# I Let an AI Agent Prep My Workshop. Prep Took 20 Minutes. > Source: > Published: 2026-11-05 00:46:54+00:00 **Series: How to Run a Workshop People Remember (7/10)** Workshop prep is the part nobody teaches and everybody dreads: read the run sheet, list the props, check print specs, build the sign-up and feedback forms, write the invite. It's all mechanical work that takes an evening — which is exactly the kind of work an AI agent should be doing while you do the human parts. The blocker was always that AI couldn't *see* your materials. It could draft you an email, but it couldn't open your activity folder, know the group size, count the props, or tell you that the A3 poster needs a color printer. So I made the materials machine-readable, and this post shows the workflow — because it generalizes to any prep materials you keep in files. Every folder on [WorkshopSkill](https://workshopskill.com/en/) ships with a `SKILL.md` file — frontmatter (name, description, group size, duration, props) plus runnable prep commands. The point of the format: an AI agent that can read files can *discover* the activity, *install* it, and *run the prep* without you explaining any of it in the chat. The three-step workflow, in practice: `files/SKILL.md` at a predictable URL — The [skills-for-agents page](https://workshopskill.com/en/skills.html) documents the workflow for humans, and the [skill tutorials](https://workshopskill.com/en/skill-guides/) walk through it per client and per scenario (28 tutorials at time of writing — Claude, Cursor, and the rest, each with its quirks). There's also a plain guide on [AI agent workshop prep](https://workshopskill.com/en/guides/ai-agent-workshop-prep/) for the concept without the tooling. The prep checklist has always ended with the annoying tail: "build the registration form, build the pre/post measure, build the feedback form." Those are all form-shaped, and form-building is now an MCP-shaped problem. FormLM ships an open-source CLI and MCP server (the npm package [@formlm/cli](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@formlm/cli)). If you use Claude, Cursor or any MCP-compatible client, the whole install is: ``` npx -y @formlm/cli mcp ``` One command, stdio transport, no API keys to wire up — a client with no token signs in through the chat. Then your agent can build the workshop's forms and assessments as part of the same prep session: describe the pre/post measure once, get the live scored form, the registration page and the feedback form — each with a URL you can drop onto a printed card (part 3) or into the invite email. So the whole prep conversation with the agent ends up being one message: "Install the blind-portrait folder from skills.json, give me the prep checklist, then build the registration form and the pre/post measure on FormLM for my 16-person session Thursday." Twenty minutes later you have: props checklist, print specs, a run sheet summary, and three live form URLs. The evening you would have spent on this is now the evening you spend rehearsing the debrief questions — the part that actually decides whether the workshop is any good. Next in the series: the debrief — the beat where the learning actually happens, and the one most workshops skip. **Tools in this post:** `npx -y @formlm/cli mcp`) *Disclosure: I'm one of the makers — the tools from my own shop named across this series. *