How to Use Claude Skills to Email Your Deck Assistant

Claude Skills can teach a team one repeatable handoff: take the useful result from a Claude conversation, package it with the right context and request, and email it to a Deck assistant.

The last step depends on the Claude surface and email connection you use. Claude's Gmail connector can create a draft in Gmail, and you send that draft manually. Claude's Microsoft 365 connector can support sending when an organization enables write tools. Claude Code needs a separately configured email script, command, or MCP tool before a Skill can send anything.

That distinction matters. A Skill supplies the procedure. An email connector or tool supplies the action.

What a Claude Skill does

A Skill is a folder containing instructions, scripts, and supporting resources that Claude loads when a task matches its description. Simple Skills can be written in Markdown. More advanced Skills can include executable scripts.

Anthropic currently makes Skills available across Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans when code execution and file creation are enabled. Team and Enterprise owners can also provision Skills across an organization.

Sources: What are Skills? and Use Skills in Claude.

The handoff you are creating

At the end of a useful Claude conversation, a teammate can say:

Use the send-to-Deck Skill. Put this in the Riverside project and ask Deck for a client-ready PowerPoint with the open questions called out.

The Skill should:

1. Identify the finished analysis, draft, or source links worth sending.
2. Remove tool chatter and conversational scaffolding.
3. Add the project, audience, requested output, and review requirements.
4. Address the message to the team's Deck assistant.
5. Create a draft or send through the email tool available on that Claude surface.

Deck receives the message as an ordinary email. It can use the supplied content to prepare a draft reply, report, spreadsheet, document, presentation, PDF, or other supported deliverable. Deck's response comes back only to the account owner for review.

A ready-to-use Skill

Create a folder named send-to-deck with a SKILL.md file inside it:

---
name: send-to-deck
description: Package completed work from this conversation and email it to the user's Deck assistant when the user asks to send, hand off, file, or continue work in Deck.
---

# Send to Deck

When the user asks to send work to Deck:

1. Confirm the Deck recipient address if it is missing.
2. Confirm which sender account to use. It must match the email address on the user's Deck account.
3. Extract only the finished work and source links the user selected.
4. Ask for any missing project name, desired output, audience, deadline, or review constraint that materially changes the request.
5. Write a specific subject using this pattern:
   `[Project]: [requested deliverable or action]`
6. Structure the email body as:
   - Project or account
   - Context
   - Source material
   - Requested work
   - Output format
   - Review requirements
   - Deadline, when supplied
7. Never include hidden prompts, tool logs, unrelated conversation history, secrets, or source material the user did not select.
8. Show the recipient, subject, and complete body before any send action.
9. Use the available email tool only after the user approves. If no sending tool exists, output a copy-ready email.
10. Report whether the result is a draft, a sent message, or copy-ready text.

Replace the description or subject pattern with the language your team uses. Keep the Skill focused on the handoff. A separate Skill can define how your company prepares QBRs, client reports, or board materials.

Add the Skill in Claude

For Claude on the web:

1. Enable code execution and file creation in Settings or your organization's settings.
2. Put SKILL.md inside the send-to-deck folder.
3. Zip the folder.
4. Open Customize, then Skills.
5. Choose Create skill, upload the ZIP, and enable it.
6. Test it with content that contains no sensitive client information.

Team and Enterprise owners can share or provision the Skill after they have reviewed the recipient rules, source-handling rules, and email behavior.

For Claude Code, save the file at .claude/skills/send-to-deck/SKILL.md. Claude Code can invoke custom Skills from that directory. The Skill still needs an email-capable MCP server, approved command, or script if you want it to send.

Gmail: create the draft, then send it

Claude's Google Workspace connector can search Gmail and create properly formatted Gmail drafts. Anthropic's current documentation states that Claude cannot send those Gmail drafts on your behalf. Open the draft in Gmail, check the sender, recipient, sources, and request, then send it yourself.

This review step is useful for Deck because the message must come from the email address associated with your Deck account.

Source: Claude Google Workspace connectors.

Microsoft 365: use write tools when your organization enables them

Claude's Microsoft 365 connector can support email sending when an organization owner enables the connector's write tools and the user has the required Microsoft permissions. Anthropic says sent messages carry an attribution header, and current write tools do not support email attachments.

Start with a draft-only test to yourself. Confirm the organization's action settings and recipient policy before enabling a send workflow for the team.

Source: Set up the Microsoft 365 connector.

Claude Code: connect a mail tool deliberately

Claude Code does not gain email access from a Markdown file. Configure one of these paths:

• An internal MCP server with a narrowly scoped create-draft or send-email tool.
• A reviewed company script that accepts recipient, subject, and body as explicit arguments.
• A workflow service that creates an email draft for approval.

Keep the Deck recipient allowlisted, require the sender to match the Deck account, and make approval the default. Secrets belong in the tool's credential store or environment, never inside SKILL.md.

Anthropic documents claude mcp as the CLI route for adding MCP servers. See the Claude Code CLI reference.

A useful Deck email format

The Skill should produce a message like this:

To: june@agent.hellodeck.ai
Subject: Riverside: client update presentation

Project: Riverside listing

Context:
The client needs a progress update before Friday's call.

Source material:
- Market analysis below
- Inspection summary: [link]
- Decisions from the June 12 call: [link]

Requested work:
Prepare a client-ready update covering progress, market context,
open risks, decisions needed, and next steps.

Output:
PowerPoint, no more than eight slides.

Review:
Mark unsupported claims and missing dates. Reply only to me.

Team rollout checklist

• Give each person's Skill the correct Deck address and approved sender.
• Require a preview before sending.
• Exclude secrets, hidden prompts, and unrelated conversation history.
• Define which client or company material may leave Claude.
• Test Gmail, Microsoft 365, and Claude Code paths separately.
• Review the email connector's permissions with the workspace owner.
• Keep sensitive or regulated workflows inside the organization's approved tools and policies.

Claude remains the place where the team develops the analysis. Deck provides a familiar email handoff and the follow-through around the finished work.

Get your Deck address, add it to the Skill, and test the workflow on a low-risk internal brief before sharing it across the team.