A skill that makes Claude write a creative brief the way a senior strategist does, on one page, with one objective, one audience and one thing to land. Paste a client's email, a PDF or your own notes and it grades them against twelve sections, quotes the red flags back in the brief's own words and ranks what is missing. Then it writes the argument (background, objective, audience, insight, and three candidate propositions with a recommendation) and the frame: tone, mandatories, a counted deliverables table with sizes, the budget, dates worked back from launch and one named decider. It finishes with eight pressure tests and, if a client wrote the brief, a reverse brief email to send back.
Inside are five reference files. There is a scorecard with the red flags and the question that fixes each one, the one-page format with weak and strong versions of every section, and production specs for print and social with their sources. A rules file covers what a US brief must flag (FTC endorsement and review rules, Made in USA, green claims, AI disclosure, WCAG 2.2 and ownership), checked on 17 October 2026, and there is a worked example for a fictional candle brand. It works one stage at a time and ends each with one question and a sensible default. It never invents a claim, a budget, a date, a review or an approver; it leaves a marked gap and asks.
It writes briefs, not images or concepts. It flags legal rules and names who should check them, but it is not legal advice, and the rules file covers only the US. In claude.ai it needs code execution switched on, which also lets it save the brief as a DOCX or PDF, and it reads links only when web search is on. You get the most from it by attaching everything with facts in it: the client's email, last year's numbers, real customer reviews, the product label and the brand sheet. If a full page feels like too much, ask for the five-line version first. Then hand the signed brief to the concept routes skill for three ideas that answer it.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Creative brief
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In the download · 9 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows: diagnose, the argument, the frame, one page, then the pressure test and hand-off, one stage at a time.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/interrogation.mdThe twelve-section scorecard, the seven sections that block work, red flags with the question that fixes each, a question bank and the reverse brief email.
- references/brief-format.mdThe one-page format, a word budget per section, weak and strong versions of every section, and what each job type adds.
- references/production-specs.mdThe deliverables table, print and social sizes with sources, usage rights, timing worked back from launch, budget lines and approval gates.
- references/us-rules-and-rights.mdUS rules a brief must flag: FTC endorsements, reviews, Made in USA and green claims, AI disclosure, WCAG 2.2 and ownership, each sourced and checked on 17 October 2026.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/creative-brief.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /creative-brief. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the creative brief skill. I need a brief for [THE JOB, FOR EXAMPLE A HOLIDAY PRODUCT SHOOT] for [BRAND] in [COUNTRY]. I am [COMMISSIONING IT / A CLIENT SENT IT TO ME]. Here is what I have: [PASTE THE BRIEF, EMAIL OR NOTES]. Grade it first and tell me what is missing.Attach the client's email or PDF, your notes and the brand sheet, plus anything with facts in it, such as last year's results, the product label or real customer reviews.
Checklist
Before a brief goes out
- One objective, with the number that counts as a win, today's baseline and a date.A brief with three goals cannot be judged, so the most senior person in the room judges it by taste.
- The audience described by a buying moment and a behaviour, not only an age range.The moment predicts what people respond to; "women 25 to 45" predicts almost nothing.
- An insight written as a tension in the buyer's words, labelled hypothesis if nobody has checked it.An unlabelled guess gets treated as research and the whole campaign leans on it.
- One proposition in one sentence, with no "and", that a competitor could not sign.Two things to land share the few seconds a viewer gives, and neither lands.
- Every claim tagged confirmed, needs checking or cannot be used yet.Claims like "non-toxic" or "Made in USA" have legal tests; catching them in the brief is far cheaper than pulling finished ads.
- Deliverables as a counted table: size, ratio, file type, where each runs and for how long."Social posts" often turns into 20 files or more, and the count is what the maker prices.
- One named decider, a set number of review rounds and what happens if nobody replies.Late rejections often come from someone who never saw the brief.
- It fits on one page, with the open questions listed underneath.A brief nobody reads in two minutes gets skimmed, and the skimmed parts come back in round three.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
Why it matters
A lot of rejected creative work was answering a brief nobody agreed on. A chat asked for a brief fills twelve headings with confident guesses: an invented target, three propositions, a made-up insight and "premium" as the tone. This skill makes Claude grade before it writes, pick one proposition and say why, tag every claim, count every file and name the person who can say no at the end, so the argument happens on one page instead of in round three.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing