Claude Code Skills·Claude Skills·The open SKILL.md registry for Claude
ClaudSkills / General / knowledge-mgmt

Scratchpad

Category: General  ·  Sub-category: knowledge-mgmt  ·  Last updated:
Use when any agent needs to write down a decision, observation, error, blocker, or intermediate result during a multi-step workflow so that later agents can read it. This is the cross-agent memory for the current workflow. Trigger on 'note this for later', 'record decision', 'pass context to next agent', 'log observation', 'jot this down', 'write to scratchpad', 'the tester needs to know this', 'subsequent agents need this', 'write down that we chose X', 'log this error for the next step', or any time a discovery, choice, or failure should be visible to downstream workflow steps. Persists in .devt/state/scratchpad.md (append-only, reset between workflows). This is for EPHEMERAL within-workflow notes, NOT for permanent lessons (use lesson-extraction for those), NOT for searching past knowledge (use `memory query`), and NOT for memory-layer maintenance (use memory-curation).
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What this skill does

Scratchpad is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the knowledge-mgmt sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/scratchpad/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

When to invoke it: Use when any agent needs to write down a decision, observation, error, blocker, or intermediate result during a multi-step workflow so that later agents can read it. This is the cross-agent memory for the current workflow.

Who uses this skill

The Scratchpad 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 146,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/scratchpad
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/scratchpad/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/scratchpad/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/scratchpad/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/scratchpad/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\scratchpad\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

Telegram

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

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 →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Scratchpad Claude Code skill?
Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/scratchpad/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.
What does the Scratchpad skill do?
Use when any agent needs to write down a decision, observation, error, blocker, or intermediate result during a multi-step workflow so that later agents can read it. This is the cross-agent memory for the current workflow. Trigger on 'note this for later', 'record decision', 'pass context to next agent', 'log observation', 'jot this down', 'write to scratchpad', 'the tester needs to know this', 'subsequent agents need this', 'write down that we chose X', 'log this error for the next step', or any time a discovery, choice, or failure should be visible to downstream workflow steps. Persists in .devt/state/scratchpad.md (append-only, reset between workflows). This is for EPHEMERAL within-workflow notes, NOT for permanent lessons (use lesson-extraction for those), NOT for searching past knowledge (use `memory query`), and NOT for memory-layer maintenance (use memory-curation).
Is this skill free to install?
Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.
When should I use the Scratchpad skill?
Use Scratchpad when your Claude Code task falls under the General category — specifically in the knowledge mgmt area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Scratchpad" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/general/.
What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Scratchpad skill fit in?
A Claude Code skill is a 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. Scratchpad 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/.

Attribution & license

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA
SimHacker. (2026). Scratchpad [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/scratchpad/
BibTeX
@misc{scratchpad-2026,
  author    = {SimHacker},
  title     = {Scratchpad [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/scratchpad/}
}

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<script>
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Security scan

Grade A · scanned 2026-07-06 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.

No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›

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Browse all General skills in the ClaudSkills registry, or explore these other picks from the same category:

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