Claude Skills Explained: What They Are and How to Make Your First One

Every time you explain the same process to Claude ("use this report format", "write in this tone", "check these five things"), you are doing work a skill can do for you. A skill is a small folder that teaches Claude a workflow once, so it applies it whenever the task comes up.

I use skills daily in Claude Code, for example one that tells Claude how to write and check blog posts for this site. This guide explains skills in plain English and walks you through making your first one.

What a Claude skill is

A skill is a folder with a file called SKILL.md. That file has:

1. A short header with a name and a description: what the skill does and when to use it.
2. Instructions in plain Markdown: the steps, rules and examples.

A skill can also hold extra files, such as templates, reference notes or scripts.

The clever part: Claude always sees the description, but loads the full instructions only when your request matches it. So you can have many skills without slowing every chat down.

Anthropic's own built-in skills include creating Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDFs.

Turn on Skills in the Claude app

According to Anthropic's help page, Skills are available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans:

1. Free, Pro or Max: go to Settings > Capabilities and make sure code execution and file creation is on.
2. Go to Customize > Skills and switch individual skills on or off.
3. Team or Enterprise: an admin enables Skills in organisation settings first.

Write your first skill

Example: a skill that turns rough notes into a client update in your format.

Create a folder called client-update, and inside it a file SKILL.md:

---
name: client-update
description: Turns rough notes into a weekly client update email in my format. Use when I ask for a client update, a weekly report email, or paste notes about a client's campaign.
---

# Weekly client update

## Format
1. Subject line: "[Client] weekly update, [date]"
2. Three-line summary: what happened, what it means, what is next.
3. "Numbers" section: only numbers that appear in my notes. Never invent or estimate.
4. "Next week" section: three bullet points at most.
5. Sign off with my name.

## Rules
- Plain English, short sentences, no jargon.
- If a number in my notes looks wrong or is missing, ask me instead of guessing.
- Do not promise results.

Write the description carefully. It decides when the skill is used. Say what it does and the words a request would contain.

Upload it to Claude

1. ZIP the client-update folder.
2. In Claude, go to Customize > Skills.
3. Click +, then + Create skill, then Upload a skill.
4. Choose the ZIP file. The skill appears in your list, switched on.

Now paste some notes and say "make the weekly update for this client". Claude picks up the skill on its own.

If the upload fails, check that the folder name matches the skill name, that SKILL.md exists and that the name and description have no unusual characters.

Use the same skill in Claude Code

In Claude Code a skill is the same folder, saved in one of two places (Claude Code docs):

Claude Code uses it automatically when a request matches, or you run it yourself by typing / and the skill name, such as /client-update.

Good first skills to make

• Brand voice: your tone, words you use and words you never use.
• Report format: the structure of your weekly or monthly report.
• Content checklist: checks before publishing, such as "every number has a source".
• Meeting notes: notes into summary, tasks and open questions.
• Ad copy rules: hooks, length and claims to avoid. Pairs well with Meta ads using Claude.

Tips from using skills daily

• One skill, one job. Small, focused skills trigger more reliably than one giant skill.
• Show examples of good output inside the skill.
• Write rules as do and don't, not long paragraphs.
• Install only skills you trust, and read them first. Skills can include scripts.
• Improve it every time it gets something wrong. Add the fix as a rule.

New to Claude? Start with how to use Claude AI, then come back here.