Question 1

What exactly does the Teach skill do?

Accepted Answer

Teach turns the directory you run it in into a teaching workspace. It writes a MISSION.md capturing why you want to learn, then produces lessons, reference sheets, and learning records across sessions. It's built for stateful learning — you return to the same workspace each session, and the skill picks up where it left off instead of treating every question like a fresh chat.

Question 2

How is it different from just asking Claude Code to explain something?

Accepted Answer

A chat reply gives you fluency — the ability to nod along in the moment. Teach is designed around storage strength, the long-term retention that comes from retrieval practice, spacing, and interleaving. Every lesson is one small HTML page with exercises and a feedback loop, and the skill records what you genuinely understand so later sessions teach at the edge of your ability instead of repeating the basics.

Question 3

Where do the lessons and notes actually live?

Accepted Answer

Everything lives in the working directory you invoked the skill in. Lessons go in lessons/ as numbered HTML files (0001-dash-case.html), cheat sheets in reference/, learning records in learning-records/ (0001-slug.md), plus MISSION.md, RESOURCES.md, and NOTES.md at the root. Reusable components — a shared stylesheet first, then quiz widgets and simulators — sit in assets/. Files are created lazily, so an empty workspace stays empty until there's something to record.

Question 4

Does it work for non-coding topics?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the skill's own spec cites yoga poses, fitness routines, and theoretical physics as target topics alongside programming syntax. The mission format uses running a half marathon and shipping a Rust CLI as examples. The workspace is plain HTML and markdown files, so nothing about the system assumes code, and the reference format covers algorithms, exercises, and glossaries equally.

Question 5

How does it know what to teach me next?

Accepted Answer

It computes your zone of proximal development from two inputs: the mission in MISSION.md and the evidence in learning-records/. If you demonstrated real understanding of something, that sets a new floor. If a misconception got corrected, that becomes a predicted stumbling block for related topics. If no mission exists yet, the skill stops and interviews you about why you're learning before it teaches anything — the format file says 'a bad mission is worse than no mission.'

Question 6

Why does the skill tell the AI to never trust its parametric knowledge?

Accepted Answer

The SKILL.md instructs the model that before RESOURCES.md is well-populated, its job is finding high-quality external resources, and 'never trust your parametric knowledge.' Lessons should be littered with citations to back every claim. The skill is explicitly built on the assumption that the model's built-in knowledge isn't ground truth — it's a starting point that should be verified against trusted sources you curate.

Question 7

Do I need to join a community to use it?

Accepted Answer

No, but the skill will suggest one. Wisdom, in its philosophy, comes from real-world interaction, so the default posture is to answer your question and then delegate to a high-reputation community — a subreddit, forum, or local class. If you opt out, the skill respects that and records it in RESOURCES.md so future sessions stop proposing communities.

Question 8

Can I adapt or reuse the generated lessons?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Installing via skills.sh copies editable files into your project, and the generated lessons are plain HTML you can restyle or rewrite. The asset system is built for reuse — components live in assets/ exactly so later lessons don't duplicate them. Everything is MIT-licensed, and Matt Pocock's stated philosophy for the whole skill family is 'hack around with them, make them your own.'

Question 9

Is Teach better than Anki or flashcards for retention?

Accepted Answer

They do different jobs. Anki schedules spaced retrieval of atomic cards you create; Teach is a curriculum engine that decides what to learn next, produces a lesson, and records what you mastered. It uses retrieval practice too — quiz answers are deliberately kept the same length so formatting never leaks the answer — but it doesn't do the interval scheduling Anki is built for. Realistically they're complementary: Teach for what to learn and why, Anki for keeping it loaded.

Question 10

How do I install it, and is it free?

Accepted Answer

It's free and MIT-licensed. Run 'npx skills@latest add mattpocock/skills' in a terminal and select teach from the list, or use 'claude plugins install mattpocock-skills' for the managed Claude Code plugin. The skill ships with disable-model-invocation, so the model won't trigger it unprompted — you type /teach and state what you want to learn.

AI Learning on Top AI Skills

Teach Skill FAQ: Personal AI Teaching With Claude Code

Frequently Asked Questions

Why a Teach Skill FAQ Exists

Teach Skill: Turn Claude Code Into a Personal Teacher