How to Use Claude Skills (Agent Skills) — Step by Step

What a Skill is

A Skill is a folder that contains a file called SKILL.md plus, optionally, other files such as templates, reference documents or small scripts. SKILL.md starts with a short header giving the skill a name and a description, followed by plain-language instructions.

Claude only reads the short name and description of each installed skill at first. When your request matches a skill’s description, Claude loads the full instructions and any files it needs. This keeps Claude fast while letting you install many skills.

Skills vs Projects vs custom instructions

• Custom instructions: your general preferences that apply to every chat (tone, language, length).
• Projects: a workspace with shared files and instructions for one ongoing piece of work.
• Skills: reusable “how to do this task” packages that Claude can pick up in any chat when the task comes up.

Turn Skills on in the Claude app

1. 1

   Open settings

   In Claude on the web or desktop, open Settings and look for the capabilities / features section where Skills are listed. (Availability depends on your plan and your organisation’s settings.)

2. 2

   Enable built-in skills

   Anthropic provides ready-made skills, for example for creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and PDFs. Switch on the ones you want.

3. 3

   Upload your own

   Custom skills are uploaded as a ZIP of the skill folder. After uploading, make sure the skill is toggled on.

4. 4

   Just ask

   You do not need a special command. Ask for the task normally; when it matches a skill’s description, Claude uses the skill and usually tells you it is doing so.

Create your first Skill

Start with a task you repeat often. Write the instructions exactly as you would for a new colleague. The description is the most important line: it tells Claude when to use the skill, so describe the situations clearly.

---
name: weekly-sales-report
description: Create the weekly sales report for our team. Use when the user uploads a sales CSV or asks for the weekly sales summary.
---

# Weekly sales report

1. Read the uploaded CSV. Columns: date, region, product, units, revenue.
2. Report total revenue and units for the week, and change vs the previous week.
3. Show a table of revenue by region, sorted high to low.
4. List the top 3 and bottom 3 products.
5. End with 3 short, plain-language insights. No jargon.
6. Use the heading format in template.md in this folder.

Using Skills in Claude Code

Claude Code (the command-line and editor coding assistant) also supports Skills. Personal skills live in a skills folder inside your Claude configuration directory in your home folder, and project skills can be committed inside the project’s .claude folder so your whole team shares them. Skills can also be installed as part of plugins.

In Claude Code, skills can include scripts that Claude runs — for example a script that validates a file or formats data — which makes results more consistent than instructions alone.

Tips for skills that work

• One skill, one job. Split big workflows into several focused skills.
• Write a specific description with the words users will actually say.
• Include a short example of good output inside the skill.
• Only install skills from sources you trust — a skill can include instructions and code that Claude will follow.
• Test with a few real requests and refine the instructions.