The dissect skill: find why a post works, then rebuild it
TL;DR
The dissect skill takes a piece of content that's performing and strips it down to the parts that made it work: the hook mechanism, the structure, the format, and the engagement driver. Then it hands back a recreation brief, including the first line of your own version. You copy the mechanism, never the content.
You saved a post because it worked. Then you sat down to write your own and produced something flat, because you copied the topic instead of the thing underneath it.
The dissect skill pulls that thing out. Paste a LinkedIn post, a Reel caption, a YouTube title and hook, or a Reddit thread with its top comment, and it breaks the piece down into six labeled sections: hook mechanism, structure pattern, format, engagement driver, what to steal, and a recreation brief. The analysis is about that specific piece, in its actual words, not a generic note about how the hook creates curiosity.
The last section is the one you'll use. It names the mechanism with the original topic stripped off, says how it maps to your niche, picks the platform, and writes the opening line of your version with brackets where your details go. It's free and public in our freeskills repo.
Strips a post that's working down to its mechanism and hands you a brief to rebuild it in your niche. Free and public.
Install the dissect skill
Clone the repo once, then copy this folder into your Claude Code skills directory.
bashgit clone https://github.com/duncan-buildroom/freeskills.git
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r freeskills/dissect ~/.claude/skills/Open a new Claude Code session and it's live. No API keys, nothing to set up.
Run it the first time
Type /dissect and paste the content itself. It reads the piece and produces the six sections in order, with no interview first. One thing to know before you start: paste the text, not a link. If you hand it a URL it'll ask you for the actual words, because it reads the writing rather than the page.
A good first result reads like someone pointing at specific lines in the post and saying what each one is doing to the reader. If it comes back with observations that would fit any post at all, feed it a piece with more meat, like a full post rather than a one-line caption. It closes by offering to draft your version, so say yes.
Break down a post that's beating yours
The main run. Paste the whole thing, exactly as it appeared, line breaks and all.
/dissect
[paste the full post text here, exactly as written, including the line breaks and the CTA]
Context: this is from [platform], posted by [who, roughly, e.g. someone in my niche with 40k followers], and it got [what you saw, e.g. 900 comments].Turn the breakdown into your version
The point isn't the analysis, it's the post you write after it. Give it your niche and your real proof and take the first line it hands you.
Ready to recreate this.
My niche: [what you do and who for].
My real proof: [an actual number, result, or story of yours. Don't make one up].
Platform I'm posting to: [where].
Use the recreation brief and draft my version. Keep the mechanism, change everything else.Dissect a hook you keep seeing everywhere
Hooks travel across niches faster than anything else. Run one on its own and you'll spot it in the wild for weeks after.
/dissect
[paste the title and the first two lines of the video, or the first line of the post]
This shape keeps showing up in my feed. Tell me what it's doing, then write me three openers using the same mechanism for [your niche], each with a different one of my real details: [detail 1], [detail 2], [detail 3].The 60-second version
Here's what this skill does, in 60 seconds, if you'd rather hear it than read it.
- 1Hook: there's a brand new free Claude skill that takes you from saving posts you wish you'd written to knowing exactly why they worked and writing your own version.
- 2Mechanism: you paste in the full text of a post that's working. It names the hook mechanism and what it does to a reader, maps the flow from line to line, calls the format and the emotion driving the comments, and pulls three things you can take, all about how the post is built and never about its topic. Then it hands you a recreation brief with your own first line already drafted.
- 3Transformation: you stop staring at a blank page. You've got the mechanism written down, your first line already drafted, and a way to do it again with the next post that catches your eye.
- 4Close: the breakdown is free, one of 55 skills. If you want to stop reverse-engineering other people and have them study yours, Claude Code Club is 9 dollars a month. Link below.
Tonight: open the post you saved last week, run it through, and write your version before you close the laptop.
Common questions
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You paste text and read what comes back. Nothing gets built and nothing gets installed beyond the skill folder itself.
Is it really free?
Yes. It's public in the freeskills repo, and it needs no API keys and no connected accounts.
Can I give it a link instead of the text?
No. It asks you to paste the text directly, because it works from the actual words rather than the page.
Isn't this just copying someone else's post?
No. The recreation brief hands you the mechanism with the original topic stripped off, and you supply your own niche and your own proof. The shape travels, the content doesn't.
What kinds of content can I paste?
A LinkedIn post, a TikTok or Reel caption or transcript snippet, a YouTube title with its description or hook line, or a Reddit thread title with its top comment.
Keep going
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