What Are Claude Skills?
Claude Skills are reusable instructions that extend Claude's capabilities for specific tasks. They work with Claude Code to help Claude understand your workflows, coding standards, and preferences.
Key Concepts
Specialized Knowledge
Skills contain expert instructions for specific domains like React development, API design, or code review. They make Claude an expert in that area.
Coding Standards
Skills can encode your team's coding conventions, patterns, and best practices. Claude will follow these standards automatically.
Reusable & Shareable
Skills are stored as markdown files and can be shared via GitHub. Install once, use across all your projects.
Easy Installation
Install any skill with a single command. Skills are managed locally and automatically applied when relevant.
How Claude Skills Work
When you install a skill, it becomes part of Claude's context. The skill's instructions are automatically included when you chat with Claude through Claude Code, helping Claude understand:
- What patterns and conventions to follow
- How to approach specific types of tasks
- What tools and frameworks you use
- Your preferences for code style and organization
Think of skills as giving Claude specialized training for your specific needs. Instead of explaining your preferences every time, the skill handles it automatically.
How to Install a Skill
- 1
Find a skill
Browse the Skillforthat directory to find a skill that matches your needs. Click 'Get Skill' to download it or visit the GitHub repository.
- 2
Choose your location
For Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/ (personal) or .claude/skills/ (project). For OpenAI Codex CLI: ~/.codex/skills/. Both use the same SKILL.md format.
- 3
Copy the skill folder
Clone or download the skill's GitHub repository and copy the skill folder to your chosen directory.
- 4
Start using it
The AI automatically discovers and loads skills from these locations. No additional commands needed.
~/.claude/skills/ # Personal skills (Claude Code)
.claude/skills/ # Project skills (Claude Code)
~/.codex/skills/ # OpenAI Codex CLI
Common Use Cases
Framework Expertise
Install skills for React, Next.js, Vue, or other frameworks to get expert-level assistance with best practices and patterns.
Team Standards
Create skills that encode your team's coding conventions so everyone gets consistent suggestions from Claude.
Specialized Tasks
Skills for code review, documentation, testing, DevOps, and more give Claude focused expertise for specific tasks.
Ready to Get Started?
Browse our directory of 490+ free Claude skills and find the perfect ones for your workflow.