Guide · Agent skill
How to use the Build Guide for Clinic Supervisors agent skill
Updated · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data
The build-guide skill is for a supervising attorney at a law school or legal aid clinic who wants student-facing AI skills to match their teaching approach. It walks you through writing a plain-markdown guide for one practice area, such as immigration or housing, that controls intake questions, how much the skills do versus teach, when students must stop for sign-off, and local rules. After this guide you will know how to install the skill, trigger it with a natural request, and what it saves and needs.
Build Guide for Clinic Supervisorsanthropics/claude-for-legal · Apache-2.0 Download the skill Quick start
- 1Install the skill. Download the ZIP from the directory page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/ folder, or upload it under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- 2Confirm prerequisites. Make sure the claude-for-legal plugin with legal-clinic is installed, the cold-start interview is done, and CLAUDE.md exists with your role set to Supervising attorney.
- 3Start the skill. Run /legal-clinic:build-guide or ask in plain language to build or revise a practice-area guide.
- 4Choose the practice area. Pick the clinic type from the list, or name a custom area that becomes the guide filename.
- 5Set intake, posture and gates. Work through intake questions, pedagogy posture (assist, guide or teach) and review gates, skipping anything you have no view on.
- 6Save and test. Let the skill write the guide under the guides/ folder, then accept the offered test run of draft to see the student view.
What the skill makes the agent do
Agent skills are instruction packages that Claude can load and follow when a request matches their description. This one is aimed at supervisors. It sets how the student-facing skills in the same legal-clinic plugin behave, rather than doing legal work itself.
The skill first checks that your role in the practice profile is Supervising attorney. If it is not, it stops and points students to the onboarding skill. For a supervisor, it then walks you through a checklist: practice area, intake questions, pedagogy posture (assist, guide or teach), review gates, cross-plugin checks and local rules. It writes the result to a guide file under your Claude plugin config folder.
- Output path: ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/guides/<practice-area>.md
- You can keep one guide per practice area and re-run the skill to revise it, or edit the file directly.
- The skill does not verify law, deadlines or local rules. The supervisor must confirm those.
Install the build-guide skill
You can install the skill in either of two ways. Download the ZIP from the directory page and unzip it into your personal skills folder, ~/.claude/skills/, or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder.
Alternatively, upload the ZIP in the Claude apps under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.
- Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
- Project install: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder
- App install: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP
Check the requirements before you start
The skill depends on the claude-for-legal plugin with its legal-clinic plugin installed, and on that plugin's cold-start interview being configured. You also need a CLAUDE.md practice profile file in the plugin config directory. The skill reads your role, practice areas and jurisdiction from that file.
The skill's only file is SKILL.md. It runs no scripts and uses no network access.
- Claude plugin 'claude-for-legal' with the legal-clinic plugin
- Cold-start interview completed, so CLAUDE.md exists
- Your role set to Supervising attorney
Trigger the skill with a natural request
You can invoke the skill with its command, or describe what you want in plain language. The skill's description covers requests to build or revise a per-practice-area guide, tune how clinic skills behave for your clinic type, or set your teaching philosophy as plugin configuration.
You can also pass an optional practice area as an argument, such as immigration or housing.
- "Help me write a guide for our housing clinic."
- "Revise the immigration guide so intake asks about entry history."
- "Set our clinic's teaching philosophy to teach for client letters."
/legal-clinic:build-guideWalk through the interview
The skill asks which clinic the guide is for. If you choose Other, it asks for a short name, which becomes the filename. For intake, it shows default questions for immigration, housing, family and consumer practice; for other areas you describe the intake yourself.
For pedagogy posture, you choose a default of guide, assist or teach, and can override it per document type. Review gates set which work product goes to you before a client sees it. Skip any item you have no strong view on, and the guide will note it as using defaults.
- Guide (default): the skill gives structure, students fill in substance and get feedback
- Assist: the skill produces work product and students learn by editing
- Teach: students draft and get Socratic feedback; models appear only after two attempts
- Skipped items are recorded as 'not specified — skill uses defaults'
Test the guide and revise it
When the guide is written, the skill offers a test run of the draft skill under your configured posture, so you can see what a student sees. Multiple guides are fine, one per practice area. Re-running the skill lets you revise section by section, overwrite, or view the existing guide first.
- Choose (a) revise section by section, (b) start fresh and overwrite, or (c) see what's there first
- Create-on-demand: the guides/ folder is created if it does not exist
What people use it for
- A housing clinic director sets intake to cover lease, habitability and timeline questions, and requires supervisor review for client letters.
- An immigration clinic supervisor sets teach posture for client letters and assist posture for file memos.
- A supervisor revises an existing consumer guide to add red flags and good-fit criteria for referrals out.
- A transactional clinic creates a guide with a custom name, such as transactional-nonprofit.md.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a lawyer to use the build-guide skill?
The skill is written for a supervising attorney at a law school or legal aid clinic. If your role in CLAUDE.md is not Supervising attorney, the skill stops and redirects students to the onboarding skill.
Is build-guide free to use, and what is its licence?
The item is listed under the Apache-2.0 licence. The source does not state pricing, so check the directory page for any cost details.
What does the build-guide skill require to run?
It requires the claude-for-legal plugin with the legal-clinic plugin and its cold-start interview configured, plus a CLAUDE.md practice profile file in the plugin config directory. It runs no scripts and uses no network.
Where does the guide get saved?
It is saved as a markdown file in ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/legal-clinic/guides/, named after the practice area, such as immigration-removal-defense.md. The guides folder is created if needed.
Does the skill check the law or deadlines for my clinic?
No. The skill only writes configuration. The supervisor must confirm the law, deadlines and local rules themselves.
How does build-guide compare with simply editing a file by hand?
The skill walks you through a checklist and sets defaults for intake, posture and gates, which is useful for a first guide. The guide is plain markdown, so you can also edit the file directly for quick changes.
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Our verdict
Use build-guide if you are a supervising attorney who runs a clinic and wants student-facing AI skills to follow your teaching approach for a specific practice area. Students should not use it, and anyone who needs legal advice should look elsewhere, because the skill only writes configuration and does not check the law.
Download the skill