How to Add Skills to Claude Code: Install, Use and Manage Them

You add skills to Claude Code by placing a skill folder in a skills directory. Use ~/.claude/skills/ for every project or .claude/skills/ for one repository. Plugin skills arrive through /plugin install, and skills on your Claude account sync in when you sign in. Each step below follows Anthropic's Claude Code docs, checked on 2026-10-21.

Which skills earn a place in that folder is a separate question. Our hub lists the best Claude Code skills, ranked by verdict, with each safety grade beside the score.

How do you add skills to Claude Code?

You add skills to Claude Code by placing a skill folder in a skills directory. Use ~/.claude/skills/ for every project or .claude/skills/ for one repository. Plugin skills install with /plugin install instead.

Pick the route that matches where the skill comes from:

The folder route is the simplest. It needs no plugin, no marketplace and no network call. The plugin route suits skills that ship with hooks, agents or MCP servers. A plugin installs them together and updates them as one unit. The GitHub route depends on the repository's layout. A repository with a marketplace file works with /plugin, and a plain folder of skills works with a copy.

~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md      # personal: every project on this machine
.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md        # project: this repository only
/skills                               # check: lists every skill the session loaded

Add a skill folder (personal or project)

1. Create ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/ for personal use, or .claude/skills/<skill-name>/ inside a repository.
2. Save the skill's SKILL.md file in that folder, with any supporting files beside it.
3. Ask a question that matches the description, or type /<skill-name>¹.

Claude Code watches these directories, so a new skill appears without a restart¹. A skill folder can be a symlink to a directory elsewhere on disk¹. On Windows, the personal folder sits at C:/Users/<user>/.claude/skills.

Install skills from a plugin marketplace

A plugin is a package that bundles skills with other Claude Code extensions. /plugin install <plugin>@<marketplace> opens the plugin's details, so you review it and pick a scope². Claude Code adds Anthropic's official marketplace, claude-plugins-official, on your first interactive terminal session².

/plugin install skill-creator@claude-plugins-official        # inside a session
claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace> --scope project   # from your shell

The shell form installs at user scope by default. Pass --scope project or --scope local to change it². User scope covers every project on this machine. Project scope covers everyone in the repository, and local scope covers only you there². Plugin skills run under a namespace, as /plugin-name:skill-name¹. The namespace keeps two plugins with a review skill from clashing. Open /plugin and its Installed tab to see what each plugin added².

Install a skill from GitHub, and check it first

A GitHub repository that is a marketplace adds with /plugin marketplace add owner/repo². Append #ref to pin a branch or tag². Its plugins then install with /plugin install.

A repository that holds only skill folders takes two steps. Clone it, then copy or symlink the skill folder into a skills directory. That route follows from Anthropic's location and symlink rules¹.

git clone https://github.com/owner/repo.git ~/src/repo
ln -s ~/src/repo/skills/my-skill ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

The community Skills CLI, npx skills add <owner/repo>, appears on chrislema.com and welcomedeveloper.com. Anthropic's Claude Code docs do not document it (checked 2026-10-21).

Read a repository skill before you enable it. Anthropic's Help Center says to review a skill before enabling it, and to treat it like installing software³. Project skills keep their allowed-tools grants even when claude -p runs in an untrusted folder¹. Our checklist shows how to check a skill before you install it. Community scanners such as the Bitdefender AI Skills Checker and NVIDIA SkillSpector exist; we have not reviewed them.

What are skills in Claude Code?

Skills in Claude Code are folders with a SKILL.md file that Claude loads when a request matches the description. You can run one directly with /skill-name. Claude Code follows the Agent Skills open standard.

Custom commands merged into skills. A file at .claude/commands/deploy.md and a skill at .claude/skills/deploy/SKILL.md both create /deploy¹. Skills add supporting files, invocation control and automatic loading on top. Anthropic's Academy lesson separates the three tools by job. CLAUDE.md holds standing project context, while skills hold task instructions that load on demand⁴.

A skill folder holds one required file and any helpers. SKILL.md carries YAML frontmatter at the top and Markdown instructions below it. Supporting files sit beside it: scripts, reference notes, templates or examples. Claude reads those helpers only when the instructions point to them. That design keeps a large skill cheap until the moment it runs.

Claude Code ships bundled skills, such as /doctor, /code-review and /batch¹. Others include /debug, /loop and /claude-api. Our explainer covers how Claude decides which skill to load. Claude Code skills follow the Agent Skills open standard. Claude Code extends it with invocation control and dynamic context injection¹.

Do skills work in Claude Code?

Yes, with no setup. Bare mode (--bare) skips skill auto-discovery, except skills in an --add-dir folder⁵. Skills synced from claude.ai need a /login sign-in with your Claude account¹.

Where are Claude Code skills stored?

Claude Code skills are stored in ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use and .claude/skills/ for one repository. Enterprise, nested, plugin and claude.ai-synced locations add more skills. On a name clash, enterprise beats personal, and personal beats project.

Anthropic's docs list seven locations¹:

Personal and project folders are the two you create by hand. Nested folders help in a monorepo, where each package keeps its own skills. Plugin and enterprise folders arrive through installs and administrators, not by hand.

Claude Code reserves the folder names synced and anthropic-skills¹. Its docs list no .agents/skills/ location (checked 2026-10-21).

Personal vs project vs nested skills

Personal skills are the global option. They load in every project on one machine¹. Project skills load from .claude/skills/ in the start directory and every parent up to the repository root¹. Nested skills load once Claude reads or edits a file in that subdirectory¹. Running /add-dir with the subdirectory's path loads them sooner, on v2.1.257 or later¹.

Which skill wins when two share a name?

Anthropic's precedence table settles each clash¹:

How do you invoke a skill in Claude Code?

You invoke a skill in Claude Code by typing /skill-name at the start of a message. Claude invokes skills automatically when a request matches the description. Setting disable-model-invocation: true leaves the call to you.

Arguments reach the skill through the $ARGUMENTS placeholder, so /fix-issue 123 passes 123 in¹. You stack skills at the start of one terminal message, up to six⁶. A claude -p run loads only the first stacked skill¹. Automatic loading depends on the description, and our page on how skill matching works explains the match.

Control who can invoke a skill

Skill permissions in Claude Code

Denying the Skill tool in /permissions disables all skills¹. Skill(name) matches one skill exactly. Skill(name *) matches a prefix with any arguments¹.

# Allow only specific skills
Skill(commit)
Skill(review-pr *)

# Deny specific skills
Skill(deploy *)

The allowed-tools frontmatter field pre-approves its tools for the invoking turn only. The grant clears when you send your next message¹.

How do you list and manage skills with /skills in Claude Code?

The /skills command lists every skill in your Claude Code session and filters by name, description or source. Press t to sort by token count. Press Space to cycle visibility and Esc to save.

Three kinds of skill don't cycle. These are plugin skills, skills with disable-model-invocation: true and skills under a managed skillOverrides entry⁶. Skills synced from claude.ai appear in a claude.ai sync group³.

The menu saves your choices to .claude/settings.local.json under skillOverrides. Each skill takes one of four states: on, name-only, user-invocable-only or off¹. /skill-doctor reports each skill's context cost and usage, on v2.1.252 or later¹⁶. Use it to spot skills that cost context and never run.

How do you check that a skill loaded?

1. Run /skills and look for the name.
2. Ask Claude "What skills are available?".
3. Invoke it directly with /skill-name¹.

A skill absent from both lists did not load. Frontmatter YAML that fails to parse still loads the skill, with no fields set¹.

Turn a skill off or remove it

Update skills

1. Run claude plugin update <plugin>@<marketplace> for a plugin skill².
2. Leave auto-update on for claude-plugins-official, where it is the default².
3. Start a new session, or run /reload-plugins, to load the updated plugin².
4. Replace the files of a folder skill; live detection picks up the edit¹.

How do you use Claude skills in Claude Code?

You use Claude skills in Claude Code by signing in with the same claude.ai account. Enabled account skills sync into ~/.claude/skills/synced/ on v2.1.273 or later. Anthropic's pdf and xlsx skills always sync.

Claude skills here means the skills you enable on claude.ai, in the Claude app. Those include Anthropic's own document skills and any custom skill you upload there. Claude Code downloads them, so your account's skills reach the terminal too.

Claude Code checks for changes about every 10 minutes while active and every 40 minutes while idle¹. Set CLAUDE_CODE_SYNC_SKILLS=1 to make a -p run wait for synced skills¹.

Sync stays off in these conditions¹:

• Sign-in with an API key or ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN instead of your Claude account.
• Amazon Bedrock as the provider.
• CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC set in the environment.
• Bare mode or safe mode.

Sync runs one way: Claude Code downloads account skills and never uploads them¹. Edits under synced/ vanish at the next sync, so change the skill on claude.ai. A synced skill runs as /anthropic-skills:<name> when a local skill holds its short name¹. Setting syncClaudeAiSkills to false stops syncing¹.

Anthropic's sources disagree on two points. The Help Center's "What are skills?" says custom skills do not sync across surfaces⁷. It says Anthropic's pre-built document skills are unavailable in Claude Code⁷. The Claude Code docs describe account sync, and they say pdf and xlsx always sync¹. We follow the Claude Code docs here, as the more specific source. The app side has its own guide to turn skills on in the Claude app.

How do you create custom skills for Claude Code?

You create custom skills for Claude Code in three steps. Make a folder such as ~/.claude/skills/summarize-changes, then save a SKILL.md with a description and instructions. Test it with a matching question or /summarize-changes.

1. Create the folder with mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/summarize-changes.
2. Save a SKILL.md with a description and a !`git diff HEAD` line that injects the live diff.
3. Test it with "What did I change?" or /summarize-changes¹.

---
description: Summarizes uncommitted changes and flags anything risky. Use when the user asks what changed, wants a commit message, or asks to review their diff.
---

## Current changes

!`git diff HEAD`

## Instructions

Summarize the changes above in two or three bullet points, then list any risks you notice.

Claude Code treats every frontmatter field as optional and recommends description¹. The Agent Skills specification makes name and description required. Set both, and the skill stays portable to other agents.

Anthropic's skill-creator plugin drafts skills and runs evals against them. It installs with /plugin install skill-creator@claude-plugins-official¹. Our verdict on it reads:

The full Skill Creator review explains the Conditional label. Our tutorial shows how to create an Agent Skill end to end. The field reference lists every SKILL.md frontmatter field.

How do you reload skills in Claude Code?

You reload skills in Claude Code without a restart: edits under ~/.claude/skills/ or .claude/skills/ apply at once. Run /reload-skills only when you create a top-level skills directory after the session starts.

Live change detection covers SKILL.md text only¹. Plugin hooks, .mcp.json and agents need /reload-plugins¹. Live reload is off in bare mode¹. To test an edit, change the description, save the file and ask a matching question in the same session.

Anthropic's troubleshooting list gives five checks for a skill that does not run¹:

1. Check that the description holds words users say.
2. Ask "What skills are available?" and look for the skill.
3. Invoke it directly with /skill-name.
4. Run claude plugin validate ~/.claude/skills to find broken frontmatter, on v2.1.233 or later.
5. Look in ~/.claude/skills/.trash/ for personal skills that disappeared.

Descriptions get cut short when many skills compete for the listing. The listing budget scales at 1% of the context window¹. Each entry caps at 1,536 characters¹. A typed /name that matches no skill returns an unknown command message⁸. Deeper fixes sit in our guide to fix a Claude Code skill that won't trigger.

Skills now load, list and run. Which skills deserve a place in that folder?

Where can you download Claude Code skills?

You can download Claude Code skills from GitHub repositories, plugin marketplaces such as claude-plugins-official, and community registries. Check the verdict first: some skills are verified in Claude Code, while others only claim support.

GitHub collections such as alirezarezvani/claude-skills and ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills also list Claude Code skills. We have not reviewed those collections as a whole.

These five score highest among the skills we have reviewed that are verified in Claude Code. Each was reviewed on 2026-09-30.

The verdict label and score sum up the review. Confidence says how much dated public evidence backed that score. Animate scores 77 with Low confidence, so its score rests on thinner evidence than its neighbours. The safety grade comes from our review of the skill's files at the reviewed commit. Verified in names the agent and, where known, the model that public evidence showed it running on.

Plugin or bundle rows install with /plugin, and single-skill rows install as a folder. The full ranking covers every Claude Code skill we've reviewed.

Our methodology page explains what verified means in our verdicts.

How do you use skills in Claude Code desktop?

You use skills in the Claude Code desktop app through the / menu or + > Slash commands. Local sessions load ~/.claude/skills/ from your machine. SSH sessions read that folder on the remote host.

Cloud sessions load account skills and committed project skills, and they skip ~/.claude/skills/¹⁹. Plugins install from the + button's plugin menu².

Skills in the terminal and headless mode (claude -p)

• Put /skill-name in the -p prompt string to run a skill⁵.
• Expect only the first stacked skill to load in -p¹.
• Use claude plugin shell commands, because /plugin does not run in -p².
• Pass --bare to skip skill discovery, except --add-dir skills⁵.

Skills in VS Code

The terminal, the desktop app and the VS Code extension share user-scope plugins².

How do you share Claude Code skills with your team?

You share Claude Code skills with your team by committing .claude/skills/ to the repository. Plugins carry skills further, and managed settings reach every machine in an organisation. Each scope widens the audience.

Pick the narrowest scope that reaches the people who need the skill. A committed folder suits one team on one codebase. A plugin suits skills that several repositories reuse, since one update reaches every install. Managed settings suit rules an organisation enforces on every machine.

Project-scope plugins go into .claude/settings.json. Each collaborator still runs claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace> --scope project once². Cloud sessions load committed project skills but skip user-only plugins¹.

Where is the official Claude Code skills documentation?

The official Claude Code skills documentation is Anthropic's Extend Claude with skills page at code.claude.com/docs/en/skills. It covers creation, locations, frontmatter, invocation, permissions, sharing and troubleshooting. It does not rate third-party skills.

• Skills page: Extend Claude with skills covers locations, sync, frontmatter, invocation, permissions and sharing.
• Plugins page: Discover and install plugins covers /plugin install, scopes, marketplaces and updates.
• Commands reference: Commands covers /skills, /reload-skills, /skill-doctor and /plugin.
• Desktop page: Desktop covers the / menu, plus local, SSH and cloud loading.
• Headless page: Headless mode covers bare mode and skills in -p.
• Errors page: Errors covers unknown command messages.
• Academy lesson: Claude Code 101: Skills is Anthropic's short video lesson.
• Authoring guide: The Complete Guide to Building Skills for Claude is Anthropic's PDF on building skills.

Anthropic's docs explain the mechanics. Our verdicts judge the skills themselves, with a score and a safety grade for each.

Common questions

Does Claude Code have a skills library?

Yes. Bundled skills ship with Claude Code, and the official claude-plugins-official marketplace is added automatically¹².

Can Claude skills be global?

Yes. A skill in ~/.claude/skills/ loads in all your projects, but not in Cowork or cloud sessions¹.

There is no skills folder: where do I create it?

Create it with mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/<name>. A running session needs /reload-skills once to see the new directory¹⁶.

Does Claude Code read .agents/skills/?

No. Anthropic's Claude Code docs list no such location (checked 2026-10-21).

Can you use several skills at once?

Yes. Stack up to six at the start of a terminal message, while -p loads only the first¹⁶.

Can you install a skill from a ZIP?

No. Anthropic documents no ZIP import for skill folders, so unzip the folder into a skills directory. Marketplace sources do accept a zip archive with a sha256 checksum¹⁰.

Do skills hot-reload?

Yes. SKILL.md edits apply in the running session, except in bare mode¹.

Are skills the same as slash commands?

Yes, for custom commands: they merged into skills, and both create /name¹.

1. Claude Code docs, "Extend Claude with skills", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/skills (accessed 2026-10-21).
2. Claude Code docs, "Discover and install plugins", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/discover-plugins (accessed 2026-10-21).
3. Claude Help Center, "Use skills in Claude", https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512180-use-skills-in-claude (accessed 2026-10-21).
4. Anthropic Academy, "Claude Code 101: Skills", https://academy.claude.com/courses/claude-code-101/skills (accessed 2026-10-21).
5. Claude Code docs, "Headless mode", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/headless (accessed 2026-10-21).
6. Claude Code docs, "Commands", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/commands (accessed 2026-10-21).
7. Claude Help Center, "What are skills?", https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12512176-what-are-skills (accessed 2026-10-21).
8. Claude Code docs, "Errors", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/errors (accessed 2026-10-21).
9. Claude Code docs, "Desktop", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/desktop (accessed 2026-10-21).
10. Claude Code docs, "Plugin marketplace reference", https://code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins/marketplace-reference (accessed 2026-10-21).