What is a Claude Skill?
A skill is a structured set of instructions that gives Claude specialized knowledge and capabilities for specific tasks. Think of skills as teaching Claude new abilities that it can use whenever relevant.
How Skills Work
Claude Skills are essentially markdown documents (SKILL.md files) that contain detailed instructions, examples, and guidelines for Claude to follow. When you add a skill to your Claude project, it becomes part of Claude's context and influences how it responds to related requests.
Key Concept
Skills don't give Claude new tools or API access. Instead, they provide structured knowledge and best practices that help Claude produce better, more consistent results for specific use cases.
What's Inside a Skill?
A typical SKILL.md file contains:
- Purpose - What the skill helps Claude do
- When to Use - Triggers that activate the skill
- Instructions - Step-by-step guidance for Claude
- Examples - Sample inputs and outputs
- Best Practices - Tips for optimal results
- Edge Cases - How to handle unusual situations
Benefits of Using Skills
Consistency
Get predictable, repeatable results for common tasks without re-explaining requirements each time.
Expertise
Leverage domain expertise encoded by others who've refined their prompts over time.
Efficiency
Skip the trial-and-error of prompt engineering and get great results immediately.
Shareability
Share your optimized workflows with teammates or the community.
Official vs Community Skills
Official Skills are created and maintained by Anthropic. They're thoroughly tested and represent best practices for common use cases like document creation, code generation, and more.
Community Skills are created by developers and power users who've found effective ways to use Claude for specific tasks. These may be more specialized or experimental.