Streamlining AI Prompts: Ruben Hassid Advocates for Claude Skills Over Lengthy Instructions

In a recent LinkedIn post, Ruben Hassid challenges the conventional approach to crafting prompts for AI tools, particularly Claude, advocating for a more efficient method using “Skills.” Hassid argues that the prevalent practice of writing lengthy, 700-word prompts is often ineffective and proposes a streamlined alternative that leverages pre-defined instructions.

The Inefficiency of Long Prompts

Hassid begins by directly addressing the common frustration with elaborate prompts that fail to yield desired results. He highlights the issue of AI models, like Claude, potentially losing context or failing to adhere to all instructions within a single, verbose prompt.

“You cram it all into one message. ‘Be direct.’ ‘No fluff.’ ‘Don’t use em-dashes.’ ‘Match my voice.’ By the 3rd sentence, Claude already forgets the 1st sentence.”

According to Hassid, the problem lies in overwhelming the AI with too many disparate instructions within the prompt itself. He suggests that this method is counterproductive, as the AI struggles to maintain focus and consistency across a long string of commands.

Introducing Claude Skills as a Solution

The core of Hassid’s argument centers on the utility of “Skills”—a feature within Claude that allows users to pre-define instructions, preferences, and contextual information. Instead of retyping these instructions for every interaction, users can activate a Skill with a simple command.

Hassid explains the mechanism behind this efficiency:

“It works because everything you used to retype is already inside the Skill – your voice, rules, structure. You stop typing it. It’s already in there.”

He emphasizes that this approach requires an initial setup but ultimately saves significant time and improves the consistency of AI outputs. As Hassid notes, the benefit is that a single slash command can trigger a wealth of pre-programmed instructions, ensuring the AI operates within the user’s defined parameters.

Practical Steps for Implementing Claude Skills

To guide users toward adopting this more effective prompting strategy, Hassid outlines a clear, step-by-step process for setting up and utilizing Claude Skills. This involves visiting a specific website, subscribing for free, and accessing a provided link to a Notion folder containing pre-made Skills.

Building Your First Skill

For those who wish to create their own custom Skills, Hassid provides a method using Claude’s “Skill creator” feature. This process involves:

• Initiating the Skill creator within Claude.
• Answering specific questions about the desired task and parameters.
• Reviewing the generated Skill file (.md).
• Adding any necessary exclusions (e.g., “Do NOT use for [things it should ignore]”).
• Saving and uploading the Skill via Claude’s settings.

Hassid concludes by reinforcing the advantage of this method:

“One /command → reads as you wrote it. That’s the difference between bad, better, and best.”

He encourages readers to repost his insights to help others avoid the pitfalls of inefficient long-form prompting and offers access to his entire Skill library via his website.