentage
3. Flag any variance exceeding 5% or 1,000 and group discrepancies by scheme
4. Produce a fee reconciliation report (.docx) with matched summary, flagged discrepancies with detail, and per-scheme totals
5. Any discrepancy affecting interchange pass-through fees must be flagged as FINANCIAL REVIEW REQUIRED — Finance team must confirm before scheme is contacted
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Scheme Operations

Daily Liquidity and Safeguarding Skill

Build a skill that runs every morning at 7am. It should: 1. Read safeguarding-data.csv and fx-positions.csv from the workspace 2. Verify the 80/20 safeguarding split between partne...
Show full prompt
Build a skill that runs every morning at 7am.
It should:
1. Read safeguarding-data.csv and fx-positions.csv from the workspace
2. Verify the 80/20 safeguarding split between partner bank A and partner bank B and flag any drift beyond 2 percentage points
3. Check each currency position against volatility thresholds and flag currencies approaching limits
4. Produce a morning treasury brief (.docx) with safeguarding summary, split check, FX exposure table, and DCC status per currency
5. If any currency has breached its volatility threshold or safeguarding split has drifted beyond 5 points, flag as IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED — Treasury lead must review before market open
Use /skill-creator to build the skill definition.
Treasury

Key Takeaways

  1. Skills turn prompts into verbs — A prompt is a one-off request. A skill is a reusable workflow you can call by name, share with your team, and chain with other skills. Convert anything you run twice.

  2. Scheduled tasks are fragile by default — Laptop sleeping, token expired, Claude Desktop not running. Every scheduled task needs a fallback: a manual retry recipe, a monitoring check, and a human owner. Automation that breaks silently is worse than no automation.

  3. Chain skills instead of building megaskills — A five-step megaskill is hard to debug and harder to reuse. Three small skills wired together (triage → brief → publish) are easier to test, easier to share, and survive when one step changes.

  4. Test on a small, dirty sample first — Clean test data hides the failures you will actually see. Run the skill on the messiest real file you have before scheduling it. If it breaks, you learn now, not at 7am on a Monday.

  5. Keep, kill, or iterate weekly — Every Friday, review what the automation produced. Kill anything you stopped trusting. Iterate anything that produced three good outputs in a row but still needs a human tweak. Keep only what saves real time on real work.

Materials

Select your department using the picker in the top right to see the exercise files for this workshop. Click any file to preview it in place.

Safety Note

Scheduled tasks run while you are away. That is the point — and that is the risk. A skill that performs a file read is safe to automate; a skill that drafts an external-facing communication, moves money, edits a merchant record, or posts to a shared channel is not.

Rules that apply from this workshop forward:

  • Never schedule a task that creates, sends, or modifies anything outside your personal workspace folder without a dry-run flag and a human review step
  • Never grant a skill access to credentials, tokens, or API keys that are not already in your own scope
  • Always name the output file with a timestamp so overwrites are obvious and recoverable (e.g. briefing-{date}-{time}.docx)
  • Always include a fail-loud step: if the source data is empty, missing, or malformed, the task must produce an error document rather than a plausible-looking empty report
  • Always test a scheduled task on-demand at least three times before enabling the schedule — silent failure is the most common failure mode