brunch-apply for Claude Code and Codex: a skill that prepares a Brunch writer application

brunch-apply is a single skill that prepares the four fields of a writer application for Brunch, a Korean blogging platform, around one concept. This post covers the problem it solves, who it suits, how to install it and start a first run, and the caution that matters most before you send anything.

What problem it solves

A Brunch application asks for a writer introduction, an activity plan, and sample articles, and a rejection rarely says why. The common reaction is to abandon the concept and try a different topic. The skill pushes the other way. It looks for the cause in the framing rather than the material, checking four things in order: whether the attached articles match the concept, whether the introduction’s last sentence introduces a person or reads like an advertisement, whether people or tools are the main characters in the outline, and whether the numbers have evidence behind them.

It also measures how crowded a concept already is. A bundled script pulls the top eight titles by cumulative popularity from Brunch’s search API and classifies overlap as saturated, high, low, or almost none. Total result counts are left out of the judgment because a match on a single word inflates them. Facts in the drafts must come from the author’s own published posts, project files, or interview answers, and each sample article lists its sources and any unverified sentences at the top.

Who it fits

The chapter rates four situations. Three are enough to decide.

Situation	Fit	Reason
Reapplying after one rejection	Good fit	Starts by diagnosing the rejection
Having many social posts but no plan	Good fit	Extracts a 12-article outline from existing material
Copying a book manuscript directly	Poor fit	Assumes newly written sample articles

First-time applicants with a common topic sit in the middle. The overlap research can still help them find a position that is not already saturated.

Install and first run

Clone the claude-playbook repository, then copy the whole skill folder for Claude Code, Codex, or both.

# From the cloned repository folder, copy the entire skill folder (Claude Code, user-global)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R 02-skills/brunch-apply ~/.claude/skills/brunch-apply
# Codex: copy the same folder to ~/.codex/skills/brunch-apply
cp -R 02-skills/brunch-apply ~/.codex/skills/brunch-apply

Copy the folder rather than just SKILL.md, because the overlap script and reference files must travel with it. The skill activates on requests such as preparing a Brunch application or applying again after a rejection. If you kept a record of a previous application, give it the path.

Prepare my Brunch writer application again. The previous record is at [record document path].

The run reads the review criteria and successful applicants’ accounts, researches overlap for each concept candidate, and interviews you with four questions about motivation, a memorable scene, constraints, and what can be made public. It then writes a 300-character introduction, a 300-character activity plan, a 12-article outline, and two new sample articles saved to Drafts.

What trips people up

The biggest catch has nothing to do with installation. Brunch appears to filter out agent-written work. The author saw cases among acquaintances in September 2026, and there is no official guidance either way. Treat the introduction and sample articles the skill produces as reference drafts, and rewrite whatever you submit in your own words. The overlap research also depends on a search endpoint Brunch does not document, so if its response format changes the script stops, and you will need to copy the top titles from Brunch’s search screen by hand.

Where this comes from

This post adapts part of chapter 02-09 of The Claude Code & Codex Skills Guidebook. The full chapter covers the detailed rules for writing the introduction and activity plan, and the browser automation and environment values you need to replace with your own, and the book has 52 more skills like this one. Read the full chapter in The Claude Code & Codex Skills Guidebook on Gumroad.