JPAM is empirical, but the best policy papers are not atheoretical. The "theory" here is a theory of change: a transparent logic that says why the policy lever should move the outcome, through what mechanism, for whom, and under what conditions it would (or would not) transfer to another jurisdiction or scale. This frame is what turns a single estimate into evidence a policymaker elsewhere can use, and it disciplines the cost-benefit and heterogeneity analysis downstream.
Jpam Theory Building is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the general-misc sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/jpam-theory-building/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.
When to invoke it: Use when building the conceptual frame of a Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM) manuscript — the theory of change / logic model linking the policy lever to outcomes, the mechanism, and the scope conditions that govern transfer to other settings. Sharpens the argument; it does not run estimation or design identification.
The Jpam Theory Building Claude Code skill is built for Claude Code users and developers across all disciplines looking for general-purpose AI assistance. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 174,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/jpam-theory-building curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/jpam-theory-building/SKILL.md \ -o ~/.claude/skills/jpam-theory-building/SKILL.md
Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/jpam-theory-building/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.
Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/jpam-theory-building/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\jpam-theory-building\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.
Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →
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SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/jpam-theory-building/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Jpam Theory Building is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:
@misc{jpam-theory-building-2026,
author = {brycewang-stanford},
title = {Jpam Theory Building [Claude Code skill]},
year = {2026},
publisher = {ClaudSkills},
url = {https://claudskills.com/skills/jpam-theory-building/}
}Grade A · scanned 2026-08-02 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.
The scan flagged 1 of 10 categories (filesystem), including lower-severity patterns. Patterns shown inside code fences are weighted as examples rather than instructions — read the grading methodology for what this does and does not guarantee.
Browse all General skills in the ClaudSkills registry, or explore these other picks from the same category:
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SKILL.md files, not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic.