The 3-Minute Email
The shortest email is almost always the right one. The 3-Minute Email writes ready-to-send emails from a sentence of context — under 150 words, clear ask, no filler, no apologising.
What this skill does
Most emails fail in the same three ways: too long, ask is buried, opens with a throat-clearing apology. The 3-Minute Email enforces the opposite — under 150 words, the ask in the first or second sentence, no "I hope this finds you well." If a draft crosses the word limit it gets flagged and a tighter version offered.
Each email is matched to the right framework before drafting. A cold outreach uses a different structure than a status update than an apology than a difficult-conversation message. The skill knows the seven or eight framework patterns that actually convert and picks the one that fits — so you're not getting generic "professional email" output that reads identical regardless of context.
It also runs a refine mode when you paste an existing draft. Instead of rewriting from scratch and losing your voice, it identifies the framework, cuts filler, sharpens the ask, fixes weak openings and closings, and offers a tighter version. Your tone stays; the bloat goes.
A few things it deliberately doesn't do: it won't write a 600-word email when 80 will do. It won't add hedging that protects the sender at the cost of clarity. It won't apologise for things that don't need apologising for. If the situation genuinely calls for warmth — a sensitive ask, a hard conversation — it gets warmth. If the situation calls for directness, you get directness. The skill is opinionated about which is which.
When this triggers
- ·You need to write a difficult message and you're staring at a blank reply box
- ·You've drafted something but it's 400 words and bloated — paste it in for a refine pass
- ·You're following up on something for the third time and don't want to sound annoyed
- ·You need to ask for a raise, a referral, an extension — any high-stakes ask
- ·You're sending a cold email and the first draft sounds desperate or generic
Example
Trigger
User says: 'I need to tell my client we're going to miss the Friday deadline by a week. Don't want to lose the account.'
Output
Subject: Friday deadline — one-week slip + revised plan Hi [name], Quick heads-up: the Friday deadline is going to slip by a week. New ETA is the following Friday. Cause: [specific reason in one line]. Here's the revised plan: · [milestone 1] — Monday · [milestone 2] — Wednesday · Final delivery — next Friday I'd rather flag this now than at 5pm Friday. Want to jump on a 15-minute call this week to walk through the timeline? [Name] Why this works: leads with the news, owns it without grovelling, shows you have a plan, makes one specific ask. 89 words.
Try this skill free
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Get the 5 free skillsWhat you get
- 166-line SKILL.md, ready to drop into ~/.claude/skills/
- Tested through 3 Karpathy-loop iterations (versions v1.0.0 → v1.3.0)
- Triggers automatically when relevant — no command to remember
- Lifetime updates as the skill is refined further
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