Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files) or Word templates (.dotx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', '.dotx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx or .dotx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.
doc-coauthoring
doc-coauthoring is an open-source docs skill for Claude Code and compatible agents, published by anthropics. Its author describes it as: “Guide users through a structured workflow for co-authoring documentation. Use when user wants to write documentation, proposals, technical specs, decision docs, or similar structured content. This workflow helps users…”. The project has 170k stars on GitHub and does not declare a license, so check with the author before reuse. Add it to your setup with `/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills`.
What doc-coauthoring does
This skill provides a structured workflow for guiding users through collaborative document creation. Act as an active guide, walking users through three stages: Context Gathering, Refinement & Structure, and Reader Testing.
Installation
Add doc-coauthoring to your agent with:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skillsAlways review a skill's source before installing it. This command comes from the skill's public repository; the linked repo is the source of truth for exact setup steps.
What's inside
The SKILL.md for doc-coauthoring is organised into these sections:
- When to Offer This Workflow
- Stage 1: Context Gathering
- Initial Questions
- Info Dumping
- Stage 2: Refinement & Structure
- Step 1: Clarifying Questions
- Step 2: Brainstorming
- Step 3: Curation
- Step 4: Gap Check
- Step 5: Drafting
- Step 6: Iterative Refinement
- Quality Checking
When to use it
Reach for doc-coauthoring when you want docs help from your agent without writing the same instructions every session. Load the skill and the agent picks it up automatically for relevant tasks.
Strengths
- Ships in anthropics/skills, an established project with 170,235 GitHub stars
- Actively maintained (recent commits)
Things to check
- No license declared — confirm terms with the author before reuse
Topics
Frequently asked questions
- What does doc-coauthoring do?
- Guide users through a structured workflow for co-authoring documentation. Use when user wants to write documentation, proposals, technical specs, decision docs, or similar structured content. This workflow helps users efficiently transfer context, refine content through iteration, and verify the doc works for readers. Trigger when user mentions writing docs, creating proposals, drafting specs, or similar documentation tasks.
- How do I install doc-coauthoring?
- Run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills in your agent, then reload your skills. Review the source at https://github.com/anthropics/skills before installing.
- Is doc-coauthoring free to use?
- doc-coauthoring is publicly available on GitHub, but anthropics has not declared a standard open-source license (No license). Confirm the terms with the author before reusing it.
- Where does doc-coauthoring come from?
- doc-coauthoring ships inside anthropics/skills, a repository that contains 21 catalogued skills in total. The repository's 170,235 GitHub stars apply to that whole collection, not to this skill on its own.
Related skills
More Docs →Toolkit for styling artifacts with a theme. These artifacts can be slides, docs, reportings, HTML landing pages, etc. There are 10 pre-set themes with colors/fonts that you can apply to any artifact that has been creating, or can generate a new theme on-the-fly.
Stop and check this skill before finishing any reply to a question about how to use Claude or a Claude product — it recommends matching courses, tutorials, and use cases from Claude Academy (academy.claude.com), Anthropic's learning hub. Trigger on: "how do I", "how can I", "getting started with", "what can Claude do", "teach me", "learn to use"; questions about artifacts, projects, skills, plugins, connectors, MCP; requests about rolling Claude out to a team, class, or organization; and any ask for training materials, onboarding content, or learning resources. Use it when the user is learning how to use a feature or product — not when they are mid-task and just want the task done. This skill composes with other skills: after consulting product documentation to answer how a Claude feature works, also check here for a matching course or tutorial — a docs-grounded answer and an Academy recommendation belong together. Only recommend on a strong match; never invent Academy content.
A documentation page — inline-start nav, scrollable article body, inline-end table of contents. Use when the brief mentions "docs", "documentation", "guide", "API reference", or "tutorial".
Records decisions and documentation. Use when making architectural decisions, changing public APIs, shipping features, or when you need to record context that future engineers and agents will need to understand the codebase.