September 2026 · 9 min read · 31 skills, free

AI for Project Management: 31 Claude Skills to Run a Project

First the mandate: charter, kickoff, agreed scope, and change control that holds. Then ranges instead of dates, the critical path, risks while they are still cheap, decisions with a name on them. Then the delivery rhythm, honest status, lessons that change the next project, and a clean handover.

01What these skills are

A project's life, as installable Claude skills

This is AI for project management that plans and tracks the work: Claude drafts the charter, the schedule, the risk register and the status report, and the team commits to the dates.

The skills follow the life of a project in eight stages, from the charter to the handover.

The red line: Claude plans and tracks. The people doing the work commit to the dates, and no status goes green to dodge a hard conversation.

Each skill is one artifact you walk away with, and ends in the decision a named person makes, by a date. It works from what you paste, with no connector to install.

The maths is done rather than named: PERT with spread, float on the critical path, SPI and CPI, each with the case where the number misleads.

Contract, employment, data protection and safety questions go to a qualified adviser rather than being answered.

Download all 31 skills

One zip: ready-to-install skill zips, readable SKILL.md files, and the evidence notes behind every method. Free, no signup. The same 31 skills live in our open repo, if you would rather read them before you install them.

Download the zip Browse on GitHub

Install in Claude Code

Two lines, and every skill in the pack loads at once.

/plugin marketplace add polar-bear-org/claude-skills
/plugin install ai-for-project-management-pack@polar-bear-skills

Using Claude on the web instead? Download the zip above and upload each skill from its install folder under Customize → Skills.

02The catalog

The 31 skills you get

The set follows the project, in eight stages: starting it, stopping scope creep, estimating and scheduling, catching risks early, getting decisions made, running the delivery rhythm, reporting honestly, and closing well.

1 · Start the project

Project Charter

Use when: The project arrived as one sentence, with no sponsor named
Output: Outcome-based objectives with success measures, sponsor and project manager authority by role, high-level scope with named exclusions, milestones, a budget envelope and a sign-off block

Kickoff Meeting Agenda

Use when: You want the kickoff to settle scope, owners and change handling
Output: A timed agenda with the hard questions — what done looks like, what is out, who decides, how changes are handled — a roles walkthrough, a pre-read, and the outputs to confirm by the end

Project Scope Statement

Use when: Every “small” ask is arguable because scope was never agreed
Output: In-scope deliverables with testable acceptance criteria, named exclusions, constraints and owned assumptions, and a sign-off block

2 · Stop scope creep

Change Request Form

Use when: Someone says “it's just one small change”
Output: The ask sized on time, cost, scope, quality and risk, the options — accept, defer, swap, reject — with a named decider and a date, and the change log entry

MoSCoW Prioritization

Use when: Scope, date and team are fixed and something has to give
Output: A Must, Should, Could and Won't-this-time list with the effort share per category, the drop order if a new Must arrives, and a sign-off line

Work Breakdown Structure

Use when: The project is one big blob and nobody can say what done contains
Output: A deliverable tree down to work packages with a 100% rule check, dictionary rows, a proposed owner per package, and a gaps list of forgotten work

3 · Estimate and schedule

Three-Point Estimate

Use when: Leadership wants a date before anyone has estimated
Output: PERT mean and spread per work package, the forgotten work listed, and a range with a confidence line for the whole project

Dependency Map

Use when: Nobody can see what is blocking what
Output: A cross-team and external dependency table, a text diagram of what blocks what, and the at-risk list

Critical Path

Use when: Everything is urgent and you need to know which slip moves the end date
Output: The activity network, a forward and backward pass, total float per activity, and the list of delays that move the end date

Gantt Chart

Use when: The Gantt got the project approved and has not been touched since
Output: A schedule table and a Mermaid Gantt chart, baseline against current dates, rolling-wave detail for the next period, and change notes

Resource Allocation Plan

Use when: Leadership wants twice what the team can deliver
Output: Demand by role and skill per period against capacity, the overloaded and bottleneck roles, levelling options with their date impact, and the trade-off for the sponsor

4 · Catch risks early

Pre-Mortem Analysis

Use when: Risks only surface after something nearly goes wrong
Output: Grouped failure reasons from the team, the top five turned into owned risks, and the plan changes to make now

Risk Register

Use when: The register was built at kickoff and never opened again
Output: Each risk worded as cause, event and effect, likelihood and impact scored on defined scales, an owner, a trigger, a response and a review date

RAID Log

Use when: The log died by month three
Output: The top risks from the register, assumptions with a test date, issues with owner and tolerance, dependencies with need-by dates, stale-entry flags, and the weekly review agenda

5 · Get decisions made

Stakeholder Map

Use when: Decisions stall because nobody is sure who decides
Output: The stakeholder list by role, a power and interest grid built on formal decision rights and how much the project changes each role's work, and a table of who decides what

RACI Matrix

Use when: A missed deadline traced back to nobody owning the task
Output: Deliverables against roles with exactly one Accountable per row, gaps and overloaded role columns flagged, and the questions to settle in the room

Escalation Email

Use when: Six people are “reviewing” and nobody has a deadline
Output: One named decider asked for one decision by a date, the options with their impact, a recommendation, the default if no answer comes, and a short version for chat

Steering Committee Deck

Use when: The steering meeting became an update session
Output: The decisions needed first, then delivery confidence with its reasons, milestones against forecast, top risks, changes for approval, and draft resolutions for the minutes

Decision Log

Use when: Every review someone disputes what was decided last time
Output: Per entry: the decision, date, decider, options considered, reason, what it changes, a review date and a superseded-by link

6 · Run the delivery rhythm

Project Management Plan

Use when: The process is heavier than the project, or there is none
Output: One page: the lifecycle picked with a reason, only the meetings and documents this project needs, and the reporting cadence and tolerances

Meeting Minutes

Use when: People remember decisions differently
Output: Decisions, actions with one owner and a due date, risks raised and open questions only, plus a chat-ready summary and a same-day send note

Sprint Planning

Use when: Someone else committed the team to more than fits
Output: One sprint goal written as an outcome, the sprint's capacity by role, the items the team selected with its own estimates, a definition of done check, and what was left out and why

Kanban Board

Use when: Everyone is busy and nothing finishes
Output: Columns that match the real workflow, WIP limits per column and blocked markers, the four flow measures computed, and the oldest items to swarm

Sprint Retrospective

Use when: The same retro actions repeat for months
Output: Last retro's action reviewed first, a format picked for this sprint's question, the team's input grouped into themes, one improvement with an owner and a check date, and the items that belong above the team

7 · Report honestly

Project Status Report

Use when: “On track” every week has stopped meaning anything
Output: A one-screen weekly report with a subject line that carries the news, the asks at the top, and a RAG rating backed by written definitions and evidence

Burndown Chart

Use when: Leaders do not trust the dashboard
Output: A burndown and a burnup from the tracker export with the scope line shown separately, a two-sentence reading of the trend, and what the chart cannot show

Earned Value Management

Use when: There is a budget and a baseline, and you need a number
Output: A planned value, earned value and actual cost table, SPI, CPI and a forecast at completion in plain words, and a one-line verdict for the status report

Communication Plan

Use when: Sixty people got the go-live email and few opened it
Output: An audience table, one cut of the status per audience, go-live and change announcements, and a check that the key messages were read

8 · Close well

Lessons Learned

Use when: The lessons register is full and nobody reads it
Output: A blameless review of what was planned against what happened and why, what to sustain and improve, and each lesson turned into an owned action or a template change

Project Closure Report

Use when: The team is moving on and the project never formally ends
Output: Objectives against results, acceptance status per deliverable, final schedule and cost against baseline, open items with new owners, a benefits owner with review dates, and sponsor sign-off

Project Handover

Use when: The project passes to operations or another project manager
Output: Acceptance criteria met or not, open items and known issues with workarounds, contacts by role, the support period, access and documents, and the receiver's confirmation checklist

03How to use it

Pick the workflow that matches your week

No fixed order. Bring one real thing from the project and open the skill that matches what is loudest this week.

Agree the scope

A scope nobody agreed, and a "small" ask on its way.

Project Charter
Project Scope Statement
Change Request Form

Estimate and schedule

You need a schedule built on ranges.

Work Breakdown Structure
Three-Point Estimate
Critical Path
Gantt Chart

Catch risks early

While the risks are still cheap.

Pre-Mortem Analysis
Risk Register
RAID Log

Report honestly

A status report is due, and it has to mean something.

Burndown Chart
Earned Value Management
Project Status Report
Escalation Email
Steering Committee Deck

Close well

The project is ending and needs a proper close.

Lessons Learned
Project Closure Report
Project Handover

04Setup guide

Install it in five minutes

In Claude Code · two lines

/plugin marketplace add polar-bear-org/claude-skills
/plugin install ai-for-project-management-pack@polar-bear-skills

In Claude.ai or Claude Desktop · seven clicks

Download the pack, then open Settings
Unzip the pack: its skills folder holds all 31 skills. In Claude, click your name at the bottom left, then Settings.
Download the zip
Open Skills and click Add
Under Customize, choose Skills. Click Add, then Upload a skill.
Drop in a skill file
Drag the skill's file into the box, or click to browse. You can add several at once.
Pick the skill from the pack
In the pack folder, open skills, then the skill you want, and select its SKILL.md — proj-project-status-report is a good first one.
Check the preview and upload
Claude shows the skill's name and what it does. Click Upload.
Make sure it is switched on
The skill opens on its own page. Its toggle should be on.
Try it in a new chat
Type / and the skill's name, then say what you need.

Then try one

Run proj-project-status-report. Last week's RAID log and the tracker export: [paste them here]

Run proj-project-charter on the email that started the project: [paste it here]

Run proj-meeting-minutes on this meeting transcript: [paste it here]

Lantern for project managers

Turn your project notes into posts about how you deliver

Lantern drafts a week of posts from your notes and call transcripts, in your voice. You review them and publish the ones you like.

100 free credits, about ten posts. No card needed.

Try for free

05Quick reference

Where to start

Your situation	Skill to run
Need a mandate and a named sponsor?	Project Charter
Need agreed scope with named exclusions?	Project Scope Statement
Need to size a “small” change?	Change Request Form
Need to decide what gives?	MoSCoW Prioritization
Need a range instead of a guess?	Three-Point Estimate
Need to know which slip moves the deadline?	Critical Path
Need the risks nobody says out loud?	Pre-Mortem Analysis
Need a weekly working log?	RAID Log
Need to know who decides?	Stakeholder Map
Need a decision by a date?	Escalation Email
Need a weekly report people read?	Project Status Report
Need a handover that sticks?	Project Handover

06Standards

The quality bar

Every skill in the pack holds the same standard, the one we hold when we manage our own team:

One artifact per skill, the same shape every time, and it says what to paste, when not to use it and when it is done
The maths is done, not named: PERT ranges with spread, the critical path with float, SPI and CPI with a forecast
Every number comes with the case where it misleads, so nobody reports a figure they cannot defend
Every status rating cites its evidence in words, and nothing is marked green that the evidence does not support
Every decision, action and risk has a named owner and a date, and every log entry has a review date
Nothing grades, ranks or profiles people: capacity is shown by role and skill, stakeholders by decision rights, never by attitude or output per person
The red line: Claude plans and tracks — the people doing the work commit to the dates, and no status goes green to dodge a hard conversation

07FAQ

Questions people ask

What is in the AI for Project Management pack?

31 Claude skills that follow the life of a project in eight stages: start, stop scope creep, estimate and schedule, catch risks, get decisions made, run the delivery rhythm, report, and close. Each skill is one artifact you walk away with.

How do I install these Claude skills?

In Claude Code, two lines install all 31 at once. In Claude.ai or Claude Desktop, download the zip, open Settings, Skills, Add, and upload the skills you want. Either way it takes about five minutes.

Do I need Claude Code to use them?

No. The skills work in Claude.ai, Claude Desktop and Claude Code. In the app you upload them yourself; in Claude Code one command installs the whole pack.

Do the skills work with ChatGPT or other assistants?

They are built as Claude Skills, and installing them is a Claude feature. Each one is a plain Markdown file, so you can read it and reuse the method elsewhere, but it will not load and trigger by itself outside Claude.

Will Claude commit to dates for the team?

No. Claude plans and tracks. The people doing the work commit to the dates, and no status goes green to dodge a hard conversation. Each skill ends in the decision a named person makes, by a date.

Is the pack free?

Yes. It is free to use inside your company and in client work, and not for resale. There is no signup: the download and the install command are on this page.

08Who made this

Lantern, by Polar Bear

These skills were written by Polar Bear, a people ops consultancy that runs its own company on Claude. The pack is free, and the same skills are open on GitHub.

Lantern is Polar Bear's content workspace. It turns your notes, documents and call transcripts into drafts for LinkedIn and other networks. You review them and publish the ones you like.