Free · MIT · Open agent skill

An open agent skill for authoring eLearning.

Drop the lesson-md skill into Claude or any agent that supports the open skills format. Your assistant turns source content, requirements, and outlines into LESSON.md lessons, scored ASSESSMENT.md assessments, or whole course bundles you can drag into Slate.

Download the skillSee how it works

~30KB. No account needed to use the skill.

What is an agent skill?

An agent skill is a small bundle of files that adds one capability to an AI agent inside a larger agentic workflow: a SKILL.md entry point, a few reference docs, some templates, and a couple of helper scripts. Together they teach the assistant to do that one job well, without baking the knowledge into a closed plugin or a custom model. The format is open, portable, and lives in plain text. Drop the folder into your agent's skills folder and it loads next time the agent starts.

The lesson-md skill is that kind of bundle, built around LESSON.md, the open Markdown format Slate maintains for writing eLearning lessons. With the skill installed, your AI assistant knows which Markdown blocks a lesson can use, how to size a course to the right seat time, and how to package a course as a `.zip` Slate can import. The full format reference lives at docs.slatebuilder.io/lesson-md.

Three outputs. All plain files.

  • A single LESSON.md lesson

    One .md file. Drop it into an existing course section in Slate.

  • A scored ASSESSMENT.md

    Standalone scored assessment, or bundled at the root of a course as its final section.

  • A full course bundle

    Sections, lessons, media, and an optional assessment, packaged as a .zip. One drag into Slate.

The skill never calls an API, never deploys anything, never spends Slate credits. It just writes files.

Requirements in, course bundle out.

  1. Install the skill

    Drop the unzipped skill folder into Claude, or any other agent that supports the open skills format. One-time setup, no account required.

  2. Share your source content

    Paste your source content: meeting notes, an outline, a slide deck, a transcript, a learning needs analysis. Or describe what you need in plain language.

  3. Your agent drafts, checks, and packages

    It writes the LESSON.md following the format rules, checks the file before handing it back, and gives you a single lesson, an assessment, or a zipped course.

  4. Drop it into Slate

    Slate's import dialog unpacks the file into a styled, editable course. Free on every plan.

Learning design, built in.

The skill writes lessons that follow what we know about how people learn, not just files that import cleanly.

  • Atomic lessons

    One concept per lesson, so the learner can hold it whole.

  • Measurable objectives

    Action verbs the learner can be observed doing: inspect, decide, explain. No "understand".

  • Interactives woven in

    Knowledge checks, cards, accordions every few text blocks, so attention does not drift.

  • Reflection prompts in longer courses

    Past about thirty minutes, the learner restates or applies the idea every ten minutes or so before moving on.

  • Feedback that teaches

    Knowledge-check answers explain why, connected back to the concept the lesson taught.

  • Sized to a real seat time

    Estimates duration as it plans and adjusts scope to hit the runtime you asked for.

You own the files.

  • Plain .md files. Read and edit them in any text editor.
  • Track changes across drafts. Compare versions side by side, keep a folder of revisions, or check them into git if you already work that way.
  • Works with any AI agent that supports the open skills format. No vendor lock-in.
  • Export courses back to LESSON.md from Slate any time. The format is what you own.

Install it in 30 seconds.

Unzip the bundle into your agent's skills folder, restart your agent, and start drafting.

Claude Code
~/.claude/skills/lesson-md/

Drop the unzipped lesson-md/ folder there. Claude picks it up next launch.

Any other agent
Point your agent at lesson-md/SKILL.md

Codex, Cursor, Cline, or anything that supports the open skills format. The bundle is just files.

Full install reference at docs.slatebuilder.io/lesson-md.

Built for the jobs creators bring it to.

  • Freelancers and consultants

    Turn client source content and requirements into course drafts in minutes. Hand off the source files.

  • In-house instructional designers

    Turn SME notes, transcripts, and outlines into structured lessons, ready to polish.

  • L&D teams managing libraries

    Keep course source files in version control. Re-generate on demand, re-import to Slate when you want.

Frequently asked questions

The skill gives you full control. Slate MCP, on the Standard and Pro plans, connects your AI assistant to your live Slate library so it can generate courses quickly and manage them inside Slate. The lesson-md skill is the file-based path: your agent writes LESSON.md on your machine, you keep the source files, and you can update them with your AI tool at any time without opening the Slate builder. Reach for MCP when you want speed and a live, shared workspace. Reach for the skill when full control of the source content matters more.
No. The skill is free and produces plain `.md` files you can read and edit in any text editor. A Slate account is only needed when you want to import the file as a styled, interactive course. The free tier covers that for most creators.
No. The skill runs entirely on your machine through your agent. Slate credits only come into play if you use Slate's in-editor AI after import: chat, translation, image generation, voice planning.
Most teams using the skill today run it through Claude, and that's where we focus our testing. The format is open on purpose, though, so the skill works wherever the open skills format does. Drop the bundle into any agent's skills folder, or point your tool at the bundled SKILL.md directly.
Two related things in the same family. LESSON.md is the open format: a way of writing eLearning lessons in plain Markdown. Its home is lesson.md and the full reference lives at docs.slatebuilder.io/lesson-md. The lesson-md skill is the toolkit that teaches an AI assistant to author files in that format and check them before handing them over. The format works without the skill. The skill needs the format.
MIT. The skill, the LESSON.md format, and the bundled helper scripts are all open. No tracking, no telemetry, no API calls. The whole download is around 30KB.
The skill checks every file before handing it back, so most import issues get caught up front. If a file passes those checks and still won't import, the full LESSON.md reference is at docs.slatebuilder.io/lesson-md, and you can reach the Slate team through the contact form on slatebuilder.io.

Download it. Try it on one lesson.

The skill is free and the format is open. The first draft is the AI's job. The polish is yours.

Download the skillStart free in Slate

Free, MIT-licensed, ~30KB. No account needed to use the skill or import a course on Slate's free tier.