The argument in one line.
Combining Agent Skills files with CLAUDE.md memory transforms Claude Code into a specialized assistant that automates entire creative workflows from a single prompt, eliminating hours of manual iteration and refinement.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You're a content creator or SaaS founder with existing Claude Code experience who wants to automate multi-step workflows like design, writing, or data processing without learning new tools.
- A developer or technical founder building internal tools who needs to encode domain expertise into reusable Claude agents that run complete tasks from a single prompt.
- You're already using Claude Code occasionally and want to unlock its full potential by combining Skills and CLAUDE.md memory files to create what feels like a specialized virtual employee.
SKIP IF…
- You've never used Claude Code before — this assumes you're comfortable navigating the interface and understand how to work with file structures and prompts.
- You're looking for a deep technical breakdown of Agent architecture or advanced debugging — this is a practical setup demo, not an engineering deep dive.
- You need solutions for non-Claude AI tools or multi-model workflows — everything here is Claude-specific and won't transfer directly to other platforms.
The full version, fast.
Combining Claude Code's Agent Skills with a CLAUDE.md memory file turns the CLI into a specialized virtual employee that executes entire workflows from a single prompt. The mechanism is two-part: encode domain expertise as a SKILL.md file built from a trusted source's transcripts or rules, then write a CLAUDE.md memory file that tells Claude when to invoke that skill automatically based on phrases you use. Demonstrated through a thumbnail pipeline where one request triggers research, title generation, Nano Banana asset creation, and a finished README, the approach works because Claude prompts other models better than you do. Build skills for any repeatable task you own, including thumbnails, WordPress sites, UI design, or React code.
Free for members
Chat with this breakdown — free.
Sign in and you get 23 free chat messages on us — ask for the hook, quote a framework, find the exact transcript moment, generate a markdown action plan. Bring your own key when you want unlimited.
Create a free account →Where the time goes.
00:00 – 00:15
01 · Cold open / 4-point thesis
Talking-head promise + Excalidraw slide: 4 reasons skills change everything.
00:16 – 00:54
02 · What are Skills + Memory workflows
Shows GitHub CLAUDE.md with YOU ARE THE ORCHESTRATOR heading — establishes mental model.
00:54 – 02:10
03 · Virtual employee framing + sponsor
Positions as virtual employee / OpenClaw alternative. Harbor SEO sponsor read.
02:10 – 03:13
04 · Live demo: thumbnail workflow
Claude Code v2.1.36. Does /clear for fresh session. Types thumbnail prompt.
03:14 – 04:01
05 · Finding assets (Gemini, Nano Banana)
Searches for images, settles on Claude Code screenshot as asset. Drag-and-drops into terminal.
04:02 – 05:32
06 · Feeding the video idea + vault
Explains meta video concept. Shows Obsidian vault with video-ideas subfolders. AI-edited channel video example.
05:33 – 06:10
07 · Previous thumbnail results
Shows strong thumbnail: SKILLS.MD FILES / VIRTUAL EMPLOYEE bold green text over dark scene.
06:11 – 07:30
08 · How the skills work technically
Excalidraw diagram: skill file + CLAUDE.md = automatic workflow trigger.
07:31 – 07:50
09 · Step 1: Transcript into a Skill
Took Learned by Leo thumbnail transcripts, repackaged as youtubeviralskill.md.
07:51 – 08:35
10 · Step 2: CLAUDE.md memory trigger
CLAUDE.md bridges skill to trigger: when user says X, load skill Y and run workflow Z.
08:36 – 09:02
11 · Thumbnail result revealed
Generated thumbnail appears. Creator reacts: that does look pretty good actually.
09:03 – 10:10
12 · CLAUDE.md ties it together
Full loop diagram: prompt -> CLAUDE.md triggers -> skill loaded -> output. /clear resets context but CLAUDE.md persists.
11:02 – 11:40
13 · The Matrix / kung fu brain analogy
Neo loads kung fu. You are making Claude Code an expert on NanoBanana. It prompts better than you.
11:41 – 12:19
14 · Proof: iterations in the vault
Scrolls dozens of video-ideas subfolders. This is how I was doing thumbnails until yesterday.
12:20 – 13:13
15 · Old way vs new way + research links
Old: 15-20 mins per thumbnail. New: one prompt. Auto-populated research README in Obsidian.
13:14 – 14:11
16 · How does this apply to YOU
WordPress skills, React agent skills, UI/UX + Nano Banana, HTML/CSS from image. Make it apply to you.
14:12 – 15:27
17 · Final thoughts + CTA
Not releasing exact system. 500 likes = release. CTA to harborseo.ai.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A skill file combined with a CLAUDE.md memory file creates a virtual employee loop: the skill encodes how to do the task, the memory file encodes what the project is, and Claude runs the full pipeline from a single prompt.
- You can encode any repeatable workflow into a Claude Code skill — the thumbnail generation example shows that even visual creative tasks with external image APIs can be packaged as a skill.
- Skills are particularly powerful in Claude Code because the model is excellent at writing prompts — a skill that generates Nano Banana image prompts benefits from Claude's own prompt-writing strength.
- A transcript-based skill creation process: take the transcript of the best creator in your domain, copy it into a skill file, and Claude inherits that creator's rules and principles without manual abstraction.
- The skill + CLAUDE.md loop produces outputs that require almost no prompting for common tasks — the system knows your brand, your workflow, and your quality standards.
- Combining a thumbnail style skill (what good thumbnails look like) with a brand style guide (your specific aesthetic) in the CLAUDE.md gives Claude the rules plus the precedent examples.
- The meta use case — using Claude Code to produce content about Claude Code — demonstrates that the system is self-referential enough to document and ship its own workflow.
- Nano Banana integration inside a skill means Claude can trigger image generation without the user switching to a separate tool or copying prompts manually.
- A skill that references a prior thumbnail as a style guide (not to copy but to match aesthetic quality) teaches Claude to maintain visual consistency across a content library.
- The video generation extension of this workflow (skills managing screen recordings, narration, and edit instructions) represents the outer frontier of what skill-driven automation can produce.
- AI-edited (not AI-generated) content — human talking, human screen recording, AI-directed editing — is the production quality standard that skills enable without a full editing team.
- The threshold for releasing a method publicly is whether sharing it will flood the space with lower-quality derivatives — creators using skills have a legitimate competitive reason to keep some workflows private.
Steal the skill-file loop.
Claude Code workflow playbook
Encode a domain expert's knowledge into a .md file once, wire it to a CLAUDE.md trigger, and Claude Code prompts the tool better than you ever could manually.
- Find any YouTube tutorial in your niche that codifies rules or a process — download the transcript.
- Reformat it as a .md skill file: strip filler, keep the rules, structure for Claude to parse.
- Add one trigger line to CLAUDE.md: when user says [phrase], load [skill] and run [workflow].
- The system is self-improving — Claude Code generates its own research README each run, reducing manual research to zero.
- The meta-move: use the skill system to BUILD the skill system (this video is the live demo of exactly that).
- This is already how ~/.claude/skills/ works in JoeFlow — the creator re-derived the same architecture independently.
Terms worth knowing.
- Claude Code
- Anthropic's command-line coding assistant that runs in a terminal and can read, write, and execute code across a local project using natural-language instructions.
- Agent skill
- A reusable instruction file loaded into an AI agent that gives it specialized expertise on a topic or workflow, so it follows those rules whenever a matching task comes up.
- SKILL.md
- A markdown file that defines a single agent skill — its name, when to use it, and the steps or knowledge it should apply when triggered.
- CLAUDE.md
- A persistent memory file Claude Code reads at the start of every session, used to store project context, rules, and instructions that should apply automatically across conversations.
- /clear
- A Claude Code command that wipes the current conversation context so the next prompt starts fresh, while still loading persistent memory files like CLAUDE.md.
- Nano Banana
- Nickname for Google's Gemini image generation and editing model, used to produce or modify images directly from text prompts.
- Nano Banana Pro
- A higher-tier version of Google's Nano Banana image model offering better quality and more controllable image generation than the base version.
- Gemini 3 Image Pro
- A Google Gemini image generation model in the Gemini 3 family, capable of producing photorealistic and stylized images from text descriptions.
- Gemini API key
- A credential issued by Google AI Studio that authorizes an application to call Gemini models programmatically, including image generation.
- Hooks
- A Claude Code feature that triggers custom scripts or commands automatically at specific lifecycle events, such as before or after a tool runs.
- OpenClaw
- An open-source automation framework for orchestrating multi-step AI agent workflows, often compared to running an AI as an automated employee.
- Obsidian
- A local-first markdown notes app that links files together into a personal knowledge graph, popular for storing research, outlines, and memory files.
- Next.js
- A React-based web framework used to build full-stack websites and applications with server-side rendering and routing built in.
- README file
- A plain-text or markdown document placed alongside a project that explains what it is, how it works, and where the relevant pieces live.
Things they pointed at.
06:50channelLearned by Leo
02:10toolNano Banana
Lines you could clip.
00:18
“Skills are literally changing my life. Yeah. That sounds like an exaggeration. I'm not joking.”
00:59
“Think OpenClaw but less automation, cheaper, secure, and better.”
11:20
“You're making Claude Code an expert on NanoBanana. And the thing about that is, it knows how to prompt NanoBanana better than I do.”
12:22
“This is how I was doing thumbnails until yesterday when I discovered that you can basically create a workflow plus skills.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
metaphoranalogystory
00:00I'm gonna show you guys a life hack for Claude code using agent skills that I think a lot of people are missing out on. This will change your lives if you follow everything I show you in this video. Let's jump into it.
00:15Okay, guys. So I'm gonna just quickly go through this. I'm gonna show you a demonstration of what I mean, and then I'm gonna show you how to set it up.
00:21So skills are literally changing my life. Yeah. That sounds like an exaggeration.
00:25I'm not joking. I'm not exaggerating. You can make a skill from anything, number one.
00:30Number two, combine it combine it with memory, so Claude .md to make a workflow. Now I have talked about these things before where I'll just show you.
00:41So interestingly, if you search Claude code wizard on Google, I actually do show up on on GitHub, is hilarious. This was something I made in the past that used Claude dot m d files in order to create a workflow.
00:53Right? But think this with skills inside, and you might see where I'm going with this. Right?
00:59So it's like having a . I'm not joking. I'll show you something in a minute that proves that.
01:04Think OpenClaw, but less automation, cheaper, secure, and better. So what I'm gonna show you is how I make my thumbnails.
01:11But what I want you to know is a, this is just one example of what you can do. You can do many other things. And b, like, nano banana inside ClaudeCode is particularly good because ClaudeCode is very, very good at writing prompts.
01:23Okay? So just bear that in mind. Before continuing, guys, a very quick word from our sponsor, me.
01:28This is harborseo.ai, and this is a tool that I created for people like you who have a SaaS application or a blog or an ecommerce store and you need help with blogging.
01:39You discover keywords, you write articles, and you help and we help you publish them as well. And we even have a link building tool which will help you build backlinks and a link bait tool which will let you build pages on your website that will get you backlinks.
01:54And if you need a little bit more help or if you wanna push your tool a little bit more, you can also buy manual backlinks where we will actually fulfill them. And you can even get half price off the first three months with the code half price links, and we will build those backlinks for you.
02:10Thank you for the attention. Back to the video. So let's just jump on over to the demonstration.
02:14I'll do a slash clear so that there's no context here whatsoever. I'm gonna say, please use the YouTube thumbnail beta skill.
02:25I can't remember the exact name. Uh, plus the normal workflow to make me a thumbnail plus video.
02:34Start with the thumbnail. Remember to generate assets with nano banana if needed, then generate the entire thumbnail.
02:44I'm just gonna put that because this is something new we're working on together.
02:49And, yeah, we and then what what all I need to do is just give it some assets, literally. That's all I need to do. So let's just go to Google.
02:55Let's type Gemini three image pro. Let's just see if we can get, like, a nice image here.
03:02I guess this is pretty good. I shouldn't let's go nano banana actually.
03:07Nano banana pro. I don't like any of these, to be honest with you.
03:13This is one of the things with Gemini and Google compared to, like, you know, Sonnet and stuff. They don't have their own images. I've noticed this because I've been obviously doing thumbnails.
03:23Right? Okay. So I guess we just go with this because I literally cannot find anything else.
03:29Just to show you guys an example, I guess. Do we need anything else? Probably not yet Claude code.
03:35So Claude code. So let's grab this one, let's say. Let's make it a bit bigger.
03:43Now this has assets on it, so I need to save to downloads like that. Drag and drop, and then say use these assets as a base.
03:54The thumbnail oh, sorry. The I need to give you the idea. So the idea of the video is a bit meta.
04:00We are creating a video on the process we've created here of using skills.mdplus, um, claude.md to create an automated workflow like a virtual assistant, uh, where you do my work for me.
04:18So, yeah, extremely meta. And now I'm just gonna give it a quick reference. Let me just show you some examples as well.
04:22So I'm just gonna go to YouTube master. This is really impressive stuff, guys. You need to get into this.
04:27I'm telling you. I'm not I'm not exaggerating here. Let me just click on the grab.
04:30So let's just go to video ideas. Right? So this is how it spits out my ideas.
04:36Previously, I had this to the point where I generated an actual video. Um, if you looked at if if you wanna see an example of this, I'll just show you quickly. So slash my channel.
04:48This video here, you can tell it's AI generated, but it's not AI generated. It's, uh, AI edited.
04:54Right? I like, this was edited by CalledCode using the kind of thing that I'm showing you in today's video. Right?
05:00I'm not releasing this method just yet. I don't know if I am gonna release it because all it'll do is just lead to more and more people, um, using kind of this, uh, thing to generate not slop.
05:12This isn't slop because it's still me talking, and it's me doing all the screen recordings. But, basically, what it does is it just slams those altogether.
05:19Right? Really, really cool stuff. The video did not do very well, but that that's fine.
05:23That's not important. I'm just experimenting. And I wanted to see how far I can go with it as well.
05:27So and then we can look at these as well. So these are the thumbnails that it's been making. This one's not that good.
05:33Where are they? So, yeah, this one was really, really good. This was a really nice thumbnail.
05:38Look at that. Quality is amazing. So I'm actually gonna give this as a reference.
05:43Uh, I'm giving you a thumbnail as a reference. I don't want you to use that style, but the way you did the dot m d folders is perfect.
05:54Right. So I'm just gonna send that. And then more recently, we've been working on this kind of style thumbnail, not that one, this kind of style thumbnail because this is what works on my channel.
06:04Right? Text plus assets from the business.
06:09But this is really interesting stuff, guys. Right? So I'll just let that run, and I'm gonna show you guys how I actually create these things.
06:16But if you see here, it says skill nano banana. So it it can use nano banana because I've given it that skill. This is the wrong, uh, I need you to load the beta version too, please.
06:28Actual thumbnail style. I just wanna make sure it does that because I don't wanna waste time, guys. And I it my memory file and stuff is a little bit confusing right now.
06:36I have to go through it again because I've changed a lot of things recently. I just need to see that it's loaded the correct one, and then I'll show you how we actually do this. Okay.
06:44Perfect. So YouTube thumbnail beta has now been loaded. That's fine.
06:47I can now leave that. So the way I did this, right, I used to watch this creator learned by Leo.
06:53Right? Really, really good creator if you're just starting on YouTube. And what I did was I took the transcripts of his videos, right, the important ones.
07:01So like this one, how to literally force everyone to click your videos. And he's got, like, rules that you can use, but, like, how the the thing I was having problems with is how do I consistently use these rules with my style of thumbnail in all my videos easily.
07:19Right? So what I did was I created a skill. All you do is just copy the transcripts.
07:23Right? And I don't think this this is, like, copy this there's there's any, like, copyright here or anything like that because we're we're reimagining the entire concept of his video.
07:35Right? And I'm also not selling this. It's not commercial.
07:38I wouldn't recommend doing this and then selling that. That's a little bit I don't know.
07:42Probably people are doing that already. Don't get me wrong. And probably it's a really good way to money to make money, but it's a little bit I don't know.
07:48I don't like it personally. Okay. So I need to give it a Gemini Gemini API key.
07:53Okay. So what what is the actual process here? The first thing you do is you get a transcript of a YouTube video and call it, like, you know, uh, mine was, like, youtubeviralskill.md or whatever.
08:08Right? The name's not important. You'd it is because the way that this works is in the memory after right?
08:14So first of all, this is the skill. So you load this as a skill. But how does Claude know how and when to use the skill?
08:21Right? So what I did was I created a memory file. Right?
08:27So this is just Claude dot m d. Claude. M d.
08:31And all it says is when I say to you, um, create well, it's not all it says. It the lot okay.
08:39Amazing.
08:42I'll probably redo this because I'm not a big fan of this style of thumbnail, damn, that does look pretty good actually. I might have to try that. God, I look tired in that fucking picture.
08:50That's really, really good actually. This is really nice. I probably will redo it.
08:55I'll probably tinker with this a little bit, but you can see what I'm what I'm cooking up here maybe. So all it does is when I say so there's sorry.
09:03There's one more skill, which is the, um, the top one that says for the thumbnail. The second one is, uh, research and titles.
09:12Right? So learn by Leo, again, has he he kind of has this combo of thumbnail plus title. They're the most important thing.
09:20The the thumbnail and title have to be complimentary and not working against one on each one another or saying the same thing.
09:31Right? They can't say the same thing. You have to they have to say slightly different things.
09:33They have to complement each other. So I load those two skills where every time I say make me a thumbnail, make me a video idea about x and y, it loads the nano banana thumbnail skill.
09:46Right? Because that's what it's got in its memory. And that's why I did the slash clear, by the way, because if you think about it, I me doing a slash clear here, this is a completely fresh conversation with Claude.
09:56It's like it has no memory of what's happened previously in our conversations except in claude.md where this premade workflow is. Right? And the other thing it does is it does research and titles.
10:07Right? Same thing, loads the skill, and then does that. There's also a hook thing.
10:12I'm not really working with hooks as much. I don't know. Me and hooks, we don't really go we don't really get on that well.
10:20I just don't know how to I just don't know how to do it, basically. Um, it's not for me. I'd rather just make my content.
10:26I tried to make a highly edited video using AI. It's just not for me. This is my style.
10:31Whatever. It is what it is. So it comes up with the name, the title.
10:35Right? But, again, I'm not a big fan of this title, to be honest with you. Um, I would probably do a little bit of work on that as well.
10:42And it comes up with this thumbnail. Previously, this process would you know, it would take me a lot of time. Okay?
10:48And I can even say, okay. Now just find some news from today and make me a video idea thumbnail title, etcetera.
10:58Right? So this is where things start to get really interesting because you can drill this process down. But the important thing, and I keep talking about this.
11:06Right? There's that scene in the matrix where Neo has to has to fight someone.
11:13Right? Has to fight someone. I can't remember exactly what it is.
11:16And then he loads kung fu into his brain. Right? But the point of this is is that he's then an expert on kung fu.
11:25Right? But what you're doing is you're making Claude Code an expert on NanoBanana. And the thing about that is, right, is that it knows how to prompt NanoBanana better than I do.
11:36And I can show you that because I've done this a million times already.
11:42Look. This is how you know that I'm telling the truth, guys. I've done this so many times.
11:49So look. All of these wasn't two months ago.
11:53What?
11:57Yeah. There we go. All of these are me trying to do exactly what I've just shown you.
12:02Look how many times I've done it. One week ago, one week ago, two weeks ago. So what I used to do was I would give it a thumbnail that I liked, that it had designed, and then say, you know, tell me what makes this thumbnail good.
12:12And then I would try and get it. I would give it a Canva thing. Right?
12:16This is already, like, fifteen, twenty minutes of my time. Gone. And then it would try and generate one that looks a little bit like the original one that I sent it.
12:23Right? This is how I was doing thumbnails until yesterday when I discovered that you can basically create a workflow plus skills.
12:31And like I said, the important thing is that it has, like, this kung fu brain of it's it's an expert on what I'm trying to get it to do.
12:40Right? So then the final thing about this, guys, is that it also creates me this README file. So, for example, this isn't gonna be a very good example because there won't be many links and things.
12:49But if I just go to GLM just drops and then goes to README. And then let me just, um, open this up. This is all part of its memory.
12:57Right? I just said, you know, I wanted to do I wanted to do this, that, and the other when I asked you to. And, also, another just quick aside, guys.
13:04Obsidian is is pretty cool. I do like Obsidian. So look, it gives me all of these links.
13:10So I don't even have to do any research anymore. Right? This is next level for me.
13:16Now the reason that you you might watch this video and be like, how does this apply to me? Make it apply to you.
13:22Right? Right? If you need to generate WordPress websites, give it a WordPress skill.
13:25Right? I'm pretty sure someone told me the other day that there's now WordPress skills.
13:30Right? Agent skills. Agent skills for WordPress, bang.
13:35New agent skill for WordPress, January 30. You know, if you're making WordPress sites, give it this. If you're making UI UX on Nano Banana, give it all of the rules of UI UX into Nano Banana and get it to create this amazing thing.
13:49And then you could even give it a skill to to generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or React code from the the image.
13:59Right? And I believe React agent skill. There's a React agent skill now even.
14:03The reason I say React, by way, is because Next. Js is built on React. So just that that's what I'm saying.
14:07So, yeah, the cell have all of these skills as well. So you can make these predetermined workflows that do a very specific job for you. And like I said, I actually managed to get it to edit this video.
14:19Now you can go and watch that video. You can tell me that it's a bad video. It's fine.
14:22I understand. But it was purely edited by AI, which I think is absolutely mad considering how good the the actual result was.
14:31So, yeah, what I normally do is I say, give me 10 more ideas for titles using our normal system. Plus, please, uh, can you redo the thumbnail without me but with other assets I originally sent to you, reedited by nano banana.
14:50But the skills file is perfect. Yeah, guys.
14:55That's pretty much it. I'm gonna leave the video there. There's not gonna be anything in the description that will like, you're not gonna find like, uh, I'm not gonna give you this exact system.
15:04This is my system specific to what I'm trying to do. If people want this system, if, I don't know, 5,000 people ask me to off if this gets 500 likes, this video, I will release it.
15:15But this is just my system, so it doesn't really make sense to you. But, yeah, it is what it is. Guys, I'll leave the video there.
15:19Thank you so much for watching. Check out harborsco.ai. If you're watching all the way to the end of the video, you're absolutely a legend.
15:24I'll see you very soon with some more content. Peace out.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Most people use Claude Code as a chat interface — one prompt, one response, reset and repeat. Income stream surfers discovered you can wire in persistent domain expertise via Agent Skill files and memory, turning it into a workflow engine that prompts itself better than you ever could.
Named ideas worth stealing.
06:11model
The SKILL.md + CLAUDE.md Loop
- Step 1: Find a transcript with the domain expertise you want to encode
- Step 2: Repackage as a .md skill file, load as Claude Code Agent Skill
- Step 3: Add trigger in CLAUDE.md: when user says X, load skill Y
- Result: Claude Code runs the full workflow autonomously on every matching prompt
Encoding domain expertise once into a skill file + memory trigger creates a persistent automated workflow.
Steal forAny repeatable content workflow Joe runs more than twice
11:02concept
The Kung Fu Brain Metaphor
Like Neo loading kung fu in The Matrix — you load domain expertise into Claude Code once, and it then prompts the tool better than you ever could manually.
Steal forExplaining the JoeFlow/Sessions skill system to an audience
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
15:01product
“Check out harborsco.ai”
Soft mention, no hard sell. Bigger engagement CTA is the 500-likes gate on releasing the workflow — embedded in the body of the video.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
