claude code skills docs - Brave Search

What are Claude Skills really?

reddit.com › r › ClaudeAI › comments › 1oalv0o › what_are_claude_skills_really

Here's how Claude himself explained it, and I think he really captures the essence of it: Claude Skills solve a common problem: normally, when you want an LLM to do something specific, you have to prompt it each time. Or maybe you set up custom instructions in a project, but then you can only use those instructions when you're in that project. Otherwise, you're back to copying and pasting the same prompt over and over. Skills change this completely. Think of it like Neo's "I know kung fu" moment in The Matrix. Just like they uploaded kung fu directly into Neo's brain and he could instantly use it, you're uploading specialized knowledge into Claude that it can apply automatically whenever needed. When you create a Skill, you're building a knowledge package with instructions, best practices, examples, and specific guidance for a task. You download it, upload it back into Claude's Skills section, and you're done. From that point forward, whenever you mention anything relevant to that Skill (or even just start a task it applies to), Claude automatically uses that knowledge. It's like giving Claude a reference guide it checks before starting work. The beauty is the "anywhere, anytime, automatically" part. You don't have to keep uploading prompts. You don't have to be in a specific project. It takes the concept of custom instructions and makes it universal across every single conversation you have. Skills just work in the background whenever they're relevant, no manual triggering needed. It's Claude's "I know kung fu" moment. Answer from hesasorcererthatone on reddit.com

code.claude.com › docs › en › skills

Agent Skills - Claude Code Docs

It should include both what the Skill does and when Claude should use it. See the best practices guide for complete authoring guidance including validation rules. ... my-skill/ ├── SKILL.md (required) ├── reference.md (optional documentation) ├── examples.md (optional examples) ├── scripts/ │ └── helper.py (optional utility) └── templates/ └── template.txt (optional template)

github.com › anthropics › skills

GitHub - anthropics/skills: Public repository for Agent Skills

Each skill is self-contained in its own folder with a SKILL.md file containing the instructions and metadata that Claude uses. Browse through these skills to get inspiration for your own skills or to understand different patterns and approaches. Many skills in this repo are open source (Apache 2.0). We've also included the document creation & editing skills that power Claude's document capabilities under the hood in the skills/docx, skills/pdf, skills/pptx, and skills/xlsx subfolders.

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Videos

Claude Code Skills: What Problem Do They Solve? - YouTube

October 30, 2025

Claude Code's Document Skills Are an UNFAIR ADVANTAGE - YouTube

Claude Skills: Glimpse of Continual Learning? - YouTube

October 18, 2025

Claude Code Skills Will Dominate 2026: Build Your AI Agent Army ...

Mastering Claude Code Skills (This Changes EVERYTHING) - YouTube

Claude Skills Explained in 23 Minutes - YouTube

platform.claude.com › docs › en › agents-and-tools › agent-skills › overview

Agent Skills - Claude Docs

Progressive disclosure ensures only relevant content occupies the context window at any given time. Skills run in a code execution environment where Claude has filesystem access, bash commands, and code execution capabilities.

lennysnewsletter.com › p › claude-skills-explained

Claude Skills explained: How to create reusable AI workflows

October 22, 2025 - I break down exactly what Claude Skills are, how to build them from scratch, and how to use them inside Claude Code and Cursor to automate recurring AI tasks like generating PRDs, writing changelog summaries, and turning demo notes into follow-up emails. ... • Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills · • Anthropic Skills Documentation: https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills?utm_source=chatgpt.com

github.com › travisvn › awesome-claude-skills

GitHub - travisvn/awesome-claude-skills: A curated list of awesome Claude Skills, resources, and tools for customizing Claude AI workflows — particularly Claude Code

Oct 16: 🎉 Claude Skills officially announced - Available across Claude.ai, Code, and API · Oct 16: Initial skills released including docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx, algorithmic-art, canvas-design, and more

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anthropic.com › engineering › equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills

Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills

Like a well-organized manual that starts with a table of contents, then specific chapters, and finally a detailed appendix, skills let Claude load information only as needed: Agents with a filesystem and code execution tools don’t need to read the entirety of a skill into their context window when working on a particular task.

github.com › VoltAgent › awesome-claude-skills

GitHub - VoltAgent/awesome-claude-skills: The awesome collection of Claude Skills and resources.

Claude Skills are folders with instructions, scripts, and resources that teach Claude specific tasks. Skills can include executable code and are loaded only when needed, allowing you to maintain hundreds without performance impact.

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anthropic.com › news › skills

Introducing Agent Skills | Claude

October 16, 2025 - Skills require the Code Execution ... to run. Use Anthropic-created skills to have Claude read and generate professional Excel spreadsheets with formulas, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and fillable PDFs....

Find elsewhere

Google Bing Mojeek

medium.com › realworld-ai-use-cases › the-complete-guide-to-claude-codes-newest-feature-skills-04bdfc26f365

The complete guide to Claude Code’s newest feature “skills” | by Chris Dunlop | Realworld AI Use Cases | Medium

October 21, 2025 - The complete guide to Claude Code’s newest feature “skills” Claude Code released a new feature called Skills. Not a Medium member? Keep reading for free by clicking here. There is a blog post …

reddit.com › r/claudeai › what are claude skills really?

r/ClaudeAI on Reddit: What are Claude Skills really?

October 19, 2025 -

I've heard Skills might be the next big thing that changes the ai game. But I just can't get my head around them. My use case is mainly Claude Web with projects that help me build resources for work.

How is a Skill different from custom instructions? How is a Skill different from projects?

You could make an email Skill to write like you, but you could also make a project that does the same.

Or I have this project that is instructed "If A, find X google drive document, if B, find Y. Heres the links" - Could Skills replace this part of the prompt which could help with tokens?

Please explain like I'm 10 🙏🏼

Here's how Claude himself explained it, and I think he really captures the essence of it: Claude Skills solve a common problem: normally, when you want an LLM to do something specific, you have to prompt it each time. Or maybe you set up custom instructions in a project, but then you can only use those instructions when you're in that project. Otherwise, you're back to copying and pasting the same prompt over and over. Skills change this completely. Think of it like Neo's "I know kung fu" moment in The Matrix. Just like they uploaded kung fu directly into Neo's brain and he could instantly use it, you're uploading specialized knowledge into Claude that it can apply automatically whenever needed. When you create a Skill, you're building a knowledge package with instructions, best practices, examples, and specific guidance for a task. You download it, upload it back into Claude's Skills section, and you're done. From that point forward, whenever you mention anything relevant to that Skill (or even just start a task it applies to), Claude automatically uses that knowledge. It's like giving Claude a reference guide it checks before starting work. The beauty is the "anywhere, anytime, automatically" part. You don't have to keep uploading prompts. You don't have to be in a specific project. It takes the concept of custom instructions and makes it universal across every single conversation you have. Skills just work in the background whenever they're relevant, no manual triggering needed. It's Claude's "I know kung fu" moment.

It's a structured document that you can only use on Claude. To me, as a non-coder no-computer background type, they wrote Skills like it's a new computer language for a markdown file. I'm super excited to see Big Tech adopt and formalize structured documents as System Prompts. Google has something called Google Playbooks. I've been writing about System Prompt Notebooks (SPNs) for months - https://www.reddit.com/r/LinguisticsPrograming/s/uLv5p8eq5f I personally use structured Google Docs ( with tabs) and English. Basically all you need is clear titles and headers for the LLM to parse. Of course, the better you are with words and articulating instructions, the better the experience. I upload the SPN at the beginning of a chat and prompt the LLM to use @[file name] as a system prompt and to use as a first source of reference. For there, my prompts can be start and basic. What you're really building is an external memory file for the LLM. A project rulebook, employees handbook, Claude Skills, Google Playbooks or System Prompt Notebooks - all they are, are structured documents with instructions, rules, etc. Where Google and Claude will fall short is they are developing platform specific tools. My SPNs are not platform specific and can be used with any LLM that accepts uploads. So, if you've been doing to the same, you are ahead of they power curve.

support.claude.com › en › articles › 12512176-what-are-skills

What are Skills? | Claude Help Center

Skills are also available in beta for Claude Code users and for all API users using the code execution tool. Skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude loads dynamically to improve performance on specialized tasks.

github.com › ComposioHQ › awesome-claude-skills

GitHub - ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills: A curated list of awesome Claude Skills, resources, and tools for customizing Claude AI workflows

Claude Skills are customizable workflows that teach Claude how to perform specific tasks according to your unique requirements. Skills enable Claude to execute tasks in a repeatable, standardized manner across all Claude platforms. docx - Create, ...

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huggingface.co › blog › sionic-ai › claude-code-skills-training

How We Use Claude Code Skills to Run 1,000+ ML Experiments a Day

The skills registry handles knowledge. But running a thousand experiments a day requires more than good documentation. The TECHSPEC is where it starts. Before Claude writes any code, I usually spend hours with top-tier models like Claude Opus 4.5, GPT-5.1 Pro and Gemini 3 DeepThink just reading.

support.claude.com › en › articles › 12512180-using-skills-in-claude

Using Skills in Claude | Claude Help Center

Skills extend Claude's capabilities by giving it access to specialized knowledge and workflows. This guide shows you how to enable, discover, and use Skills in Claude. For Enterprise plans: Owners must first enable both Code execution and file creation and Skills in Admin settings > Capabilities...

apidog.com › blog › claude-skills

How to Create and Use Skills in Claude and Claude Code

October 17, 2025 - This guide covers setup, benefits, step-by-step creation, and a JavaScript documentation example across Claude.ai and terminal—ideal for Pro users seeking efficiency. ... Today, features like Claude's Skills mark a pivotal evolution, enabling users to tailor Anthropic's tools for precise, repeatable workflows. Claude Skills, modular components that encapsulate instructions, scripts, and resources, extend Claude's versatility across its ecosystem, while Claude Code Skills adapt these for terminal-based coding environments.

leehanchung.github.io › blogs › 2025 › 10 › 26 › claude-skills-deep-dive

Claude Agent Skills: A First Principles Deep Dive

Keeping SKILL.md concise (under 5,000 words) prevents overwhelming Claude’s context window. Bundled resources let you provide detailed documentation, automation scripts, and templates without bloating the main prompt. Claude loads them only when needed using progressive disclosure. The scripts/ directory contains executable code that Claude runs via the Bash tool—automation scripts, data processors, validators, or code generators that perform deterministic operations.

reddit.com › r/claudeai › the busy person's intro to claude skills (a feature that might be bigger than mcp)

r/ClaudeAI on Reddit: The Busy Person's Intro to Claude Skills (a feature that might be bigger than MCP)

6 days ago -

Claude has a feature that 90% of users don't know exists. It's called Skills and here's what they do and how to build one in 5 minutes.

What are Skills?

Skills are instruction files that teach Claude how YOU work. Your code style. Your brand voice. Your processes.

Write them once. Claude loads them automatically. Forever.

Think of them as custom onboarding docs for AI.

The problem they solve

Without Skills:

Chat 1: "Write in active voice, no jargon..."
Chat 2: "Write in active voice, no jargon..."
Chat 3: "Write in active voice, no jargon..."

You repeat yourself. Claude forgets.

With Skills: You just say "write the email."

Building a Skill takes 5 minutes

Create folder: my-skill/
Add file: skill.md
Write two fields: name (what it does) and description (when to use it)
Add your instructions below

Done. Claude reads it automatically.

The brilliant part: progressive loading

Name + description: ~50 tokens (always loaded)
Full instructions: Only when triggered
Reference files: Only when needed

You can bundle entire codebases. Claude only reads what's relevant.

Real example I use daily

My "Linear issue manager" skill. 58 lines. References our internal docs, team structure, and project specs.

Now I just say "log that auth bug" and it creates the issue with correct labels, deeplinks to relevant docs, and assigns to the right team.

Why I said "bigger than MCP"

MCP connects Claude to data. Skills teach Claude what to DO with that data.

MCP without Skills = powerful but generic. Skills = Claude that works like your best employee.

They compound.

TL;DR

skill.md file in a folder
Name + description = trigger
Instructions = what Claude does
Progressive loading = no bloat
Works across sessions, forever

Your workflows, encoded once.

Both SKILL.md and CLAUDE.md are case sensitive. The key features of skills are that they are progressively disclosed. With SKILLS.md, Claude loads only the YAML front matter into the context window to let Claude know that a skill is available and when to invoke it. When invoked, the main SKILL.md file is loaded into context window. That SKILL.md file can have references to other files in a reference folder which are also loaded on as needed basis. You may have testing skill with a mocking API reference that is only need when…. You guessed it, mocking APIs. The SKILL.md should contain a link to the reference and indicate when to use those references. This allows you increase the amount of context available to your agent while only loading what is needed in your context window and any given time. If you were to put all of that information into your CLAUDE.md file it would be incredibly bloated. You would fill the context window more quickly, and but through API calls or limits more quickly. Now my primary CLAUDE.md has just project non-negotiables (maintain backwards compatibility whenever possible, certain important architectural decisions, more of a focus on what to never do) and then some reminders to use some skills. Claude sometimes forgets to invoke a skill so i have a section in Claude with some reminders, saying YOU MUST use “accessibility” skill designing and when testing UI components. Rules are new and also helpful for this. They are always loaded into the context window but they have a path string which accepts glob. so you could for example have a rule applied to JavaScript which specified to always use your JavaScript rule, which would force Claude to invoke skills more reliably.

Isn't this what claude.md is supposed to be. Gah I'm so lost

platform.claude.com › docs › en › agent-sdk › skills

Agent Skills in the SDK - Claude Docs

Agent Skills in Claude Code: Complete Skills guide with creation, examples, and troubleshooting