Project Brief Designer (PBL) Agent Skill

Design a project-based learning brief with a driving question, milestones, and assessment criteria.

Context cost
8.1k tokensestimated from the bundle, loaded when it triggers
Bundle
1 file · 32.2 kBtext throughout, nothing executable
Licence
not declarednone named by its author
Last change
—v1.0
Servers it uses
Noneruns standalone

What it does

Design a project-based learning brief with a driving question, milestones, and assessment criteria. Use when planning PBL units, inquiry projects, or extended investigations.

What this skill changes about the agent has not been set out here as a list. Its SKILL.md, shown below, says it in the author’s own words.

authentic-assessmentdocumentationdriving-questioninquirymilestonespblproject-based-learning

The skill itself

A skill is instructions the model reads, so you can see what you are getting: below is the start of its SKILL.md. The front matter loads with every session, the body loads when the skill triggers, and the whole file comes with the install.

SKILL.md32.2 kB · preview
--- # AGENT SKILLS STANDARD FIELDS (v2) name: project-brief-designer disable-model-invocation: false user-invocable: true effort: medium # EXISTING FIELDS skill_id: "curriculum-assessment/project-brief-designer" skill_name: "Project Brief Designer (PBL)" domain: "curriculum-assessment" version: "1.0" evidence_strength: "moderate" evidence_sources: - "Barron & Darling-Hammond (2008) — Teaching for meaningful learning: a review of research on inquiry-based and cooperative learning" - "Krajcik & Shin (2014) — Project-based learning: design features and key practices" - "Larmer, Mergendoller & Boss (2015) — Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning" - "Thomas (2000) — A review of research on project-based learning" - "Hmelo-Silver, Duncan & Chinn (2007) — Scaffolding and achievement in problem-based and inquiry learning" input_schema: required: - field: "project_topic" type: "string" - field: "learning_objectives" type: "string" - field: "student_level" type: "string" - field: "project_duration" type: "string" optional: - field: "subject_area" type: "string" - field: "real_world_connection" type: "string" - field: "student_profiles" type: "array" - field: "available_resources" type: "string" - field: "curriculum_framework" type: "string" output_schema: type: "object" fields: - field: "driving_question" type: "string" - field: "project_brief" type: "object" - field: "milestone_sequence" type: "array" - field: "assessment_criteria" type: "object" - field: "explicit_instruction_map" type: "array" chains_well_with: - "backwards-design-unit-planner" - "competency-unpacker" - "criterion-referenced-rubric-generator" - "differentiation-adapter" - "scaffolded-task-modifier" - "curriculum-knowledge-architecture-designer" - "critical-thinking-task-designer" teacher_time: "5 minutes" tags: ["PBL", "project-based-learning", "inquiry", "driving-question", "authentic-assessment", "milestones"] ---
82# Project Brief Designer (PBL)
83
84## What This Skill Does
85
86Designs a complete project brief for project-based learning — including a driving question, real-world connection, structured milestones, explicit instruction points, and assessment criteria — that ensures students learn substantive content THROUGH the project rather than simply producing a product. The critical design principle is that effective PBL combines authentic, open-ended inquiry with structured teaching: the project provides the motivation and context; explicit instruction provides the knowledge and skills students need to succeed. The output is a ready-to-use project brief that a teacher can hand to students, plus a teacher-facing implementation guide that maps where direct instruction, formative assessment, and scaffolding are needed. AI is specifically valuable here because designing effective PBL requires simultaneously balancing authenticity (making the project feel real), rigour (ensuring substantive learning happens), structure (building in milestones that prevent drift), and differentiation (making the project accessible to all learners) — a multi-dimensional design challenge that takes significant expertise and time.
87
88## Evidence Foundation
89
90Barron & Darling-Hammond (2008) reviewed evidence on inquiry-based learning and identified the design features that distinguish effective projects from activities that are engaging but educationally shallow: effective PBL connects to meaningful real-world problems, requires disciplinary thinking (not just information gathering), includes structured milestones, and incorporates explicit instruction at the points where students need new knowledge or skills. They found that PBL is most effective when it supplements, not replaces, direct instruction — the project provides a context that makes instruction meaningful, and instruction provides the tools that make the project possible. Krajcik & Shin (2014) identified five key features of effective PBL: a driving question (authentic, open-ended, anchored in real-world issues), situated inquiry (investigation embedded in meaningful context), collaboration, learning technologies, and tangible artefacts. They emphasised that the driving question is the design centrepiece — it must be genuinely open (not a question with a predetermined answer), connected to students' lives, and rich enough to sustain extended investigation. Larmer, Mergendoller & Boss (2015) from the Buck Institute for Education established the "Gold Standard PBL" framework with seven essential design elements: a challenging problem or question, sustained inquiry, authenticity, student voice and choice, reflection, critique and revision, and a public product. Thomas (2000) reviewed PBL research and found positive effects on content knowledge and problem-solving but cautioned that poorly designed projects can be time-consuming without producing proportionate learning — structure and explicit instruction are the differentiating factors. Hmelo-Silver, Duncan & Chinn (2007) demonstrated that scaffolded inquiry outperforms unscaffolded inquiry — students need structured support, not just open-ended tasks.
91
92## Input Schema
93
94The teacher must provide:
95- **Project topic:** What the project is about. *e.g. "Water quality in our local river" / "Designing a sustainable city" / "The impact of the Industrial Revolution on working people" / "Creating a campaign to reduce food waste in our school"*
96- **Learning objectives:** What students should learn. *e.g. "Understand the causes and effects of water pollution, apply scientific testing methods, communicate findings to an audience" / "Analyse primary and secondary sources about working conditions, construct historical arguments using evidence"*
97- **Student level:** Year group. *e.g. "Year 8" / "Year 10"*
98- **Project duration:** How long. *e.g. "6 lessons over 3 weeks" / "Half a term (12 lessons)"*
99
100Optional (injected by context engine if available):
This is a preview of SKILL.md. Download or install the skill to get the whole thing.
In the file
SKILL.md4,532 words
Files1
Licencenot declared
Why you can read it

Nothing in a skill executes. The client loads the text and the model follows it, so a skill can be audited the way a runbook is — by reading it.

What it costs in context

Skills are not billed by the call. They are paid for in context: every token the instructions occupy is a token your code, your diff and your conversation cannot use. Here is what this one takes and when it takes it.

≈910
always loaded
The name and description, so the model knows the skill exists and when to reach for it.
7,140
on trigger
The instruction body, read only when the skill fires.
4.0%
of a 200k window
Ten skills this size would take about 40% of the window before you open a file.
050k100k150k200k context window

8.1k tokens, estimated from the bundle at four bytes to the token, held for the rest of the session once it triggers. Heavy. Teams tend to install this one per project rather than globally, and load it only when the job comes up.

Servers bill, skills cost

A server charges by the month. A skill charges once per session, in context, and then keeps charging it for as long as the session lives.

Before and after

The same question, put to the same model twice: once as it comes, and once with these instructions loaded.

No worked example has been published for this skill yet.

The procedure it runs

The procedure has not been set out here step by step. It is in the body of its SKILL.md: the start of it is shown above, and the whole file comes with the install.

Prose, not code

These steps are written for a model to follow, not executed by a runtime. It can still be told to skip one, and it will say so when it does.

Servers it uses

None. This skill calls no MCP servers at all.

Everything it needs is in the instructions, so it works in a project with nothing connected — the model reads the file and changes how it works with what it can already reach.

Its SKILL.md does not declare which tools it asks the agent for, so what it touches is whatever the instructions themselves ask for — read them before you install it.

What it asks for
Writes filesnot declared
Network accessnot declared

This SKILL.md carries no allowed-tools line, so neither is declared. A skill grants no permissions of its own — it can only ask for tools your client already has.

What it will not do

Every skill is narrow, and the useful ones say where they stop. These are the jobs this one is the wrong tool for.

What this skill is not for has not been published here. Nothing is implied by that: it is a section the author has not filled in.

What is in the bundle

1 file, 32.2 kB on disk. A bundle is text throughout: the instructions the model reads, plus the templates it fills in.

  • SKILL.md32.2 kB
What is not in it

No dependencies and nothing executable: a skill is text the agent reads, so the bundle is 1 file you can review in full before installing.

Install

Installing copies the bundle into your project. Nothing runs at install time — the files sit on disk until the model reads them.

# Project Brief Designer (PBL) · 8.1k tokens when loaded · macOS, Linux mkdir -p .claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/project-brief-designer-pbl" ] && { [ ! -e .claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl ] || { mv .claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/project-brief-designer-pbl" .claude/skills/ && echo "Installed .claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl"
On Windows, or any OS with Node 20+
npx mcprush@latest skill add garethmanning/project-brief-designer-pbl

Windows PowerShell says 'running scripts is disabled on this system'? Run Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned once, or type npx.cmd instead of npx (codex.cmd, gemini.cmd, grok.cmd likewise). PowerShell 7 needs neither. Writes to .claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl/ in the current project. For every project instead, run mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && t=$(mktemp -d) && curl -fsSL -o "$t/bundle.tar.gz" https://mcprush.com/api/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl/bundle.tar.gz && tar -xzf "$t/bundle.tar.gz" -C "$t" && [ -d "$t/project-brief-designer-pbl" ] && { [ ! -e ~/.claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl ] || { mv ~/.claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl "$t/.previous" && echo "Previous copy moved to $t/.previous"; }; } && mv "$t/project-brief-designer-pbl" ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed ~/.claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl" (macOS, Linux) — or add --global to the npx line. The curl line replaces .claude/skills/project-brief-designer-pbl/ only after the download succeeds, so files left there by another skill of the same name, or by an older release, do not mix in. A copy already there is moved aside, not deleted, and the line prints where. It appears as project-brief-designer in Gemini CLI, Codex, Copilot and Grok (its own name); Claude Code lists it by the folder name, project-brief-designer-pbl.

Which clients pick it up on their own

A skill is a folder of text. Most of these read a skills folder and pick it up without being told; the rest take the same folder another way — an upload in the app, a parameter on an API call — and then choose it by its description just the same.

Claude Code.claude/skills/
Claude DesktopCustomize › Skills
ChatGPTSkills › Create › Upload
Cursor.cursor/skills/
VS Code.github/skills/
Codex CLI.agents/skills/
Gemini CLI.gemini/skills/
Grok Build.grok/skills/
Microsoft CopilotSkills › Upload a skill
PerplexityComputer › Skills › Upload a skill
DeepSeek Harness.dsh/skills/
Zed.agents/skills/
Devin Desktop.devin/skills/
Windsurf (legacy).windsurf/skills/
OpenAI Agents SDKInstructions or sandbox Skills
HTTP / APIa request parameter
This release
Version1.0
Publishedno release date on file
PriceFree
Referencegarethmanning/project-brief-designer-pbl

Versions

v1.0 is what is on the shelf; no release here carries a date. Instructions change more often than APIs do — a skill can be rewritten entirely without anything it depends on moving.

v1.0
  • No earlier releases have been published to the marketplace.
Pinning

The install command always fetches the release that is current the day you run it — v1.0 today — and cannot ask for an earlier one. The copy on your disk does not change until you run it again.

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