You commented “VAULT”: here it is

My Weekly Claude Skills: What Actually Gets Used

Get the curated list of Claude skills I run every week as a founder-operator, with why each one earns its place.

Free checklist · copy-paste ready · built by the BrainVaultAI team

The Claude Skills marketplace has hundreds of skills. Most of them are demos. These are the ones that have survived repeated use and actually changed how I work, not because they're clever but because they save real time on recurring tasks. Each entry below includes what the skill does, when I actually run it, and the setup or trigger. Some are official skills. Some are prompts I've wrapped into a local skill file. All of them run in Claude Code. This is not a complete list and it's not ranked by popularity. It's ranked by how much I'd miss it if it disappeared tomorrow. Install what matches your workflow. Skip what doesn't. The best skill is the one you actually use.

Skills I use every week: the short list

## Claude Skills I actually use weekly ### /brief, Morning brief
What: Structured daily orientation. Top 3 priorities, one decision, open loops.
When: First thing every morning before email.
Setup: Custom skill file in ~/.claude/skills/brief/SKILL.md ### /content, Content pipeline
What: End-to-end content from topic to Instagram carousel JSON.
When: Content creation days, 1-2x per week.
Setup: Requires content pipeline skill installed. ### /code-review, Code quality pass
What: Reviews changed files for quality, security, and maintainability.
When: Before every commit on anything that matters.
Setup: Built-in to Claude Code. Just type /code-review. ### /security-review, Security audit
What: Flags secrets, injection risks, auth issues.
When: Before deploying anything customer-facing.
Setup: Built-in. Type /security-review. ### /plan, Implementation planning
What: Turns a feature request into a step-by-step plan before any code.
When: Any feature that touches more than 2 files.
Setup: Built-in. Type /plan. ### /graphify, Knowledge graph ingest
What: Takes any input and structures it into the SecondBrain vault.
When: After any session that produced a real insight or decision.
Setup: Custom skill. Requires vault setup.

Prompts I use as informal skills (no skill file needed)

## Prompts I use repeatedly without a formal skill file ### The stress-test prompt
Use before committing to any plan:
"Play devil's advocate. I've decided to [decision]. Give me the three strongest arguments against it. Don't soften them. Then tell me what would change your mind." ### The one-pager prompt
Use to turn any wall of context into a shareable doc:
"Compress everything we've discussed into a one-page brief. Audience: someone who wasn't in this conversation. Format: context (2 sentences), decision (1 sentence), rationale (3 bullets), next action (1 sentence)." ### The unblock prompt
Use when stuck:
"I'm stuck on [problem]. I've tried [what I've tried]. What am I missing? Give me the one thing I'm probably not seeing, not a list of options." ### The scope creep cutter
Use when a project is getting too big:
"Here's what I planned to build: [list]. Ruthlessly cut it to the version I could ship in [timeframe] that still delivers [core value]. Tell me exactly what to cut and why."

Want the editable version?

We'll send the editable version of this asset, plus a short series of our highest-leverage AI plays for operators. No spam. Unsubscribe in one click.

Free. No spam. Unsubscribe in one click. By submitting you agree to receive emails from BrainVaultAI.

More free AI guides in the full library · follow @brainVaultAI