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This guide walks you through installing Shaping Frame in Claude Desktop and activating it as a full active frame. By the end, you will have uploaded shaping-frame.skill to the Skills panel and pasted the CUSTOM_INSTRUCTION.txt anchor into your Instructions for Claude — the two steps required for the frame to run at full strength, every session, from turn one.
1

Download the files

Go to the Shaping Frame GitHub repository and download both files:
  • shaping-frame.skill — the skill archive containing the full frame and reference files
  • CUSTOM_INSTRUCTION.txt — the anchor that must be added to your Claude Desktop instructions separately
Keep both files accessible. You will need them in the next steps.
2

Open Claude Desktop Skills

In Claude Desktop, open the Skills management area:
+ → Skills → Manage Skills
Click the + icon in the Claude Desktop interface, select Skills, then Manage Skills. This opens the Customize → Skills area where you can upload and manage skill archives.
3

Upload the skill

In the Skills panel, click the + button in the center column. From the menu that appears, choose:
+ Create skill → Upload a skill
Upload shaping-frame.skill using this path. Do not use the public skills directory — navigate through the Upload path specifically. The public skills directory will not contain this skill.Once uploaded, the skill archive is available to Claude during your working sessions.
4

Add the custom instruction

Navigate to your Claude Desktop settings:
initials → Settings → Instructions for Claude
Open CUSTOM_INSTRUCTION.txt in a text editor, copy the full contents, and paste them into the Instructions for Claude field.This step is required. The custom instruction acts as the always-on anchor that tells Claude to execute a full read of the skill and hold the frame active as a working posture — not just a reference to consult once and summarize.
5

Verify activation

Start a new conversation in Claude Desktop. The frame is now active.Shaping Frame operates silently every turn, tracking source classes and weight states from the moment the session begins. It does not emit tracking output on routine turns — silence is normal. The frame surfaces when material crosses a threshold or when a surface trigger fires.No confirmation message is required. If both the skill and the custom instruction are in place, the frame is running.
The custom instruction step is required. Skipping it means Claude may compress or summarize the skill rather than running it as an active cognitive frame. A summarized version of the skill will not apply full-read behavior, checkpoint logic, or threshold tracking correctly.

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What happens next

From turn one of your first session, Shaping Frame tracks the source class and weight state of every element entering the conversation. Operator decisions (OP) carry maximum weight and crystallize immediately. External material you import (EXT) starts high but as a candidate — relevant because you brought it, not approved because it is present. Claude-generated proposals (AI) and model priors (MP) start low and rise only when you explicitly validate them. The frame does not emit output on every turn. Most turns will look like a normal Claude conversation. The frame is working in the background, and it will surface when something is crossing a structural boundary without your approval — when a proposal is becoming a premise, a premise is becoming a constraint, or an AI-generated element is starting to act like operator intent.

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First session tips

In your first session, try importing an external document — paste in a transcript, a reference document, or a note you brought from elsewhere. Then make a decision that references it. Notice how the frame distinguishes between the document being relevant (you brought it, so it has real weight) and the document being decided (you explicitly approved a direction from it). That distinction — relevance is not approval — is the core of how Shaping Frame prevents silent promotion of external material into structural decisions.

Core Concepts

Dive into the weight states, threshold crossings, and checkpoint logic that power the frame.

Source Classes

Understand how OP, EXT, AI, MP, and DSK carry different authority — and why that separation matters.

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