You can now build a skill by doing the task once while Claude watches, instead of writing the instructions yourself. Claude captures your screen, your clicks and typing, and your voice, then proposes a skill for you to review before you save it.
This is the fastest way to get a first skill out of a task you already do by hand. Here is how it works and where it needs your judgment.
What you need
Recording is available on Pro, Max, and Team plans, in Cowork in Claude for Mac. It is not in chat, not on Windows, and not on Free or Enterprise plans.
If you are on one of those, you are not stuck. Write the skill by hand instead, and follow build your own Claude skill for the walkthrough.
Before you record
- Update to the latest version of Claude for Mac.
- Grant the macOS permissions Claude asks for the first time. Accessibility covers mouse and keyboard tracking, and Screen recording covers screen visibility. macOS may ask you to restart Claude.
- Close any files, apps, or conversations you do not want captured.
Take step 3 seriously. Everything on your screen is captured for the length of the session, along with anything you say. Do not type passwords or secrets, and do not leave client data, private messages, or an open inbox on screen while you record.
Record the workflow
- Open Cowork in Claude for Mac.
- Start a recording one of two ways. Click the “+” button in the composer and select “Record a skill.” Or go to Customize > Skills, click “Add,” then select “Record your screen.”
- Click “Start recording.” Leave the microphone on so you can narrate as you work. The microphone control lets you mute it or pick a different input.
- Do the task the way you normally would. The capture bar shows that recording is in progress and counts the steps it has captured.
- Click “Done” when you are finished, or “Discard” to throw the recording away without creating anything.
A recording runs for about 10 minutes. A countdown appears in the capture bar when you have about a minute left. When it hits zero, recording stops and everything captured up to that point goes to Claude, the same as clicking “Done.”
Narrate, or the skill will only be clicks
This is the part that decides whether you get something useful.
Your screen shows Claude what you did. It does not show why. Talk through your reasoning as you work: why you skipped a step, how you chose between two options, what you were checking when you paused, what would make you stop and ask someone.
A silent recording produces a skill that repeats your clicks. A narrated recording produces a skill that carries your judgment. Same 10 minutes, very different result.
If talking out loud feels awkward, try answering these while you work:
- Why am I doing this step at all?
- What am I looking at right now to decide?
- What would make this case different from a normal one?
- What would I never let someone else decide here?
What happens after you click Done
Claude starts a Cowork task, reviews the recording, and proposes a skill. You will see one of two cards:
- A new skill, marked NEW on the proposal card. Click “Save” to keep it, or “Dismiss” to discard it.
- An update to an existing skill, when the recording overlaps something you already have. The card shows which skill the proposal is based on. Click “Update” to apply the changes, or “Dismiss.”
Expand Content on the card and read the skill before you decide. Claude sometimes proposes a better route than the one you demonstrated, which is worth having, but it is your call whether that route is safe in your business.
Skills you save from a recording show up in Customize > Skills and behave like any other skill. You can edit, share, and delete them on the same terms.
What is kept from a recording
The video and audio are not retained. Claude reviews the recording to build the skill, and what stays afterward is a set of screenshots from the session. You can see them by expanding the Recorded demonstration step in the task.
Those screenshots live in the Cowork task, so deleting the task removes them.
Pick the right task to record
Recording removes the writing. It does not pick the task for you, and that is where most first skills go wrong.
Record something that fits inside 10 minutes, that you do at least weekly, and where the output is the same shape every time. A recurring report, a standard intake, a routine reconciliation. Skip anything that needs credentials on screen, and skip the once-a-quarter thing you barely remember how to do.
Expect it to break, then fix it
One recording captures the normal case. The value shows up in the cases that are not normal: the vendor with the odd terms, the month where the numbers do not tie, the client you treat differently.
Those are not in your recording, so they are not in version one of the skill. Run it on real work, watch where it goes wrong, and add the rule that covers it. Three or four rounds of that is the difference between a demo and something you actually hand off.
If you want the fuller picture of what a skill is and how it differs from an agent, start with what is a skill. To see the finished shape a good skill takes, browse the skills catalog. For the operator’s view of building these in a working business, see edakrong.com.