Poke The Bear Skill — Communication skill for Claude Code

Poke the Bear — Josh Braun Cold Email Skill for Claude Code

A Claude Code skill that teaches an LLM to write cold emails using Josh Braun's Poke the Bear methodology — the most principled cold email system I've encountered. No templates. No tricks. Every element earns its place through a specific principle.

All frameworks and psychology come from Josh's [Poke the Bear course](https://joshbraun.com). This skill is a faithful Claude Code adaptation. **If you use this, buy his course.**

---

What's Inside

• 6-Element Email Structure — TRUTH → THINK → Cost of Inaction → Third Party Validation → Curiosity Pique → Low-Friction CTA
• Illumination Question Construction — 4 question frames with examples and quality tests
• Crispy Emails — The calorie rule, 3-pass cutting process, why 5 lines wins
• One Chess Move Per Follow-Up — Never bump. Always advance with a new angle.
• 4 Phrases to Never Use — And what to say instead
• Door Openers vs Door Slammers — Pass the commission breath test
• CTA Patterns — 6 low-friction patterns (5-word reply test)
• Step-by-Step Email Building Process — From customer quote to finished email in 5 steps
• Poke the Bear Question Matrix — Build 6-8 illumination questions per prospect
• 16-Point Review Checklist — Quality gate for every email

Full content: [`SKILL.md`](./SKILL.md)

---

Installation

mkdir -p .claude/skills/braun-copywriting
cp SKILL.md .claude/skills/braun-copywriting/SKILL.md

Claude Code auto-discovers it. Trigger with `/braun-copywriting` or any trigger phrase ("poke the bear email", "illumination question", "braun copywriting").

---

Usage

The skill activates when you ask Claude Code to write cold email copy:

• "Write a Braun-style cold email for a VP of Sales at a SaaS company"
• "Build a poke the bear question matrix for this ICP"
• "Review this email against Braun principles"
• "Help me write crispy cold email copy for this prospect"

For campaign oper