getting bullied into exercise by claude

i sit down to write code and stand up several hours later. minimum-viable-exercise is a claude code skill that makes the tool i’m sitting in front of do something about that.

what a skill actually is

a skill is a folder with a markdown file in it. the file has a short header that tells claude when the skill applies, and then plain instructions. no code, no api. you install it and claude reads it whenever the description matches what’s about to happen.

the trick in this one is the trigger. it fires before any task claude thinks will take a while: long code, documents, research. the header says so in words. “if there’s a delay coming, use it.”

what it does

before starting the work, claude names one exercise, gives a rep count or a duration, adds a form cue, and one dry line. then it gets on with the job without waiting for you. when it comes back with the result, it asks whether you did it. once.

the tone is the point, and the file is explicit about it. dry, deadpan, mildly competitive. not cheerful. not optional-feeling. “the exercise is happening. the only variable is whether the user completes it.”

there’s a bank of twenty exercises, all doable at a desk in under ninety seconds. seated leg raises. desk push-ups. glute squeezes, “completely invisible. zero excuses.” star jumps, if nobody’s watching.

the accountability check

this is the whole bit, and the file says so. if you did it, one dry acknowledgement. if you didn’t, one line of mild judgement, then the work anyway. if you ignore the question: “i’ll take the silence as a no.”

what i learned writing it

most of the file is about what not to do. don’t give more than one exercise. don’t moralise past a single line. don’t be coach-y. don’t skip the check. writing a good skill turned out to be writing a good brief, which is the part of my job i already knew how to do.

it’s free, it’s on github, and it will make your assistant slightly disappointed in you.