How to use the IRAC Essay Grader agent skill (irac-practice)

What the irac-practice skill makes the agent do

Agent skills are instruction packages that give a Claude-based agent a specific job and a set of rules for doing it. This one covers IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) and CRAC essay writing. The skill grades the structure of your answer: whether you spotted the issues, stated the rules accurately, applied rules to the facts, reached a responsive conclusion, and organized the essay clearly.

The skill is built not to rewrite your essay or give you a full model answer. It can show at most one or two labeled example phrasings of a structural move, and it avoids showing an example on the substantive issue you are writing about. Its feedback includes a rough pass, borderline, or not-yet band and a ranked list of your top three fixes.

The skill also keeps a tracker file of your sessions and surfaces patterns once you have three or more sessions, such as a habit of stating rules without applying them.

Install the irac-practice skill

Download the ZIP file for the skill from this page. The package contains a single file named SKILL.md.

To install for yourself across all projects, unzip the download into ~/.claude/skills/. To install for one project only, unzip it into the .claude/skills/ folder inside that project.

Alternatively, if you use the Claude apps, upload the ZIP under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

• Personal install: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
• Project install: unzip into .claude/skills/ in your project folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload the ZIP

Set up your study context (optional)

The skill reads a file named CLAUDE.md from a specific folder before grading. The file is optional, but it helps the feedback fit your course. It can describe your classes, exam formats, outline locations, and learning style.

The skill expects its context in ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/. The agent needs to be able to read and write files in that folder, because it also saves session tracking there.

• Put CLAUDE.md in ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/law-student/
• Include your classes, exam formats, and where your outlines live
• Leave it out if you prefer; the skill still grades structure without it

Trigger the skill with natural requests

You can invoke the skill with its slash command or simply ask in plain language. The skill's description lists phrases such as grade my IRAC, check my essay, and I wrote this, give me feedback.

For practice, you can ask for a generated hypo in your subject area. The skill will write one, you draft an answer, and then you paste the answer back for grading. You can also paste your own hypo and answer, or point the agent at a draft file.

• Grade my IRAC on this hypo: [paste hypo], then my answer: [paste answer]
• I wrote this, give me feedback: [paste essay]
• Give me a practice hypo on contract formation, I'll write the answer and then grade it
• Check my essay at [path to draft]

Read the feedback you receive

Feedback is organized by component. Issue spotting lists what you spotted, what you missed, and anything you called an issue that is not one. Rule statements are marked accurate, partially correct, wrong, or missing an element. Analysis checks whether you applied each rule to specific facts.

Where the skill is not confident about a rule or a debatable issue call, it flags the point with a VERIFY or UNCERTAIN marker rather than silently marking your correct statement wrong. Feedback always ends with top three fixes and a citation check reminding you to verify any cases or statutes it mentions.

• Spotted / Missed / Mis-identified issues
• Rule accuracy per issue, with VERIFY flags where unsure
• Application: applied, partially applied, or restated without linking
• Organization and call responsiveness
• Rough band and top three fixes

Use it well and know its limits

The skill is study-only. If your question concerns a real lease, ticket, deadline, dispute, or other real situation, it is designed to stop and redirect you to legal aid, a school clinic, or a lawyer referral service. It says it cannot give legal advice.

When the skill says it can grade structure but cannot verify rules in an area it does not know well, cross-check the rules against your outline or casebook. The skill itself notes that its citations and rules may be fabricated or wrong, so verify before relying on them in a graded submission.

The skill does not run scripts and does not use the network, according to its file. It only reads and writes files in the folder described above.

• Do not use it for real legal problems
• Verify all rules and citations against your casebook or research tool before a graded exam
• Treat the band as a rough calibration, not a score