Getting Started with Claude Skills

Adding skills to your Claude workflow is simple. In just a few minutes, you can enhance Claude's capabilities for specific tasks.

Prerequisites

To use skills, you need:

A Claude Pro, Team, or Enterprise account (for Projects)
Access to Claude at claude.ai

Note

Skills work best with Claude Projects, which let you add persistent knowledge that applies across all conversations in that project.

Step 1: Find a Skill

Browse our skill directory to find skills that match your needs. You can:

Search by keyword using the search bar
Browse by category (Development, Document Creation, etc.)
Filter by official vs community skills

Step 2: View the Skill

Click on any skill to see its full details, including:

What the skill does
Who created it
Links to the SKILL.md file

Step 3: Copy the Skill

On the skill page, click "View SKILL.md" to open the full skill definition. Then:

Click the copy button or select all the content
Copy the entire SKILL.md content to your clipboard

Step 4: Add to Claude

In Claude:

Go to claude.ai and open or create a Project
Click on Project Knowledge in the sidebar
Click Add Content → Add text
Paste the skill content
Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Excel Creator Skill")
Click Save

That's It!

The skill is now active in your project. Start a new conversation and Claude will automatically use the skill when relevant to your requests.

Tips for Best Results

Use Specific Projects

Create dedicated projects for different types of work. Add only the relevant skills to each project to keep Claude focused and avoid context overload.

Combine Skills Thoughtfully

You can add multiple skills to a project, but be mindful of how they interact. Skills that complement each other (like "Frontend Design" + "Artifacts Builder") work great together.

Test Before Relying

After adding a skill, test it with a few typical requests to ensure it works as expected for your use case.

Check for Updates

Skills may be updated over time. Periodically check back to see if there are improved versions available.

Troubleshooting

Skill doesn't seem to be working

Make sure you're in the right project
Start a new conversation (skills apply to new chats)
Check that the skill was saved to Project Knowledge

Claude ignores the skill

Try explicitly mentioning what you want (e.g., "Create an Excel spreadsheet for...")
The skill may only activate for specific types of requests

Next Steps

Ready to start? Here are some popular skills to try: