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Getting Started Guide for Installing Textbook Generation Skills in Claude Code

This document guides you through the steps to install a set of Claude Code Skills used to generate intelligent textbook skills on your local computer so they are accessible to Claude Code. At the end of this getting started build you should be able to run all the skills and book-building utilities in this project.

Note

Claude does not currently run on the Windows PowerShell. See details below.

Quick Start Summary

Here's a quick overview of the five main steps of the installation process. These steps assume you are familiar with using the UNIX Terminal or shell. You can find details on teach step later in the document in the Detailed Installation Options for New Users. The Quick Start steps if you are an experienced UNIX user and have git already installed on your computer.

Step 1: Clone the Claude Skills GitHub Repo

Download the claude-skills repository from GitHub to your local drive.

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mkdir -m "$HOME/projects"
cd "$HOME/projects"
git clone https://github.com/dmccreary/claude-skills

Step 2: Set the BK_HOME and Configure PATH

Set environment variables in your shell startup file. Set BK_HOME and add ~/.local/bin to your PATH if it is not already on your path

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BK_HOME="$HOME/projects/claude-skills"
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Restart you shell and type: echo $BK_HOME to verify the environment variable is set

Step 3: Install The Book Building Scripts

Install book utilities Run bk-install-scripts to install book-building commands

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$BK_HOME/scripts/bk-install-scripts

Type bk and you should see a list of the book building commmands

Step 4: Install Claude Skills

To install skills globally, you just need to type the following command

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bk-install-claude-skills

This will install all the book builder scripts in your ~/.claude/skills directory

Step 5 Verify installation

Check that everything is working correctly by asking Claude what skills it knows about.

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claude
what skills do you know about?

Here is a sample response:

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⏺ I have access to 23 specialized skills in this repository for creating intelligent educational textbooks.
  Here's an overview:...

Warning

The installation process only installs symbolic links in your ~./local/bin and your ~/.claude/skills. This allows you to just do a git pull to get new updates to existing skills. You must not delete the claude-skills or the skills will stop working. When new skills or scripts are added you MUST reinstall them to get the new symbolic links installed. When in doubt do a git pull and rerun the installers for both scripts and skills.

Detailed instructions for each step are provided below.

Detailed Installation Options For New Users

This section of the Getting Started Guide walks new users through some of the detailed step-by-step guide for getting the Claude skills loaded into your local computer.

There are two installation options for Claude skills:

  1. Option 1: Global Skills - The skills will be usable by all your projects. If you are creating multiple textbooks you should choose this option. (Recommended)
  2. Option 2: Project Skills - If you are only working on a single textbook you can use this option. If you are using many other skills on other projects that might have conflicting skill names, this is a good choice.

The book-building utilities are always installed globally to ~/.local/bin.

Prerequisites

Git Installation

Git comes install on many operating systems including

  1. MacOS
  2. Linux (many versions)
  3. Raspberry Pi OS
  4. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Note

Although git can be installed on Windows, you can't run Claude with PowerShell. You must run the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or the git bash shell

You can test that git is installed by running:

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git --version

Sample response: 

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git version 2.50.1 (Apple Git-155)

Background on UNIX Environment Variables

The Claude Skills depend on running a set of UNIX shell commands. To find the shell commands the UNIX shell looks in a series of specified locations in your PATH variable. You can see your current PATH by doing the following:

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echo $PATH

By default, the claude program and the book building scripts are stored in a directory that your personal account always has write access to. This is called your "Hidden Local Binaries" location.

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ls ~/.local/bin

The tilde character ~ is a shorthand for the home directory you are in when your shell starts up. This is referred to as your $HOME directory. Note that you should never put ~ in your startup file. Always use $HOME in the startup files.

Before installing the skills, you must complete two important setup steps:

1. Set the BK_HOME Environment Variable

The BK_HOME environment variable must point to the root directory of your cloned claude-skills repository. Add this to your shell startup file:

For Bash (add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile): 

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export BK_HOME=~/projects/claude-skills

For Zsh (add to ~/.zshrc): 

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export BK_HOME=~/projects/claude-skills

For Fish (add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish): 

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set -gx BK_HOME /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Documents/ws/claude-skills

Replace $HOME/projects/claude-skills with the actual path where you cloned the repository.

2. Add ~/.local/bin to Your PATH

The book-building scripts will be installed to ~/.local/bin. Ensure this directory is in your PATH:

For Bash (add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile): 

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export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

For Zsh (add to ~/.zshrc): 

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export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

For Fish (add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish): 

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set -gx PATH $HOME/.local/bin $PATH

After adding these lines, restart your terminal or run: 

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source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc, depending on your shell

Downloading the Skills

The best way to download the skills is to use the git clone command:

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cd ~/projects  # or your preferred workspace directory
git clone https://github.com/dmccreary/claude-skills.git

This assumes that projects is the directory where you check out your GitHub repositories. You can use any directory you prefer, just remember to update your BK_HOME environment variable accordingly.

Installing Book-Building Scripts

Before installing the Claude skills, you should install the book-building utility scripts. These are scripts prefixed with bk- that help you manage and build intelligent textbooks.

Run the installation script:

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cd $BK_HOME/scripts
./bk-install-scripts

This script will: - Create symbolic links for all bk-* scripts in $BK_HOME/scripts/ - Place the links in $HOME/.local/bin for easy command-line access - Verify that $HOME/.local/bin is in your PATH - Display a list of all installed book utilities

After installation, you can use commands like bk-book-status, bk-build, and other book utilities from anywhere in your terminal.

Installing Claude Skills

After you have downloaded the repository and installed the book-building scripts, you have two options for installing the Claude skills:

  1. Personal Level: Install these skills for ALL your projects. (Recommended)
  2. Project Level: Install these skills for a specific project

The first option will allow you to work on many different intelligent textbook projects without duplicating the skills on your local computer. It is highly recommended.

The only reason that you might want to use the second option for specific projects is if you are doing complex development such as creating different versions of these skills.

Skill Installation for ALL Projects

We will do this by creating symbolic links from your home Claude directory (~/.claude/skills/) to the skills in the cloned repository.

Run the installation script:

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cd $BK_HOME/scripts
./install-claude-skills.sh

You will see a log of all the skills that were correctly installed:

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Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/faq-generator -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/faq-generator
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/glossary-generator -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/glossary-generator
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/intelligent-textbook -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/intelligent-textbook
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/intelligent-textbook-creator -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/intelligent-textbook-creator
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/learning-graph-generator -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/learning-graph-generator
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/microsim-p5 -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/microsim-p5
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/moving-rainbow -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/moving-rainbow
Created symlink: ~/.claude/skills/quiz-generator -> $HOME/Documents/ws/claude-skills/skills/quiz-generator

Getting Updates

These skills will be updated frequently. To install the latest release, just run git pull:

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cd $BK_HOME
git pull

After pulling updates, you may need to re-run the installation scripts if new scripts or skills were added:

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cd $BK_HOME/scripts
./bk-install-scripts      # For book-building utilities
./install-claude-skills.sh # For Claude skills

Details of the Installation script

The script will create a set of symbolic link commands, one for each skill file in this repo.

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#!/bin/bash

   # Create the target directory if it doesn't exist
   # CHANGE $HOME to be the project you are working on
   # $HOME = ~
   # $HOME = /User/NAME/projects/PROJECT_NAME/.claude/skills
   mkdir -p $HOME/.claude/skills

   # Get the absolute path of the skills directory
   SKILLS_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/skills" && pwd)"

   # Create symbolic links for each skill folder
   for skill_dir in "$SKILLS_DIR"/*; do
       if [ -d "$skill_dir" ]; then
           skill_name=$(basename "$skill_dir")
           target_link="$HOME/.claude/skills/$skill_name"

           # Remove existing symlink if it exists
           if [ -L "$target_link" ]; then
               rm "$target_link"
           fi

           # Create the symbolic link
           ln -s "$skill_dir" "$target_link"
           echo "Created symlink: $HOME/.claude/skills/$skill_name -> $skill_dir"
       fi
   done

   echo "Done! All skill symlinks created in $HOME/.claude/skills"

If you want to change the links to work in your specific project, just change the path where the links are created.

Change:

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$HOME = ~

to be:

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$HOME = /User/NAME/projects/PROJECT_NAME/.claude/skills

Testing Your Skill List

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What skills do you know about.  Check the ~/.claude/skills/ area.

Response:

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You have 8 skills installed in ~/.claude/skills/:

  1. faq-generator - Generates FAQ content
  2. glossary-generator - Creates glossary entries
  3. intelligent-textbook - Works with intelligent textbook content
  4. intelligent-textbook-creator - Creates intelligent textbooks
  5. learning-graph-generator - Generates learning graphs
  6. microsim-p5 - Creates p5.js micro-simulations
  7. moving-rainbow - Creates moving rainbow animations
  8. quiz-generator - Generates quiz content

Add the /skills Command

Claude Code allows you to add custom slash commands that execute scripts. You can add a /skills command that lists all available skills.

The custom slash command system works by: 1. Creating a command definition file in ~/.claude/commands/ (or .claude/commands/ in your project) 2. Having an executable script in your $PATH that the command calls

The list-skills.sh script provides this functionality and is automatically installed to ~/.local/bin when you run bk-install-scripts.

To enable the /skills slash command:

Option 1: Install globally (recommended): 

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cd $BK_HOME/scripts
./install-skills-command.sh

This will: - Copy list-skills.sh to ~/.local/bin/ (if not already installed by bk-install-scripts) - Copy commands/skills.md to ~/.claude/commands/skills.md

Option 2: Install for a specific project: 

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mkdir -p .claude/commands
cp $BK_HOME/commands/skills.md .claude/commands/skills.md

Note: The list-skills.sh script must be in your $PATH (which it will be if you followed the prerequisites and ran bk-install-scripts).

Sample Skill Slash Command Execution

I just type '/sk` into Claude Code and you should see the code listed

Result:

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Available Claude Skills (8 total)

  Educational Content Creation:
  - faq-generator (user) - Generates FAQs from course content
  - glossary-generator (user) - Creates ISO 11179-compliant glossaries
  - quiz-generator (user) - Creates Bloom's Taxonomy-aligned quizzes

  Intelligent Textbook Development:
  - intelligent-textbook (user) - Complete workflow for AI-generated textbooks
  - intelligent-textbook-creator (user) - Creates MkDocs Material textbooks (Level 2-5)
  - learning-graph-generator (user) - Generates 200-concept learning graphs

  Interactive Simulations:
  - microsim-p5 (user) - Creates p5.js educational MicroSims

  Hardware Projects:
  - moving-rainbow (user) - MicroPython for Raspberry Pi Pico NeoPixels

  All 8 skills are from your user directory (~/.claude/skills/). No project-specific skills found in .claude/skills/.

Verifying Your Installation

After completing all installation steps, verify everything is working:

1. Check environment variables: 

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echo $BK_HOME
# Should output: /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Documents/ws/claude-skills (or your path)

echo $PATH | grep -o "$HOME/.local/bin"
# Should output: /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/bin

2. Check book-building utilities: 

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which bk-book-status
# Should output: /Users/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/bin/bk-book-status

bk-book-status --help  # Test a book utility

3. Check Claude skills: 

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ls ~/.claude/skills/
# Should list all installed skills (learning-graph-generator, glossary-generator, etc.)

4. Test the /skills command in Claude Code: Type /skills in Claude Code and it should list all available skills.

Configuring Permissions

The default Claude Code permission behavior is very strict and will prompt you for many operations. For efficient workflow when working on textbook projects, you can configure permissions to be more permissive.

IMPORTANT: Only use permissive settings when working in a safe, version-controlled directory (like a Git repository). This way, you can always revert unwanted changes.

Create or edit .claude/settings.json in your project directory:

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{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": [
      "Skill(*)",
      "Bash(*:*)",
      "FileSystem(read:./**/*.*,write:./**/*.*)"
    ],
    "deny": [],
    "ask": []
  }
}

This configuration: - Allows all skills to run without prompting - Allows all bash commands - Allows reading and writing all files in the current project directory (./**/*.*)

Since your work is in a Git repository, you can always review changes with git diff and revert if needed.

Troubleshooting

BK_HOME not set error

If you get an error saying BK_HOME environment variable is not set:

  1. Add the export to your shell startup file (see Prerequisites section)
  2. Restart your terminal or run: source ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc)
  3. Verify with: echo $BK_HOME

Scripts not found in PATH

If you get command not found when trying to run bk-* commands:

  1. Check that ~/.local/bin is in your PATH: echo $PATH | grep .local/bin
  2. Add the export to your shell startup file (see Prerequisites section)
  3. Restart your terminal or run: source ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zshrc)
  4. Re-run the installation: cd $BK_HOME/scripts && ./bk-install-scripts

Skills not showing up in Claude Code

If skills don't appear when you try to use them:

  1. Check that symlinks were created: ls -la ~/.claude/skills/
  2. Re-run the installation: cd $BK_HOME/scripts && ./install-claude-skills.sh
  3. Restart Claude Code
  4. Try listing skills with /skills command or ask Claude: "What skills do you have access to?"

/skills command not working

If the /skills slash command doesn't work:

  1. Check that list-skills.sh is in your PATH: which list-skills.sh
  2. Check that the command file exists: ls ~/.claude/commands/skills.md
  3. Re-run: cd $BK_HOME/scripts && ./install-skills-command.sh
  4. Restart Claude Code

Permission denied when running scripts

If you get permission denied errors:

  1. Make scripts executable: chmod +x $BK_HOME/scripts/*.sh
  2. For specific scripts: chmod +x $BK_HOME/scripts/bk-install-scripts

Next Steps

Once you have successfully installed the skills and utilities, you can:

  1. Create a new intelligent textbook project - Use the intelligent-textbook-creator skill
  2. Generate a learning graph - Use the learning-graph-generator skill
  3. Create interactive simulations - Use the microsim-p5 skill
  4. Generate course content - Use the glossary-generator, quiz-generator, and faq-generator skills

For detailed documentation on each skill, visit the skills documentation or use the /skills command in Claude Code.