How to think about skills, how they work under the hood, and how to build your own.
A skill knows that to research an account, you call enrich_company, then qualify_company, then search_knowledge_base for the right playbook. It's the combination of tools and sequence.
A skill also knows what to ask you ("What kind of prep? Discovery or demo?"), when to branch based on the answer, and when to loop back ("Want me to go deeper on this stakeholder?").
It's a reusable prompt that encodes a process you've figured out, so you don't have to walk Claude through it every time.
Every skill combines MCP tools in a specific sequence. Here's what account-based planning looks like under the hood:
/octave:abm chains 10+ MCP tools together. Without the skill, you'd type each one manually.
Skills don't just call tools. They walk you through a process with questions, branching, and iteration.
The skill asks targeted questions before doing anything. "What kind of deal is this?" "Who's the audience?" "What happened last?" Each answer changes what it does next.
Different answers lead to different tool chains. A stalled deal gets re-engagement strategies. A competitive deal gets trap questions and battlecard intel. Same skill, different paths.
At the end, the skill offers follow-ups: "Want me to draft that email?" "Go deeper on this stakeholder?" "Try a different angle?" One run often leads to the next.
One skill's output feeds the next skill's input. You build workflows by composing skills, not by starting from scratch each time.
/octave:research builds the account context. /octave:generate uses that context to write the email. The research becomes the input for the generation.
/octave:wins-losses finds patterns in your closed deals. /octave:icp-refine uses those patterns to update your ICP criteria and targeting.
/octave:abm maps the buying committee and picks the playbook. /octave:campaign generates multi-channel content for each stakeholder.
/octave:pipeline diagnoses a stalled deal and recommends a re-engagement strategy. /octave:generate drafts the specific messages.
It's a markdown file. YAML at the top (name, description), then instructions in the body. That's it.
Name and description. The description tells Claude when to trigger this skill.
Each step describes what to do and which MCP tools to call. Claude reads these as instructions.
Questions to ask, conditions to check, what to do with each answer. Written in plain English.
What to offer at the end. This is where skills chain into other skills.
The Octave plugin ships with 20+ skills, with more added daily. Each one blends wiring and process differently. Some chain a dozen MCP tools together. Some are mostly decision logic with a few tool calls. Here are four that show the range.
/pipeline Mostly process. Branches into different coaching playbooks based on the deal situation.
/abm Heavy on loops. Iterates through personas and stakeholders, building the plan incrementally.
/wins-losses Synthesis-focused. Pulls deal events and findings, then analyzes patterns across outcomes.
/workflow Meta-skill. Chains other skills together with context passing between steps.
This skill is mostly process, not wiring. It asks "what's happening with this deal?" and branches into completely different coaching playbooks based on the answer.
Stalled → Diagnosis, re-engagement approaches, conversation starters
Competitive → Trap questions, positioning, displacement messaging
Multi-thread → Stakeholder discovery, per-persona engagement strategy
Executive → Executive brief, strategic messaging, meeting strategy
MCP tools called per mode
This skill loops. It pulls your persona definitions, then calls find_person for each persona title to map the buying committee. For each person found, it enriches and qualifies them. The stakeholder map builds incrementally.
Loop 1: Get persona definitions from library
Loop 2: Find contacts per persona title (3 per persona)
Loop 3: Enrich and qualify each stakeholder found
Then: Match playbooks, gather proof points, build engagement plan
The process in action
This skill is about synthesis. It pulls deal events and findings from won and lost deals, then analyzes patterns: which value props close, which objections kill, which competitors you beat and where you lose.
Win patterns: Champion presence, value props that closed, proof points that landed
Loss patterns: Competitor breakdown, unresolved objections, no-decision causes
Recommendations: Library updates, playbook changes, qualification improvements
Branching by analysis type
This is the meta-skill. It defines, runs, and manages workflows that chain multiple tools and skills together with context passing between steps. Each step's output feeds into the next step's input.
Templates: Pre-built workflows like "Full Outbound Pipeline" and "Competitive Deal Prep"
Context map: Results from step 1 are saved and available to step 2, 3, etc.
Decision steps: Workflows can branch based on conditions or user choices mid-run
Create your own: Describe what you want, it generates the workflow file
Example: competitive deal prep workflow
You don't need a framework. You need a process you've done enough times that you can describe it.
Work through the process in Cowork or Chat. Research an account, prep for a call, qualify a deal. Notice the pattern: you're asking the same questions, calling the same tools, in roughly the same order every time.
Write down the process as a markdown file. What do you ask first? What tools do you call? What do you do with the results? What varies each time? The YAML frontmatter is just a name and description. The body is the instructions.
Run the skill. It won't be perfect the first time. You'll notice it asks the wrong questions, skips a step, or doesn't branch where it should. Edit the SKILL.md and try again. Two or three iterations usually gets it right.
Once the skill works for you, your team can use it. It's just a file. Drop it in the skills directory and everyone gets the same process.
There's also a built-in tool for building skills: /skill-creator. It's a Cowork skill that helps you create other skills through an interactive process.
It asks what you want the skill to do, what MCP tools it should use, what questions it should ask, and how it should branch.
It generates a SKILL.md based on your answers, including the frontmatter, step-by-step instructions, tool references, and decision logic.
It runs the skill on sample prompts so you can see how it behaves, then helps you adjust the instructions based on what worked and what didn't.
It includes evaluation tools: grading, blind A/B comparisons between versions, and variance analysis. Useful when you need to measure improvement.
You don't need the skill-creator to build a skill. The manual process (do it, encode it, refine it) works fine for most cases. The skill-creator is the power-user path when you want structured testing and iteration.
You're repeating the same sequence of MCP calls
There's decision logic you keep explaining to Claude
Multiple people on the team do the same workflow
The process has more than 3 steps with branching
It's a one-off task you won't repeat
It's a single MCP call with no logic around it
You're still figuring out the process
The existing skills already cover it
20+ skills ship with the Octave plugin, with more added daily. Each one combines MCP tools with process logic.
| Skill | What It Does | Category |
|---|---|---|
| /octave:research | Context-aware prep for calls, demos, and outreach | Research |
| /octave:abm | Account-based planning with stakeholder mapping | Planning |
| /octave:pipeline | Deal-level coaching with mode-specific strategy | Coaching |
| /octave:prospector | Find, enrich, and qualify prospects against ICP | Research |
| /octave:generate | Content generation via saved agents, Octave AI, or Claude | Content |
| /octave:campaign | Multi-channel campaign content across email, LinkedIn, ads | Content |
| /octave:messaging | Messaging frameworks, positioning, elevator pitches | Strategy |
| /octave:battlecard | Competitive intelligence with trap questions and objection counters | Competitive |
| /octave:battlecard-doc | Visual HTML battlecard document | Competitive |
| /octave:wins-losses | Deal outcome pattern analysis | Analysis |
| /octave:win-loss-report | Visual win/loss report as HTML | Analysis |
| /octave:insights | Findings, trends, and patterns from conversations | Analysis |
| /octave:icp-refine | Refine ICP definitions from deal outcomes | Strategy |
| /octave:library | Browse, search, create, and update library entities | Foundation |
| /octave:audit | Check library for gaps, stale content, duplicates | Foundation |
| /octave:enablement | Cheat sheets, objection guides, discovery question banks | Enablement |
| /octave:train | Role-play, quizzes, and guided learning | Enablement |
| /octave:brief | Account dossier and call prep as HTML reference page | Documents |
| /octave:one-pager | Personalized leave-behind as HTML | Documents |
| /octave:proposal | Formal business case and proposal as HTML | Documents |
| /octave:microsite | Personalized ABM landing page as HTML | Documents |
| /octave:deck | Full slide presentations powered by library intelligence | Documents |
| /octave:pmm | Case studies, blog posts, datasheets, FAQs | Content |
| /octave:brainstorm | Campaign ideas, lead magnets, growth experiments | Strategy |
| /octave:launch | Product launch planning with full content kit | Strategy |
| /octave:repurpose | Adapt content for a different audience or channel | Content |
| /octave:analyzer | Score email threads and call transcripts | Analysis |
| /octave:workflow | Multi-step workflows with context passing | Composition |
| /octave:explore-agents | Browse and run saved Octave agents | Foundation |
| /octave:workspace | Check MCP server connection and status | Foundation |