Design: /new-post Claude Code Skill

Problem

Adding new blog posts to the bilingual Jekyll site is tedious. Each post requires:

• Two files with matching names in _posts/en/ and _posts/es/
• Precise YAML front matter (layout, title, date, categories, tags, author, lang, permalink, description)
• Correct permalink format (/en/YYYY/MM/DD/slug.html)
• Translation between Spanish and English

Solution

A Claude Code skill (/new-post) that automates post creation with AI-assisted drafting and translation, using a two-phase approach.

Input Modes

The skill accepts free-form input and auto-detects the mode:

Detection: short input (a few sentences) = idea. Long markdown = full post. Language is auto-detected.

Two-Phase Flow

Phase 1 — Draft & Review

1. Generate or format the primary post (draft from idea, or polish provided content)
2. Auto-generate front matter from content analysis:
   • title — derived from content
   • date — today’s date
   • slug — kebab-case from title, no accents
   • categories — inferred (3-5)
   • tags — inferred
   • description — 1-2 sentence SEO summary
3. Present the full post with front matter for user review
4. Accept modifications (“change title to X”, “add tag Y”, “rewrite intro”)
5. Wait for explicit approval before proceeding

Phase 2 — Translate & Create Files

1. Translate the approved post to the other language, preserving tone and technical accuracy
2. Create both files:
   • _posts/es/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md with lang: es, permalink: /es/YYYY/MM/DD/slug.html
   • _posts/en/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md with lang: en, permalink: /en/YYYY/MM/DD/slug.html
3. Show the user what was generated (file paths and summary)

Front Matter Template

---
layout: single
title: "Post Title"
date: YYYY-MM-DD
categories: [cat1, cat2, cat3]
tags: [tag1, tag2, tag3]
author: Elio Rincón
lang: en
permalink: /en/YYYY/MM/DD/slug.html
description: "Brief description for SEO"
---

Technical Implementation

• Single skill file at .claude/skills/new-post.md
• Prompt-based — no scripts, no external dependencies
• Uses Claude’s built-in tools: Write (file creation), AskUserQuestion (review checkpoint)
• Follows existing blog conventions exactly (Minimal Mistakes theme, bilingual structure)

Decisions

• Two-phase over single-phase: Gives a quality checkpoint without being tedious
• Auto-detect input mode: No need to specify flags — just provide content naturally
• No commit: Files are created and shown; user commits when ready
• No frontend: Skill-only for now; frontend can be added later if needed