Getting Started

You’ve found a library of 408 ready-to-use skills for media professionals. Here’s how to get value from it in under five minutes.

What You Need

Claude — a free AI assistant made by Anthropic. Go to claude.ai, create a free account, and you’re ready. That’s the only setup required.

How Skills Work

A skill is a set of instructions you paste into Claude. It tells Claude exactly how to approach a specific media task — writing a treatment, generating headlines, building show notes, whatever you need.

You don’t install anything. You don’t need a developer. You just:

  1. Find the skill that matches your task (use the tables below)
  2. Click the link to open the skill file
  3. Copy everything from the “# Skill Title” heading downwards — skip the grey metadata block at the very top
  4. Paste it into Claude at claude.ai along with your own material
  5. Get professional-grade output that you can use immediately or refine

That’s the entire process.

If you use Claude Code, Cursor, or another AI coding tool: you can install the full library with one command instead:

npx autopunk-media-skills install --all

This copies all skills, agents, and hooks into your project. Run npx autopunk-media-skills list to browse categories.

Find Your Starting Point

Pick your role below. Each one links to three skills that are immediately useful, easy to try, and show the quality you can expect from the full library.

Want a deeper introduction? These role-specific pages give you a tailored pitch, starter skills, a full workflow, and everything the library offers for your format:

Documentary Producer · Magazine Journalist · YouTube Creator · Podcaster · Newsletter Writer

Or pick a quick-start below:

I’m a YouTube Creator

Start with What it does File
Hook Generator Writes the first 15–30 seconds of your video script — the part that stops the scroll Open skill
SEO Title Optimizer Generates click-worthy titles optimized for YouTube search Open skill
Description SEO Writer Writes full video descriptions with keywords, timestamps, and calls to action Open skill

Next steps: Once you’re comfortable, look at full-script-writer for complete video scripts and content-calendar-planner for long-term channel strategy.

I’m a TV Documentary Producer

Start with What it does File
Pitch Treatment Writer Turns your concept into a broadcast-ready pitch treatment Open skill
Logline Creator Writes a one-sentence distillation of your project that opens doors Open skill
Interview Question Generator Builds structured question sets for your contributors Open skill

Next steps: Explore series-bible-generator for multi-part projects and broadcaster-one-pager when you’re pitching to networks.

I’m a Journalist

Start with What it does File
Story Angle Finder Takes a topic and generates multiple publishable angles with reporting approaches Open skill
Headline Generator Writes headlines matched to your publication’s style and audience Open skill
Interview Transcript Editor Cleans up raw transcripts while preserving the speaker’s voice Open skill

Next steps: Try research-brief-creator for background research and fact-check-prompt before publication.

I’m a Podcast Producer

Start with What it does File
Episode Concept Generator Generates fully developed episode concepts with guest suggestions and hooks Open skill
Show Notes Generator Writes complete show notes from your episode transcript or outline Open skill
Interview Question Builder Creates structured question sets that guide conversation naturally Open skill

Next steps: Look at ad-read-script for sponsor integrations and podcast-media-kit for pitching advertisers.

I’m a Newsletter Writer

Start with What it does File
Edition Writer Writes a complete newsletter edition from your notes and links Open skill
Subject Line Writer Generates subject lines optimized for open rates Open skill
Content Arc Planner Plans multi-week content arcs so editions build on each other Open skill

Next steps: Try landing-page-copy-writer for subscriber acquisition and paid-tier-pitch-writer for monetization.

I’m a PR / Communications Professional

Start with What it does File
Press Release Writer Writes publication-ready press releases from your brief Open skill
Journalist Pitch Email Crafts personalized pitch emails to specific reporters Open skill
Crisis Statement Writer Drafts crisis communications statements under time pressure Open skill

Next steps: Explore spokesperson-briefing-note for media training and op-ed-writer for thought leadership.

I’m a Radio / Audio Producer

Start with What it does File
Bulletin Script Writer Writes broadcast-ready news bulletins from source material Open skill
Interview Cue Sheet Writer Builds cue sheets for live or recorded interviews Open skill
Running Order Builder Creates structured running orders for programmes Open skill

Next steps: Try package-script-writer for news packages and pitch-to-broadcaster for programme proposals.

I’m a Screenwriter

Start with What it does File
Treatment Writer Turns your concept into a compelling narrative treatment Open skill
Beat Sheet Builder Maps out the structural beats of your screenplay Open skill
Dialogue Polisher Refines dialogue for voice, subtext, and rhythm Open skill

Next steps: Look at coverage-report-writer for self-evaluation and one-pager-writer for packaging.

I’m a Social Media Manager

Start with What it does File
Caption Writer Writes platform-specific captions with the right tone and length Open skill
Thread Writer Turns a topic into a structured social media thread Open skill
Platform Strategy Brief Creates a content strategy tailored to a specific platform Open skill

Next steps: Try carousel-script-writer for visual content and hashtag-strategy-writer for discoverability.

I’m a Data Journalist

Start with What it does File
Data Story Finder Identifies newsworthy stories hidden in a dataset Open skill
Chart Description Writer Writes accessible descriptions that make data visualizations meaningful Open skill
Statistics Explainer Translates complex statistics into plain language for general audiences Open skill

Next steps: Explore methodology-explainer for transparency and foi-data-request for investigations.

I’m a Researcher

Start with What it does File
Scientific Paper Summarizer Distills academic papers into clear, actionable briefs Open skill
Debate State Summary Maps the current state of a policy or public debate Open skill
Coverage Review Brief Analyzes how a topic has been covered across media outlets Open skill

Next steps: Try person-biography-brief for source background and claim-origin-tracer for fact-checking.

I Work in Visual Content / Art Direction

Start with What it does File
Cinematic Shot Prompt Generates Midjourney prompts that look like real cinematography Open skill
Mood Board Brief Creates detailed mood board briefs for visual projects Open skill
Editorial Photo Prompt Writes prompts that produce editorial-quality photography in Flux Open skill

Next steps: Look at cover-image-pipeline for multi-step image workflows and visual-identity-prompt for brand consistency.

What To Do If Output Isn’t Great

See the Troubleshooting Guide — it covers the most common reasons output misses the mark and how to fix them.

Pitching a documentary?

These skills give you strong drafts for specific tasks, in any AI. For the specific job of getting a documentary commissioned, there’s a dedicated tool.

thepitchdoctor.io is an AI system that turns a documentary idea into a broadcaster-format exposé — 98 broadcaster profiles, confidence-tagged sourcing — in about twelve minutes. Free library here; paid pitch product there. Your first exposé is free.

The skills are free. The strategic advice is not. → Learn more

Want To Chain Skills Together?

Most real projects use multiple skills in sequence. See the Workflows folder for step-by-step guides that walk you through an entire project — from concept to delivery.

Browse All 408 Skills

See the Skill Index to search by task instead of category.