Build your
system.
You know how to prompt.
Now stop starting from zero.
Beginner: use Claude.
Advanced: build the system that uses Claude for you.
Master: run an operation on it and teach your team to do the same.
Graduated from Beginner? Good. Start here.
› 4 Layers refresher
Every strong prompt still has four layers, written in order: Objective (one sentence, the win), Context (the world, who you are, who Claude is), Output (the shape), and Workflow (the steps, when the path matters). Guardrails sit at the bottom, always on. Level 2 does not re-teach this. If it's rusty, read the full breakdown in Beginner · The 4 Layers, then come back. Everything here assumes you already write in 4 Layers by default.
Stop repeating yourself.
Every prompt you write twice is a system you haven't built yet.
Skills hold your playbooks. Memory holds who you are. Together they mean Claude shows up already knowing the job.
From Prompt to Skill
Turn your best repeated prompt into a skill Claude applies automatically, forever. A skill is a playbook Claude loads only when the job matches. You stop pasting the same instructions every time.
- What a skill actually is: a playbook loaded only when the job matches
- The anatomy: a "use when" description plus a body with your rules
- How to extract a skill from work you already repeat
- When NOT to make a skill
- Promote one reused Prompt Lab prompt into a named skill
- Test it fires on the right task and stays quiet on the wrong one
- Write the "use when" line so it triggers cleanly
Here's the live specimen: a small skill called "craft" that keeps output specific instead of generic. Two parts. First the trigger line, the "use when" that decides if Claude loads it at all:
Then the body: the actual rules. Three of them, lifted straight from the skill:
- · Take a point of view. No hedging. Commit to a recommendation and say why.
- · Specific over vague. Replace adjectives with numbers and named tradeoffs. "Fast" becomes "200ms."
- · Earn every sentence. If a line can be deleted without losing meaning, delete it.
That's the whole shape. A trigger that decides when, a body that decides how. Your skills look the same.
A skill is for a job you do the same way every time. If you've done something once, it's a prompt. If the rules change every time you run it, it's a prompt. Don't skill-ify a one-off. You'll spend more time writing the playbook than you'll ever save.
Anti-Slop: Your Quality Bar
Name the difference between "reads fine" and "actually good," then make Claude hit the higher bar by default. Slop is the generic hedged average answer. It reads fine. That's exactly the problem.
- Slop defined: the generic hedged average answer
- The four anti-slop moves
- How to build your own banned-phrase list
- The delivery check and calibrating effort to stakes
- Run your last three published pieces through the delivery check
- Rewrite one of them
- Save your banned list as a skill
- · Take a point of view. No hedging. No "it depends" as an escape. Commit and say why.
- · Specific over vague. Swap adjectives for numbers, named examples, real tradeoffs. "Better" means better than what, by how much.
- · Cut clichés. "Unlock," "leverage," "seamless," "game-changer," "in today's fast-paced world." Banned on sight.
- · Earn every sentence. If a line can be cut without losing meaning, cut it.
One question before anything ships: what would a sharp editor cut? Run it on your own draft. Then send the tightened version, not the first one. Match effort to stakes: a status ping gets a quick pass, a client deliverable gets the full check plus a read from the audience's side.
Claude Memory
Stop telling Claude who you are every single chat. Memory follows you everywhere: every conversation, no Project required. Store the durable facts once and the Context layer starts writing itself.
- Memory vs Project vs system prompt: memory follows you everywhere
- What's worth remembering: voice, role, non-negotiables
- What to keep OUT: client-confidential, fast-changing facts
- How memory, skills, and Projects stack
- Ask Claude what it already remembers about you
- Correct anything wrong or stale
- Add three durable facts, then run the memory audit
- Memory · follows you into every chat, anywhere. Best for who you are.
- Project · lives inside one Project. Best for one kind of recurring job.
- System prompt · shapes one Project or one session. Best for behavior in a lane.
Keep out anything client-confidential or fast-changing. Memory is durable storage. A deal that closes next week does not belong there.
Give Claude a workspace, not a folder.
A Project can be a briefed operator that produces on-brand work first try.
And a long session can stay sharp instead of going foggy. This part is about the environment Claude works inside.
Projects Mastery
Turn a Project from a folder into a fully briefed workspace that produces on-brand work on the first try. The difference between a Project that helps and one that nails it is what you put in the knowledge and the system prompt.
- Project knowledge done right: what to upload, what to leave out, keeping it current
- System prompts that hold voice AND process
- One Project per job
- Layering conflicts: who wins between Project prompt, skill, and memory
- Rebuild your "My Content" Project as an operating workspace
- Judge first-draft quality on a real task
- Refresh the knowledge as your business changes
When a Project prompt, a skill, and memory disagree, the most specific instruction to the task wins. A Project system prompt beats general memory inside that Project. An explicit instruction in your message beats them all. Don't let three sources quietly contradict each other. Keep each one in its lane.
Context Management
Keep long sessions sharp instead of foggy, and never lose work to a dead chat. Long conversations degrade: important details drift as the window fills. This is context rot. The fix is the handoff move.
- Why long chats degrade, in plain English, and how to spot the moment
- The handoff move: goal, decisions, done, left, gotchas
- Fresh chat vs keep going
- Offloading heavy reading and writing durable things to files
- Take a sprawling open chat and generate a handoff note
- Restart clean in a fresh conversation
- Feel the difference in the first answer
When a chat starts feeling long or sluggish, or Claude starts mixing up details you settled earlier, that's your cue. Don't wait until it forgets. Hand off early, not late.
Use them at any natural stopping point in a long chat. These work for any kind of work, so there's no General or Real estate version here.
Do this first. Save the result somewhere you can find it again.
A clean chat means faster, sharper answers.
Use this when you'd rather not switch chats.
Verification Habits
Make "never ship an unchecked number" a system, not a hope. Every factual claim you send under your name is a bet on your reputation. Build the check into how you work so you can't forget it.
- The verification ladder: what needs a source, a second read, or nothing
- Cite-or-mark-[unverified] as a default
- The adversarial read: "argue against this draft before I send it"
- Baking verification into skills
- Force a research output to cite every factual claim
- Verify the three that would embarrass you if wrong
- Add "cite or mark [unverified]" to your research skill
- Needs a source · any number, date, or claim about the outside world.
- Needs a second read · anything that would embarrass you if it's slightly off.
- Needs nothing · your own opinion, your own voice, your own recommendation.
No vibes in a client-facing number. If it can't be sourced, it ships marked [unverified] or it doesn't ship.
Let Claude run the work.
Connectors go from connecting tools to orchestrating them.
Delegation lets Claude do more while you stay the one accountable. Then you wire it all into one system you run your week on.
Connectors as a Power Tool
Go from connecting tools to orchestrating them, and know exactly where the guardrails are. One instruction can chain four tools. Read-only vs write is a permission strategy, not a first-day rule you obey forever.
- Chaining connectors in one instruction
- Read vs write as a permission strategy, not a first-day rule
- Parallel pulls: Claude reads four tools at once, just ask
- Scheduled and triggered work, and where a human decision begins
- Map one recurring multi-tool workflow
- Write the single instruction that runs it
- Run it read-only first, then decide what earns write access
A connector can read four tools, cross-reference them, and draft the next move in seconds. What it should not do is make the call that only you can own: sending the thing, committing the money, telling the client. Chain the reads. Hold the writes for a decision. That line is the whole strategy.
Delegation & Review Gates
Let Claude do more while you stay the one accountable for what ships. You met the trust ladder in Beginner. This is the operator version: assign each recurring task a rung, write it down, and build the queue that lets you approve a week's work in one sitting.
- The trust ladder as a personal operating policy
- Designing a review queue: Claude drafts all week, you approve in one sitting
- Assigning each recurring task a rung, in writing
- The weekly spot-check discipline, and why rung 4 is rare
- Assign trust rungs to three recurring tasks, with reasons
- Stand up a real draft-and-approve queue for one of them
- Run it for a week and audit what shipped
- Read-only. Claude pulls and surfaces. You do all writes.
- Draft plus approve. Claude writes, you review every output before it ships.
- Spot-check. Claude ships routine items. You audit weekly.
- Autopilot. Low-risk, high-frequency only. With logging.
Rung 4 is rare, and it's earned: a task proves itself at rung 3 for weeks before it graduates. Never start a new workflow above rung 1.
- Invoices · rung 2, draft plus approve. Money leaves the building, so I read every one before it sends.
- Social replies · rung 3, spot-check. Low stakes, high volume. Claude ships routine ones, I audit the week on Friday.
- Contracts · rung 1, read-only, never higher. Claude can summarize and flag, but no contract language ships without me writing it.
- Lead follow-up · rung 2, draft plus approve. Every re-engagement email is written by Claude and read by me before it goes.
- Routine captions · rung 3, spot-check with a Friday audit. High volume, low risk. Claude ships them, I review the batch weekly.
- Contract language · rung 1, never leaves read-only. Claude summarizes and flags, but no contract wording ships without me.
Capstone: Your Personal Operating System
Wire memory, skills, a Project, and a review queue into one system you run your week on. This is where the eight modules become a single setup. Run a real week on it, measure the hours saved, and write the one-page doc.
- How to assemble a1 through a8 into one setup
- Documenting what lives where
- Defining a trust rung per recurring task
- Writing the one-page "how my system works" doc
- Stand up the full system
- Run your real week on it
- Tally the hours saved and note where it broke
Write down what lives where: which facts are in memory, which playbooks are skills, which job each Project owns, and the trust rung for every recurring task. This doc is not busywork. It becomes your Level 3 teaching kit, the thing you hand your team when you start running an operation on top of it.
- Memory · role, voice rules, team names. Loaded into every chat.
- Content Project · bio, offers, case studies in knowledge. Owns all published writing.
- Proposal skill · fires on "write a proposal." Holds structure and pricing rules.
- Inbox queue · rung 2. Claude drafts replies all week, I approve Monday morning in one pass.
- Memory · farm area, price point, brokerage, and "I mentor newer agents." Loaded everywhere.
- Content Project · market numbers, past listings, brand guide in knowledge. Owns my personal brand output.
- Listing skill · fires on listing requests. Lifestyle-first, one CTA, banned words enforced.
- Lead queue · rung 2, draft plus approve. Claude writes every follow-up, I approve the batch daily.
New words
Only the terms that are new at this level. Everything from Beginner still holds. For the rest, see the full glossary in Level 1.
› Skill (authoring)
Writing your own playbook so Claude does a repeated job your way, automatically. Two parts: a "use when" trigger line that decides when Claude loads it, and a body holding your rules. You met skills as a concept in Beginner. Here you build them.
› Memory
Durable facts Claude keeps about you across every conversation, no Project required. Store who you are, your voice, your non-negotiables. Keep out anything confidential or fast-changing. Memory follows you everywhere; a Project stays in its lane.
› Context rot
The quality drop in a long conversation as the window fills with noise. Details drift, Claude mixes things up, answers get vaguer. Not a bug, just how long chats behave. The fix is the handoff move: save what matters, restart clean.
› Handoff note
A short summary you generate before starting a fresh chat: the goal, the decisions and why, what's done, what's left, the gotchas. Paste it into a new conversation and pick up sharp instead of tired. Do it early, not late.
› Review queue
A pattern where Claude drafts work all week and you approve it in one sitting. Instead of stopping to review each item as it appears, you batch the approvals. Turns a stream of interruptions into a single scheduled pass.
› Scheduled task
Work that runs on a clock or a trigger instead of when you ask. A Friday digest that builds itself, a "new lead" instruction that fires when one arrives. The automation handles the trigger; you handle the decision at the end.
› Subagent
A separate helper Claude spins up to do heavy work without cluttering your main chat. "Go read these files and report back" keeps the reading out of your window so your session stays clean. You get the conclusion, not the pile.
Finished Level 2?
You built the system that uses Claude for you. Level 3 is where you run an operation on it and teach your team to do the same.
Level 3 · Master →