📊 Reference appSkills
Charts and reports
Writing skills, then improving them by testing.
What you'll learn
- What testing found, and each fix.
- Why templates in reference files work well.
- How to adapt someone else's skills.
What people get: help turning their own numbers into a clear chart, a timeline or a one-page report. It's a pack of five skills, with nothing to install: the assistant produces a self-contained web page that people can open in a browser and print to PDF.
It's the best example of writing skills and then improving them by testing.
How it was written
- For the person, not a programmer. "Do any code yourself, and talk to them about the plan."
- Two ready-made page templates (a bar and line chart, and a timeline) live in reference files. The assistant copies one, fills in the data, and saves it.
- Adapted with permission. It began from an openly licensed set of skills. The licence travels with each skill, and the changes are noted.
What testing found, and the fix each time
| What went wrong | What the skill now says |
|---|---|
| The assistant only sees the start of a description, and the "use when" came after it. | Every description starts with when to use it. |
| A report led with a difference that was just chance. | Check every difference before calling it a finding, and say so when two groups are about the same. |
| A chart said "in dollars" though the data named no currency. | Use only units the data gives. |
| It replaced a file from an earlier conversation, and wrote an English page for a Korean request. | Look first, add a number to a name that's taken, and write the page in the person's language. |
| It retyped a template and changed a colour code. | Shorter lists of colours, so there's less to get wrong. |
Idea to borrow
Run real requests, write down what went wrong, and turn each lesson into one clear line in your skill. Skills get better by being tried, not just by being written.
If you adapt someone else's skills
- Check the licence. If there isn't one, ask the author's permission first.
- Keep the licence file with each skill, and note what you changed.
- Remove what a skill can't hold, such as icons and scripts.
- Rewrite for your audience.