What are Claude Code Skills?

Claude Code skills are reusable prompts and workflows that extend the capabilities of Claude Code, Anthropic's AI coding assistant. Think of them as templates that teach Claude how to perform specific tasks consistently.

How Skills Work

Skills are markdown files stored in your ~/.claude/skills directory. When you invoke a skill (using slash commands like /commit or /setup-eslint), Claude reads the skill file and follows its instructions.

Each skill typically includes:

• Name and description - What the skill does
• Tool permissions - Which tools (read, write, bash) the skill can use
• Instructions - Step-by-step guidance for Claude to follow
• Examples - Sample inputs and expected outputs

Example: The commit Skill

One of the most popular skills is commit, which helps create well-formatted git commits. When you run /commit, Claude will:

1. Run git status to see what changed
2. Analyze the diff to understand the changes
3. Generate a conventional commit message
4. Stage and commit the changes

Why Use a Skill Manager?

While you can manually create and manage skill files, a skill manager like claudeskill.io provides several benefits:

• Sync across devices - Keep your skills consistent on all your machines
• Team sharing - Share skills with colleagues for consistent workflows
• Version control - Track changes and rollback when needed
• Discovery - Browse and install community-created skills
• One-command install - Get started with npx @claudeskill/cli init

Getting Started

Ready to start using skills? Here's how to get set up: