Claude Code Skills: Automating Repetitive Dev Tasks With /commands

Claude Code skills are reusable prompt templates triggered by slash commands. Type /auth and Claude reads your project, asks 3 targeted questions, and outputs a complete auth implementation. No copy-paste, no Stack Overflow.

What Skills Are

A skill is a markdown file in .claude/skills/ that Claude reads when you type its command. It contains structured context that turns a vague request into a precise, repeatable output.

.claude/
└── skills/
    ├── auth.md      → /auth
    ├── pay.md       → /pay
    ├── deploy.md    → /deploy
    └── test.md      → /test

Writing a Skill

# /auth — Authentication Setup

## What I'll do
Set up complete authentication for this project including:
- OAuth providers (Google, GitHub)
- Session management
- Protected routes
- User model in database

## Questions I need answered first
1. Which OAuth providers? (Google / GitHub / Email / All)
2. Database: Prisma with PostgreSQL or SQLite?
3. Session strategy: JWT or database sessions?

## What I'll generate
- `auth.ts` — NextAuth configuration
- `app/api/auth/[...nextauth]/route.ts` — API route
- `middleware.ts` — Route protection
- Prisma schema additions (User, Account, Session models)
- Environment variable template

How Skills Beat Generic Prompts

Generic prompt: add authentication to my app

Result: Claude asks 10 questions, generates something generic that doesn't match your stack.

Skill: /auth → 3 targeted questions → complete implementation that matches your exact stack.

The skill pre-loads context so Claude's questions are precise and the output is immediately usable.

The 10 Skills in Ship Fast

/auth    → Full auth system (OAuth + email + sessions)
/pay     → Stripe billing (subscriptions + one-time + webhooks)
/deploy  → Docker + CI/CD + cloud deployment
/test    → Test suite for any function or component
/api     → REST or GraphQL endpoint scaffolding
/db      → Prisma schema from plain English description
/ui      → Component from design description
/email   → Transactional email templates
/docs    → API documentation from code
/review  → Code review with actionable feedback

Real Usage Example

User: /pay

Claude reads pay.md skill, then asks:
1. Subscription, one-time payment, or both?
2. Price points? (e.g. $9/mo, $29/mo, $99 one-time)
3. What should happen after payment? (redirect URL / webhook action)

User answers 3 questions.

Claude generates:
- Stripe configuration
- Checkout session API route
- Webhook handler with signature verification
- Success/cancel pages
- Environment variable setup

Time: 4 minutes. Without skill: 2 days.

Installing Skills

# Ship Fast Skill Pack — 10 skills
# Download zip, unzip to .claude/skills/
# Skills activate immediately in any Claude Code session

The Ship Fast Skill Pack is $49 one-time — 10 battle-tested skills built and used by Atlas at whoffagents.com.