adhd-stuff

By the end of this guide, you'll have a small set of ADHD-friendly helpers running inside Claude Code that you can trigger just by asking for help.

What Are Agent Skills?

Agent skills are reusable instruction files that tell Claude "here is how to help in this kind of situation," like ADHD-aware day planning or project triage.

When you type a message in Claude Code, it checks whether any installed skill matches your request and activates the relevant one automatically. For example, if you have the adhd-daily-planner skill installed and ask Claude to "help me plan my day", it will use ADHD-specific strategies like the 3-Things System, time-blind-friendly scheduling, and transition buffers - instead of generic productivity advice.

Skills live as files on your machine. Claude Code reads them at the start of each conversation. No extra API keys or third-party services — just your existing Anthropic account.

If you've ever installed a browser extension or a VS Code extension, skills are similar - but they're just plain text files on your computer.

Prerequisites

You'll need a few things installed before getting started. Don't worry if some of these words are new. You'll only install each tool once, and you can copy-paste every command.

The core tools:

• A terminal - where you'll type commands
• Claude Code - the tool that runs the skills

Supporting tools (installed once, then you can forget about them):

• Node.js - required by Claude Code
• Git - to download this repo
• GitHub CLI (gh) - used by the install scripts

Expand any section below for step-by-step install instructions.

New to the terminal? Start here

The terminal (also called command line or shell) is a text-based way to interact with your computer. Instead of clicking icons, you type commands.

Everything in this guide runs as a normal user. You're very unlikely to break your computer by running these commands.

How to open it:

• Mac: Press Cmd + Space, type "Terminal", hit Enter
• Windows: Open PowerShell or Command Prompt (press Win + R, type wt or cmd, hit Enter)
• Linux: Press Ctrl + Alt + T

Key concepts:

• You type a command and press Enter to run it
• When you see a code block in this guide, you can copy the whole thing, paste it into your terminal, and press Enter
• If something says cd some-folder, that means "change directory" (navigate into that folder)
• If a command starts with $, don't type the $ - it just means "this is a terminal command"

If something goes wrong: read the last 1-2 lines of the error message; they usually say what happened. You can always run a command again - it won't hurt anything.

How to install Node.js

Node.js is a tool that runs JavaScript outside of a browser. Claude Code is built with it.

Check if you already have it:

node --version

If you see something like v20.11.0 (v18 or higher), you're done. If you get "command not found", install it:

Mac:

brew install node

Don't have brew? Install Homebrew first by pasting this into your terminal:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Windows: Download from nodejs.org (pick the LTS version). You can run commands in PowerShell or Command Prompt.

Linux: Download from nodejs.org (pick the LTS version), or use your package manager.

How to install Git

Git is version control software - it tracks changes to code and lets you download repositories like this one.

Check if you already have it:

git --version

If you see something like git version 2.43.0, you're set. If not:

Mac:

brew install git

Or just try running git - macOS will prompt you to install developer tools, which includes Git.

Windows: Download from git-scm.com

Linux:

sudo apt install git        # Ubuntu/Debian
sudo dnf install git        # Fedora

How to install the GitHub CLI

The GitHub CLI lets you interact with GitHub from your terminal. The skill install scripts use it to discover which files each skill includes.

Install:

brew install gh              # Mac
winget install GitHub.cli    # Windows
sudo apt install gh          # Ubuntu/Debian

See cli.github.com for other options.

Then authenticate (one-time setup):

gh auth login

Follow the prompts - it will open a browser to log in to your GitHub account. When it's done, you should see a line like Logged in as your_username.

How to install Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic's command-line tool for working with Claude. It's what reads and runs the skills.

Install:

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Verify it worked:

claude --version

If you see a version number, you're good.

The first time you run claude, it will ask you to sign in with your Anthropic account.

If you prefer not to install Node.js, there are also standalone install options in the Claude Code quickstart docs.

Quick Start

1. Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/bbrewington/adhd-stuff.git
cd adhd-stuff

2. Install skills

Open Claude Code in this directory:

claude

When Claude opens, paste this as your first message:

Install the ADHD skills listed in AGENTS.md

Then press Enter and wait while it runs through the install steps. This may take up to a minute - that's normal. Claude may ask permission to run commands — click Allow.

3. Use it

Start a new conversation (skills load at conversation start) and try prompts like:

• "Help me plan my day" (activates adhd-daily-planner)
• "I'm overwhelmed and can't start anything" (activates adhd-daily-planner crisis protocol)
• "Help me manage my three projects" (activates project-management-guru-adhd)
• "I want to build an MVP for my side project" (activates tech-entrepreneur-coach-adhd)

Skills activate automatically based on what you ask. You can also invoke a skill by mentioning its name directly in your message (e.g. "use adhd-daily-planner").

How It Works

your-project/
  .claude/
    skills/
      adhd-daily-planner/
        SKILL.md              <-- Claude reads this
        references/
          dopamine-menu.md    <-- Supporting material
          executive-function-toolkit.md
      another-skill/
        SKILL.md

In plain language: each skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that tells Claude "who this skill is for and how to behave," plus any extra reference notes it can draw from.

Skills are loaded when a new conversation starts. If you install or edit a skill, start a new chat in Claude Code so it picks up the changes.

Available Skills

See AGENTS.md for the full list of curated skills, descriptions, install options (project-local vs global), and how to browse the 150+ skills in the source repo.

FAQ

Do I need to restart Claude Code after installing skills? No, but you do need to start a new conversation. Skills are loaded at conversation start.

Can I edit the skills after installing? Yes. They're just markdown files on your machine. Edit them however you like.

Can I uninstall a skill? Yes. Delete its folder from .claude/skills/ (or rename it), and it will stop loading.

What's the difference between project-local and global install? Project-local (.claude/skills/ in a repo) means skills are only active when Claude Code is opened in that directory. Global (~/.claude/skills/) means they're active everywhere. See AGENTS.md for global install instructions.

Where do the skills come from? curiositech/some_claude_skills - an open-source collection of 150+ Claude Code skills.

Do skills use extra API credits? Skills add context to your conversations, so they increase token usage slightly. The ADHD skills are moderate in size. You're not charged anything beyond normal Claude Code usage.

Can I use skills without this repo? Absolutely. This repo is just a setup guide. You can install skills into any project's .claude/skills/ directory or globally into ~/.claude/skills/.

What if this all feels like too much? Start with just one thing: get Claude Code installed and working. Once you can run claude and have a chat, come back and do the repo clone and skill install. You can do this in small chunks.