Knack
Skills for people who'd rather just have the knack
What the plan was
Pack #2 of my Knack catalogue (Indie Hacker Launch, knack.run) shipped on day 3 of a 9-day plan. The decision that cut 4 days was parking the tester programme.
The week 2 sprint plan had a standard de-risking loop: build the skills on days 1-3, recruit 5 testers on day 4, gather feedback by day 7, soft-launch day 8, public-launch day 9. Week 2 was meant to be week 2, full 7 days, half of it spent waiting on people.
What I changed and why
On day 3, with the four skills built and five worked examples written, I asked: what is the tester loop actually catching?
The worked examples already run each skill against a real scenario (Product Hunt listing copy, weekly build-in-public posts, SEO foundation install, launch-day playbook) and print the full output. A buyer can read the example, see the deliverable, and decide if it matches the launch they need.
The tester loop adds two things: "did the install work on my machine" and "is the output worth £99 to me". The first is fine to defer (install scripts are tested clean in a throwaway dir). The second is buyer-signal, which is what Pack #2's actual sales over the next 6 weeks will tell me, faster than a tester batch.
What I'd do differently
Nothing yet. The bet is conditional. If Pack #2 sells (any non-self purchases by week 6), worked-examples-only goes into Pack #3. If it doesn't, the tester programme comes back in with the assumption that worked examples weren't sufficient signal.
What's live
Indie Hacker Launch, 4 skills, 5 worked examples, £99 lifetime. There's a free starter pack at knack.run if you want to see the format before paying.
Shipped this yesterday: a free Claude Code skill pack you can install in five minutes. MIT-licensed, no email gate.
What it does: two skills.
1. idea-clarifier: give it a rough product idea, consulting brief, or project sketch. Get back a clear audience definition, a pain point in the audience's own words, an offer framing (one product, one price, one channel), and a ranked first-action plan. It refuses category audiences like "founders" or "marketers" (those are fundraiser categories, not customers). It demands a real quote before writing the pain section.
2. first-skill-template: scaffolds an empty Claude Code skill in the canonical Knack body pattern. Use this to build your own skills in the same shape.
Why free? Because the format works only if you've seen it work. Knack ships paid packs (£99 lifetime each) that go deep on a single domain: Solo Consultant Ops shipped, Indie Hacker Launch in beta. I'd rather have you try the shape on a free pack first than pay for a paid pack and discover the format isn't for you.
Stage: zero validated buyers (the 3 paid orders are self-purchases). Shipping in public, looking for honest feedback. If you try it and it works (or doesn't), tell me here.
Quick context — Knack is the second product I've built that I'm willing to put my name behind.
The premise: Claude Code is brilliant, but most people set it up once, install three skills they read about on Twitter, then leave it for a month. The pack idea is to ship pre-configured bundles of skills, MCP server configs, and supporting templates that solve one job for one kind of operator.
What's live today
- Knack Starter pack: free for everyone for life. Anyone trying Claude Code for real work: solo operators, consultants, indie hackers, builders. This is the free pack: two skills that turn a rough idea into a structured plan and show you how every Knack pack is shaped, so you can build your own or pick the paid pack that goes deepest on your job.
- Pack #1: Solo Consultant Ops. Five skills + one orchestrating agent. Aimed at independent consultants, freelance PMs, fractional execs.
- Lifetime licence at £99. 14-day no-questions refund via Polar.
What's next
- Pack #2 (Indie Hacker Launch) ships in three weeks. The pack the IH crowd will recognise: PH prep, OG image gen, SEO basics, share copy, follow-up templates.
- More packs are on the roadmap and we appreciate any feedback on what you need.
- Skill Score (a free tool that scores your Claude Code setup)
Why I'm posting here
Building in public, on cadence, for the next twelve months. Numbers shared every Sunday. Indie hackers are the validation channel for Pack #2 — if any of the above resonates, I'd love to know what you'd want a Claude Code pack to actually do for you.
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