Creating Claude Skills

Skills are reusable instruction sets that teach Claude how to perform specific tasks consistently and well. A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file and optional supporting resources. When triggered, Claude reads the SKILL.md and follows its instructions.

Think of a skill as programming Claude's behavior using precise natural language — where the LLM is the interpreter and the skill is the source code.

When to Create a Skill

Create a skill when:

• A task needs consistent, repeatable execution across many conversations
• The task involves specific tools, sequences, or output formats that Claude wouldn't know by default
• You've iterated on a workflow manually and want to capture what works
• The instructions are too detailed to repeat every time but too important to leave to chance

Don't create a skill when:

• A simple prompt gets the job done
• The task is a one-off
• The behavior is already built into Claude