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My Custom AI Skills

Posted on 2 mins read

It’s funny that I struggled when I first started using AI to really lean into it. I was fine with the code completion, answering questions, searching the docs, etc. Then one day I realized that I could just have it create skills for me as I found things I repeatedly did. So here are a few examples of skills that I have made and what they could look like for you. These are not 100% my implementation but enough to give you a rough concept.

Mermaid Skill

I like Mermaid and have been using Mermaid since it’s just plain text. However, it’s always been a challenge to make complex diagrams. AI has made that a trivial task, and it’s really good at it. So I made a skill and defined a style that it needs to use. That way, all my diagrams look identical and good.

Jira Skill

I had AI build me a skill that knows the Jira projects that I use and the different values I need. The skill also keeps a list of code repositories and epics that should be assigned for issues when working in that repo. Takes a lot of the grunt work out of making tickets, which is perfect for AI to do.

Check The Docs Skill

I have been finding that AI doesn’t always read the most up-to-date docs. So I told AI to make a skill that has it read the most recent versions of documentation when it makes sense. That has helped a lot with outdated information. Nothing seems to annoy me more than when it doesn’t use the most up-to-date version of a library or technique.

Wrapping Up

Now, at this point, I have a lot more skills, and most of them are more specialized as I have been working on items. However, these are the global skills that I use all the time as they make the normal work that I do much quicker.

I would encourage anyone just now starting to use AI or anyone who hasn’t explored skills to do so. You don’t need to know how to do it; you just have to know how to prompt what you want. That’s the power of these tools that didn’t just click with me.

Thanks for reading,

Jamie

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