Let me guess: you have a Google Doc filled with dozens of customized prompts to help you start your AI chats. But copying and pasting them into every new Claude thread gets repetitive fast—and time-consuming as your collection grows. Ditch the doc: Claude Skills lets you package your best instructions once, then activate them with a keyword or question whenever you need them.
Whether you're brand new to Skills or looking to level up your collection, this guide covers everything you need to know. I've been using Claude Skills since they launched, so I'll help you skip some trial and error with practical tips the official docs won't tell you.
Table of contents:
What are Claude Skills?
Claude Skills (also called Agent Skills) are modular, reusable bundles of instructions that teach Claude how to perform specific tasks consistently. These "procedural playbooks" help the model follow your company's writing guidelines, execute a multi-step workflow, or automate routine analyses. Easy to set up with English prompts, but versatile enough to support advanced scripting for structured actions, Skills help Claude stay on track and deliver consistent output across chat threads.
Skills are available in preview for Pro users and above across Claude Web, Desktop, API, and Claude Code. Skills sync automatically between Web and Desktop but must be uploaded separately to the API and Claude Code. Skills aren't currently available in the Claude mobile app.
Skills work with every Claude model that supports code execution: all models from version 3.5 upwards, across all series (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus).
What makes Claude Skills unique?
Composability and intelligent adaptability are what Claude Skills are all about. Once uploaded, Skills automatically activate based on your conversation's topic and intent—you don't manually select which capability to use. Multiple Skills can stack together in a single thread, supporting workflows that start in one domain of expertise and end in another.
Here's what that looks like in practice: You upload your Q3 sales CSV and ask for insights. Your data-analysis Skill kicks in automatically, processes the numbers, and surfaces key trends. In the same thread, you say "turn this into a deck for leadership"—now your presentation-builder Skill activates, following your company's slide template. No switching tools, no re-uploading the CSV, no copying findings between separate chats.
Compared with ChatGPT's GPTs—where you have to switch between separate customized chatbots for different workflows—Skills mesh into the natural flow of work. This makes them more seamless for daily use, removing context switching friction.
The simplicity is deceptive: Skills are packaged as folder structures that you can expand with additional files for contextual instructions or supporting scripts, making them easy to share, update, and refine over time.
When should you use Claude Skills?
Skills shine wherever there's repetition and a need for consistency. Here are the clearest signals that you should create a Skill:
Repetitive prompting. You find yourself writing out or pasting the same instructions to Claude over and over again. If you've used the same prompt or sequence three times, Skill it.
Consistent workflows. The inputs, process, and outputs follow the same pattern every time (e.g., analyzing voice of customer data → extracting sentiment → generating a report).
Established standards. You're encoding "how we do it here" knowledge like PR review rubrics, writing style guides, or analysis checklists.
Supporting materials. The task benefits from scripts, templates, reference documents, or specialized tools.
Skills aren't great for one-off conversations, highly exploratory work where the approach varies each time, or knowledge gathering and Q&A. For that last use case, Projects are better: they let you upload documents and chat about them.
What does a Skill look like in Claude?
A basic Claude Skill is composed of:
A header, with the name and description.
A body of instructions that sits right below the header, formatted in Markdown.
The main instructions live in the SKILL.md file, which needs to be placed in a folder with the same name. When you expand this skill, you can add more .md files with extra instructions (while referencing them in the main SKILL.md file), sub-folders for better organization, and even script files to help Claude execute code.
How to use Claude Skills
Here's the short version, but keep reading for more details:
Click your profile icon (bottom left).
Go to Settings > Capabilities.
Toggle on both Code execution and file creation and Skills.
Switch to the Example skills tab and activate skill-creator.
Start a new chat, and type: "Help me build a skill…" followed by your planning notes (input, desired transformation, output, and constraints).
Claude will call skill-creator and start building. Watch the thought trace—you can click on the SKILL.md file as it's being written to see the Skill take shape. This helps you understand Skill structure.
Once Claude finishes writing a Skill, you can install it by clicking the Copy to your skills button, available at the end of the chat thread.Â
Activate Claude Skills
To use Skills, you need to enable them first.
In Claude Web or Desktop:
Click your profile icon (bottom left).
Go to Settings > Capabilities.
Toggle on both Code execution and file creation and Skills.
Switch to the Example skills tab and activate skill-creator.
The skill-creator Skill lets you build and install new Skills directly through conversation with Claude—meta, but incredibly useful.
You'll also see other example Skills from Anthropic:
doc-coauthoring– follows a structured workflow for writing documentationinternal-comms– helps format internal communicationsslack-gif-creator– adds some creative chaos to team chats
Plan your Skill
Before building your first Skill, you need clarity on four things: what goes in, what Claude does with it, what comes out, and what rules it needs to follow. I've found the easiest way to get this clarity is answering these questions upfront—it takes two minutes and saves you from rebuilding later.
Quick planning checklist:
Input: CSV file? Pasted text? Uploaded documents?
Process: Summarize complaints? Brainstorm titles? Analyze data patterns?
Output: Slide deck? Chart analysis? Interactive Artifact? Formatted document?
Constraints: Required length, tone, or format? Brand guidelines? Template requirements?
Start narrow, then expand. Build a "Company Newsletter Builder" that handles one format well, not a "Company Content Mega-Skill" that tries to cover 25 content types. You can always add more and combine later.
Create a Skill
The easiest way to start is using Claude's skill-creator Skill. It gives you a working base that you can test immediately or refine further.
My recommended workflow:
Use skill-creator to generate the first version: you'll be chatting with Claude, and it'll create the Skill for you.
Test it and refine through conversation until the basic functionality works.
Download the Skill, make manual edits if needed, and re-upload.
If you're happy with the result, save a backup copy in case future edits don't pan out.
To create your first Skill:
Start a new chat, and type: "Help me build a skill…" followed by your planning notes (input, desired transformation, output, and constraints).
Claude will call skill-creator and start building. Watch the thought trace—you can click on the SKILL.md file as it's being written to see the Skill take shape. This helps you understand Skill structure.
Once Claude finishes writing a Skill, you can install it by clicking the Copy to your skills button, available at the end of the chat thread.Â
If you're the admin of your organization, you can make new Skills available to everyone on your team via the admin settings—ping people on Slack/email to let them know.
Test your Skill
Before you trust a Skill in real work, put it through its paces. Create a standard test scenario—the same input, same request, same expected output—and run it 2-3 times to check for consistency.
For example, if you built a newsletter Skill:
Test it with the same topic three times
Check if the tone, structure, and length stay consistent
Verify it follows your constraints (word count, required sections, etc.)
Watch the thought trace each time to see how Claude interprets the instructions. If results vary wildly, your Skill's instructions might be too vague or conflicting. Refine and test again until you get reliable output.
Save your test scenario: you'll use it again every time you update the Skill.
Use your Skill
After installing a Skill, Claude keeps its description always on in the background as you chat. Skills then activate automatically when a keyword or trigger phrase matches a description. The most reliable way to start one is to ask for it directly: "Use my newsletter builder Skill" or "Help me with my writing using the brand voice Skill."
What happens when a Skill runs: When Claude activates a Skill, it loads the entire SKILL.md file into its context window and follows those instructions to generate results. A few things to know:
Check the thought trace. Expand it to see exactly how Claude interprets and executes the Skill, so you understand what's happening under the hood.
How long until the task is complete? Simple Skills might take 30 seconds, while complex ones that generate files or Artifacts can take 5+ minutes. Claude may need multiple turns to complete all the actions.
Output depends on your Skill's instructions. Results could appear as a chat response, a downloadable document, or an interactive Artifact.
Chaining Skills together: You can run multiple Skills in sequence. For example: run a brand voice Skill to refine your writing, then use a presentation Skill to turn it into slides, then transform it into an interactive Artifact.
How to edit a Claude Skill
Need to upgrade your Skills? Here's how to refine them over time.
Download your Skill's .zip file from Settings > Capabilities. Sometimes, the downloaded file is in the .skill extension. Rename the file to .zip before proceeding to the next step.
Extract and open the SKILL.md file in any text editor.
Edit the instructions in any way you like. If you need inspiration, help with structure, or a quick text reformat, Claude can help with that.
Add a version number at the top of the body (e.g., from v1.0 to v1.1).
Save, re-zip the folder, and re-upload through Settings > Capabilities.
Remember that test scenario you created? Run it again after every edit. Testing with identical inputs shows you exactly how your changes affect Claude's behavior, making it easier to spot issues and fine-tune. Before deploying an updated Skill to your team, run your standard test at least twice to verify consistency.
If you notice your Skill exhausting usage limits quickly or slowing down conversations, the SKILL.md file might be too long. Move detailed instructions into separate .md files and reference them in the main SKILL.md—this is called progressive disclosure. Claude loads the main file every time but only reads supporting files when needed, keeping your Skill responsive without sacrificing capability.
Expand your library with Skills created by others
The Claude community is building and sharing Skills for all kinds of workflows. For example, Zapier built its own Claude Skills to help engineers automate code reviews, ticket workflows, and commit hygiene.Â
code-review: Continuous feedback on quality, security, and performance before PRs ever hit human reviewgit-commit: Clear, consistent Conventional Commit messages with Jira context baked inwork-on-ticket: Pulls ticket details, creates branches, and sets up work the way your team does it
Before installing a Skill you find on the web, take a moment to check if it's safe to use.
Open the Skill, and read the instructions.
Watch out for red flags, especially in any packaged scripts: unnecessary network calls, requests for credentials or authentication tokens, or hard-to-understand code sections.
When testing a new Skill, start on a fresh thread, use dummy data at first, watch the thought trace as Claude executes actions, and verify that the behavior matches the description.
My recommendation: only use other Skills if you trust the source/author. If you don't, use them as inspiration to build your own.
Organize your Claude Skills collection
As your library grows, organization stops being optional. Vague names like "content-tool" and generic descriptions turn Claude's artificial intelligence into artificial uncertainty.
Use clear, descriptive names that immediately convey purpose:
"newsletter-builder" not "content-tool"
"customer-complaint-analyzer" not "csv-processor"
"pitch-deck-creator" not "presentation-helper"
Specific names make it easier to ask for Skills directly and prevent Claude from triggering the wrong one.
Your Skill's description (in the header) determines when Claude activates it automatically. Make descriptions:
Specific about the use case: "Creates weekly company newsletters following brand guidelines" beats "Helps with writing"
Distinct from other Skills: If you have multiple content Skills, emphasize what makes each unique
Keyword-rich: Include terms you'll naturally use when you want this Skill
Tip: Disable Skills you're not actively using. Fewer active Skills means less ambiguity and faster, more accurate triggering.
How do Skills work with other Claude features?
When to use a Project, a Skill, or both
Projects give persistent context and memory across conversations: they're Claude's long-term memory. Use a project when you need Claude to remember consistent background knowledge that applies across multiple tasks.
Skills define approaches to tasks and creates outputs. Use a Skill when you want Claude to follow the same process repeatedly.
Use both together for maximum effectiveness:
The Project holds your context—documents, decisions, constraints, and background information
The Skill enforces your method—the process and output format Claude should follow
For example: a project might contain all your company's brand guidelines and past campaign materials, while a skill defines exactly how to structure marketing briefs based on those guidelines.
Skills and Artifacts
Skills work particularly well with Artifacts. When you want your Artifacts—whether presentations, documents, spreadsheets, or web apps—to follow specific standards, a Skill ensures consistency across each of them. Use a Skill to define visual styling and layout preferences, required sections or components, interactive features or functionality, and formatting standards.
Anthropic provides a web-artifacts-builder skill for creating HTML5 Artifacts. Activate it in your Skills library to see how skills shape Artifact creation.
Claude Skills via Claude API
Skills aren't limited to the web interface—you can use them via the Claude API to integrate repeatable workflows into your products and internal tools.
Upload your skill to your API account.
Reference the skill in your API calls using the skill-calling parameter.
Extract any generated files from the response.
This lets you build consistent, repeatable processes directly into your applications—from automated report generation to standardized document creation.
Learn more: Full documentation and examples are available here
Skills and Claude Code
Skills are particularly powerful in Claude Code, where they can standardize your development workflows. Here are some common use cases:
PR reviews based on your team's checklist
Commit messages formatted to your standards
Codebase guidance for architecture patterns, naming conventions, and testing requirements
Claude Code loads all your skills at startup and automatically activates the relevant ones based on what you're working on—no need to manually call them each time.
Learn more: Visit the Claude Code docs for setup instructions and examples
Skills and MCP servers
Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets Claude connect to external tools and services—think Slack, Google Drive, databases, or custom APIs. Skills can enhance how you work with these connections in two ways.
Anthropic provides a prebuilt skill for creating MCP servers, helping you build new integrations faster.
Skills help in orchestrating MCP workflows, too. You can pull data from one system, process it, then update another; define standardized workflows for common cross-platform tasks; and ensure consistent behavior when working with your connected tools.
Pair these Skills with Zapier MCP, and now Claude can actually run these processes across all your tools.
Level up with Claude Skills
Claude Skills turn repetitive prompting into reusable workflows. Start with something simple—a task you've done three times with the same instructions—and use skill-creator to build your first one. Test it thoroughly, refine it through conversation, and save it for next time.
As your collection grows, you'll find yourself spending less time explaining what you want and more time getting work done. That Google Doc full of prompts? You won't need it anymore. Dive deeper into Claude Skills with community resources and more in-depth guides via Volt Agent's Awesome Claude Skills page on GitHub.
And if you want to pull the power of Claude into all your workflows, use Zapier to connect Claude to thousands of other apps, or use Zapier MCP to take action directly from inside Claude. Learn more about how to automate Claude, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.
Generate an AI-analysis of Google Form responses and store in Google Sheets
Create LinkedIn posts with Claude and post to LinkedIn
Create AI-generated social media posts with Claude
Zapier is the most connected AI orchestration platform—integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated, AI-powered systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.
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