Guide: Claude Skills

Claude Cowork · Feature primer

Overview

A skill is a packaged capability. It bundles instructions — and sometimes scripts or reference files — that teach Claude how to do a specific kind of work well. You don’t invoke a skill by name like a command. Claude reads a short description of every available skill on each request and loads the one that matches what you asked for.

That last point is the whole idea. You describe the outcome you want in plain language, and the right skill activates underneath without you naming it.

How a Skill Gets Triggered

Every installed skill carries a one-line description of when it applies — things like “use when creating Word documents” or “use when the user wants to forecast cash flow.” On each message, Claude scans those descriptions, matches them against your request, and loads the relevant skill’s full instructions only then.

This is why skills are efficient. The detailed instructions stay out of the way until the moment they’re useful, so Claude isn’t carrying every capability at once.

What this means for you: you don’t memorize skill names. You ask for the result — “turn this into a polished Word doc,” “build me a spreadsheet of these numbers” — and the matching skill does the heavy lifting.

Skills vs. Prompts

A prompt is a single instruction for one moment. When the chat ends, it’s gone, and you type it again next time.

A skill is the same expertise stored once and reused automatically. The difference shows up on the second, fifth, and fiftieth time you do a task:

• Prompt: “Here’s how I want my reports formatted…” — pasted into every new chat.
• Skill: the formatting rules live in a skill, and every report comes out right without the reminder.

When you find yourself explaining the same procedure to Claude repeatedly, that’s the signal a skill should hold it instead.

Where Skills Come From

• Built-in skills — Claude ships with skills for common document work (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) and other frequent tasks. These are always available; you don’t install anything.
• Plugin skills — installing a plugin adds its skills to the shelf. A sales plugin brings call-prep and account-research skills; an HR plugin brings onboarding and interview-prep skills. See the Plugins guide.
• Your own skills — you can write a skill for a procedure specific to your business and have Claude use it like any other.

Installing a Skill

Most skills arrive bundled inside a plugin, so installing the plugin is how you get them. Once a plugin is installed, its skills are on the shelf immediately — no extra step, no invoking by name. Open a new task, describe the work, and the skill triggers when it fits.

To confirm what you have, ask Claude directly: “Which skills do I have available for sales work?” It will list the ones whose descriptions match.

Writing Your Own Skill

A skill is, at its simplest, a folder with an instruction file that has two things: a description of when to use it, and the steps for how. The description is the most important part — it’s what Claude matches against, so it has to clearly name the situations the skill is for.

You don’t need to hand-write the folder structure. Claude can scaffold a skill for you: describe the recurring task, the trigger phrases, and the procedure, and ask it to build the skill. Then you install it like any other.

The discipline that makes a skill good is the same one behind every recipe in this library: get the durable know-how out of your head and into stored context, so it applies every time instead of depending on you remembering to explain it.

When to Reach for a Skill

• A task you do repeatedly and want done the same way every time.
• A procedure with steps that are easy to drop or get out of order.
• Specialized know-how — formatting rules, a review checklist, a company-specific process — that you’d otherwise re-explain.

If it only happens once, a prompt is enough. If it recurs, a skill earns its keep.