Claude Skills Guide

How to Make Claude Code Understand Domain Business Logic

Claude Code comes equipped with broad general knowledge, but getting it to understand your specific business domain requires deliberate setup. Whether you’re building skills for healthcare compliance, financial services, or e-commerce, teaching Claude about your domain logic unlocks more accurate, context-aware responses.

This guide covers practical methods to inject domain knowledge into Claude Code, from crafting domain-specific skills to configuring knowledge retrieval systems.

Why Domain Context Matters

General-purpose AI models excel at reasoning but lack awareness of your specific terminology, business rules, and data structures. When you ask Claude to help with a complex order processing workflow, it doesn’t know that “pending” means something different in your system than in a typical REST API, or that certain field combinations trigger compliance checks.

By providing structured domain context, you transform Claude from a capable generalist into a specialist that understands your business logic.

Method 1: Domain-Specific Skill Creation

The most direct approach involves creating custom skills that encode your business rules. Skills act as persistent instruction sets that Claude loads when working on specific tasks.

A domain skill typically includes:

---
name: ecommerce-orders
description: "Handle e-commerce order processing with business rules"
---

# Order Processing Domain

When processing orders, apply these rules:

1. All orders require a valid customer_id from the customers table
2. Orders over $10,000 require manager approval (check the approvals table)
3. International orders must include VAT number validation
4. Discount codes expire after the date specified in the promotions table

## Status Transitions

Valid order status transitions:
- draft → pending → confirmed → shipped → delivered
- Any status → cancelled (only if within 24 hours of creation)
- Any status → refunded (requires reason code from the refund_reasons table)

When you invoke this skill using /ecommerce-orders, Claude loads these rules and applies them consistently across conversations.

Method 2: Entity Definition Files

For complex domains with many specific terms, create dedicated entity definition files that Claude can reference. Store these as markdown files in a consistent location and reference them in your skills.

Create a file like domain/finance-entities.md:

# Finance Domain Entities

## Account Types
- CHECKING: Standard transactional account, no interest
- SAVINGS: Interest-bearing account, max 6 withdrawals/month
- INVESTMENT: Holds securities, requires risk assessment on file

## Transaction Categories
- ACH_TRANSFER: Bank-to-bank transfer, 2-3 day settlement
- WIRE: Same-day transfer, $25 fee applies
- INTERNAL: Movement between accounts, instant

## Compliance Flags
- CTR_REQUIRED: Cash transactions over $10,000
- SAR_REQUIRED: Suspicious activity patterns
- OFAC_HIT: Match on sanctions list

Reference this in your skill:

---
name: finance-support
description: "Handle finance domain queries"
---

Load the domain entities from ../domain/finance-entities.md
and use these definitions when validating transactions or answering customer questions.

Method 3: Database Schema Integration

For applications with structured data, provide Claude with schema context. This helps it understand relationships and constraints:

## Database Schema Context

### Orders Table
- id: UUID, primary key
- customer_id: FK to customers.id
- status: enum (draft, pending, confirmed, shipped, delivered, cancelled, refunded)
- total_amount: decimal(10,2)
- created_at: timestamp
- updated_at: timestamp

### Order Items Table  
- id: UUID, primary key
- order_id: FK to orders.id
- product_id: FK to products.id
- quantity: integer
- unit_price: decimal(10,2)

### Relationships
- One customer has many orders
- One order has many order items
- One product appears in many order items

This approach pairs well with the tdd skill for generating tests that respect your actual data model.

Method 4: Business Rule Documentation

Document your business logic in a format Claude can parse and apply. Use clear conditional structures:

# Pricing Rules

## Discount Eligibility
IF customer.tier == "premium" THEN discount_rate = 0.15
ELSE IF customer.tier == "standard" THEN discount_rate = 0.05
ELSE discount_rate = 0

## Bulk Discounts
quantity >= 10 AND quantity < 50: additional 5% off
quantity >= 50: additional 10% off (stack with tier discount)

## Shipping Calculation
- Under $50: $7.99 flat rate
- $50-$100: $4.99 flat rate
- Over $100: free shipping
- International: add $15 surcharge

When working with skills like frontend-design or pdf generation, having these rules documented ensures the output reflects your actual business logic rather than generic implementations.

Method 5: Using supermemory for Context

The supermemory skill provides persistent memory across sessions. Use it to maintain domain context that persists beyond individual conversations:

# Store domain context
sm add "Our platform uses a 3-tier subscription model: 
Basic ($9/mo), Professional ($29/mo), Enterprise (custom pricing).
Basic limits: 1000 API calls/day, 5 team members.
Professional: 10000 calls/day, 25 team members, email support.
Enterprise: unlimited calls, unlimited members, 24/7 support + SLA."

This creates a retrievable knowledge base that Claude queries when working on support-related tasks.

Method 6: Example-Based Learning

Provide Claude with concrete examples of correct domain behavior:

## Example: Correct Order Creation

Input:
{
  "customer_id": "cust_abc123",
  "items": [
    {"product_id": "prod_xyz", "quantity": 2}
  ]
}

Correct processing:
1. Validate customer exists and is active
2. Check product availability for each item
3. Calculate: (2 × product_price) + shipping = total
4. Apply customer tier discount
5. Create order with status "pending"
6. Return order_id for confirmation

## Example: Invalid Order (missing required field)

Input:
{
  "customer_id": "cust_abc123",
  "items": [{"product_id": "prod_xyz", "quantity": 1}]
  // missing shipping_address
}

Expected error:
"Shipping address required for all orders. Add shipping_address field."

These examples train Claude on your expected inputs and outputs, reducing hallucinations around domain-specific edge cases.

Combining Methods for Best Results

The most effective domain understanding comes from layering multiple approaches:

  1. Create a base skill with your core terminology and entities
  2. Add reference files for complex rules and schemas
  3. Use supermemory for session-persistent context
  4. Include examples for ambiguous scenarios
  5. Update documentation as business rules evolve

This approach scales well as your domain grows more complex. When combined with skills like mcp-builder for API integration or canvas-design for domain-specific visualizations, you build a comprehensive Claude-powered system that understands your business inside and out.

The key is treating domain knowledge as code: version-controlled, documented, and tested. As your business evolves, your domain definitions evolve with it.

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