developer-tutorial skill (samber): write or audit a teaching tutorial

Writes or audits a teaching tutorial for a developer product, with checkpoints a learner can verify and resume from.

Installs: 12.4K; on skills.sh
Stars: 7; on GitHub
Files: 5; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

developer-tutorial produces one artefact: a tutorial that leaves the learner able to do something they could not do before, having built a working thing. It sets the learning objective first, picks the smallest artefact to build, builds a five-layer concept ladder, places checkpoints every 3-5 steps and fades the guidance step by step. It works in three modes: greenfield, audit and scope call.

It triggers on "a tutorial", "a build-along", "learn X by building Y" or "nobody finishes our tutorial". SKILL.md says not to use it for a quickstart or a video script. It bundles no scripts, but it tells Claude not to ship expected-output blocks that were not run, and to hand you a run list if it cannot run the commands.

Good for

Docs writers and DevRel engineers writing a learn-by-building guide
Teams whose tutorial has a step everyone abandons
Workshop and lab authors who need a handout that works every time

Install developer-tutorial

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the developer-tutorial skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-relations-skills
/plugin install developer-relations-skills@developer-relations-skills

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

The README recommends installing the whole collection because its skills reference each other, and developer-tutorial names other skills in the collection to hand work to. The whole-collection routes add all 93 skills in the repo (counted from the git tree); the repo holds no hooks, agents, commands or MCP server files, and 14 of its skills bundle a script. Pick one route per agent.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Writes or audits a teaching tutorial for a developer product - one new concept per step, checkpoints the learner can verify and resume from, guidance that fades, troubleshooting hooks, and a demonstrable skill at the end. Use whenever the user mentions a tutorial, a build-along or hands-on guide, a "learn X by building Y" article, a workshop or lab handout, a developer course lesson, or says nobody finishes their tutorial - even if they just say "write a guide that teaches this". Do NOT use for a zero-to-first-success quickstart (samber/developer-relations-skills@developer-quickstart-guide) or a video script (samber/developer-relations-skills@technical-video-script).

Sections in SKILL.md

Scope check
Interview
Workflow
Concept ladder
Checkpoints
Language and reliability
Audience-context split
Pass threshold
KPIs
Invocations and what you return
Failure modes
References

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe (named in SKILL.md metadata, LICENSE and the plugin manifest)
License: MIT (LICENSE file, SKILL.md frontmatter, plugin.json and marketplace.json agree)
Skill version: 1.0.2 (SKILL.md metadata)
Installs on skills.sh: 12,441 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 8 for the whole samber/developer-relations-skills repo (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Nov 1, 2026
Audits on skills.sh: Gen Agent Trust Hub: pass, Socket: pass, Snyk: pass
What it includes: 6 files in the git tree: SKILL.md, evals/evals.json and 4 files under references/. No scripts.
Needs: SKILL.md lists nothing to install
Part of: The developer-relations-skills plugin: 93 skill folders in the git tree
Works in: The README documents installs for Claude Code, Claude.ai, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI, all for the whole set

What it includes

Asks 12 questions; the objective and audience level must be pinned before work starts.
Interview
Runs twelve steps from the learning objective to instrumenting completion.
Twelve steps from setting the mode to instrumenting completion, with the objective written before any content.
Workflow
Uses five layers from skeleton to polish, stopping at core concept plus robustness.
Five layers: skeleton, core concept, real data, robustness, polish, with a default stop at core concept plus robustness.
Concept ladder
Gives each one a command, exact expected output and a recovery route.
Each has a command, the exact expected output and a recovery route, and doubles as a resume point.
Checkpoints
Interviews you, then drafts the page against the outline template.
Greenfield mode
Returns a table of steps, what breaks, the event kind and the fix.
Returns a table of steps, what breaks, the event kind and the fix, ordered by learners blocked.
Audit mode
Says whether the artefact is a tutorial or a how-to and which skill owns the other.
Scope call
Uses six criteria from a clean-machine run, including an unaided repeat.
Six criteria from a clean-machine run, including 15 to 60 minutes overall and an unaided repeat on a variation.
Pass threshold
Lists six metrics, with transfer-test pass rate and drop-off instrumented first.
Six metrics, with transfer-test pass rate and per-checkpoint drop-off instrumented first.
KPIs

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

developer-tutorial is interview and writing instructions with no scripts, and it may save notes to devrel-context.md.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It may save notes to devrel-context.md
SKILL.md tells Claude to keep task and project context in devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file, or in the memory system your tool already uses. Check the file before you commit it. github.com
The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 with scripts
The README says to install every skill. The git tree has 93 skill folders, and 14 of them hold .py or .sh files. This skill bundles no scripts, and the tree holds no hooks, agents or MCP config files. github.com

Technical details

Turning on read-only	SKILL.md describes no read-only mode.
Sign-in and keys	SKILL.md names no account, key or token.
Scopes	Claude writes or audits a tutorial in the conversation Code, commands and environment details you paste go into the conversation Writes devrel-context.md when memory lives in a file

Questions

What does developer-tutorial do?

It writes a teaching tutorial for a developer product, or audits one people abandon. It starts from what the learner should be able to do afterwards and builds the steps, checkpoints and ending around that.

How do I install it?

Use the install box at the top. The README says to install every skill in the repo, because the skills point to each other. The box shows the whole-set route for each app.

Does it run the tutorial to check the output?

It tells Claude not to ship placeholder output blocks. SKILL.md says that if it cannot run the commands, it must say which blocks are unverified and give the author a run list. The learner-run test is done by a person.

What is the difference between this and a quickstart?

SKILL.md says a quickstart proves the product works, while a tutorial builds a skill the learner keeps. It routes quickstarts to samber/developer-relations-skills@developer-quickstart-guide and task-focused guides to developer-how-to-guide.

Is it safe to install?

The skill bundles no scripts. Commands, code and environment details you paste go into your conversation. The whole-set install adds 93 skills, 14 of which bundle scripts.

Which of its numbers are sourced?

SKILL.md splits them. Numbers from Diátaxis or the Good Docs Project template, such as the 15 to 60 minute range, are sourced; the rest are its own baselines you can move.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-relations-skills
Folder: skills/developer-tutorial

samber/developer-relations-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 3

README · github.com
developer-tutorial SKILL.md · github.com
LICENSE · github.com