Skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude loads dynamically to improve performance on specialized tasks. Think of them as expertise packages—they teach Claude how to complete specific tasks in a repeatable way.
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
You've already seen Skills at work if you've used Claude to create Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, or PDFs. Those file creation capabilities are powered by Skills running behind the scenes. But Skills go far beyond document creation. Custom Skills can codify entire repeatable workflows — a quarterly variance analysis methodology, a brand voice review process, or a compliance checklist — so Claude follows the same rigorous steps every time.
There are two categories of Skills you'll encounter:
Skills are available on all plans. To use Skills, you'll need to have Code execution and file creation enabled, since Skills require Claude's secure sandboxed computing environment to function.
Here's how to enable Skills:
For Enterprise plans, organization Owners must first enable both Code execution and Skills in Admin settings before individual members can access them.
For Team plans, this feature is enabled by default at the organization level.
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Once enabled, you'll see available Skills listed in your settings, including Anthropic's built-in Skills and any custom Skills you've uploaded.
The beauty of Skills is that you typically don't need to think about them—Claude handles skill selection automatically based on your request. Here are some examples of prompts that would invoke Skills:
When Claude uses a Skill, you'll see it mentioned in Claude's chain of thought as it works. The output will be a downloadable file you can save to your computer or directly to Google Drive.
Claude can work with your actual files (within a contained environment) to create updated versions of your files. Upload slides, spreadsheets, contracts, (or any .xlsx, .pptx, .docx, or .pdf files) and watch as Claude creates slides, performs analyses, and adds suggested edits. When Claude is done, you can download these files or open them in Drive.
Note: To use these capabilities you'll need to give Claude access to external data sources. Simply toggle Allow limited network access on when prompted.
Because Skills can include executable code, it's important to use them thoughtfully:
While Anthropic's built-in Skills cover common document creation tasks, the real power of Skills comes from creating your own. Custom Skills let you teach Claude your specific workflows, brand guidelines, and ways of working—so Claude can apply that knowledge automatically whenever it's relevant.
The easiest way to create a custom Skill is through conversation with Claude itself. You don't need to write code or manually create files—Claude handles the technical structure for you.
Here's how to create a Skill through conversation:
See your skills. Find the Customize tab in the left sidebar. There you can see all of the skills that are available to you and even edit the skills you use manually or by chatting with Claude.
Your custom Skill will appear in your Skills list alongside Anthropic's built-in Skills. From that point forward, Claude will automatically invoke it whenever you work on relevant tasks—no manual triggering needed. You can improve your skills with iteration — ask Claude to edit a skill and it will update the files for you.
You might be wondering—if both skills and projects can be used to give more context to Claude, when should I use each? Think of it this way: projects store knowledge, skills perform tasks.
Projects are knowledge hubs. They hold the reference materials Claude needs to understand your work—project specs, meeting notes, research documents. When you upload files to a project, Claude draws on that information across every conversation within that project.
Skills are procedural machines. They encode how Claude should execute a task—the specific steps, order of operations, and methodology you want followed every time. Skills shine when you have repeatable workflows you want Claude to run consistently.
The two features complement each other. A skill can reference knowledge stored in a project—your "customer call prep" skill might pull from customer profiles uploaded to a project's knowledge base. The project provides the what (information), the skill provides the how (process).
| | Projects | Skills | |---|----------|--------| | Purpose | Store knowledge Claude references | Define processes Claude executes | | Best for | Long-term context, reference materials, team collaboration | Repeatable workflows, multi-step tasks, consistent methodology | | Example | Customer hub, research buddy, feedback generator | Process guidelines (like brand or legal), Blog drafting, PDF creation | | Persistence | Knowledge available across all chats in the project | Instructions applied when the skill is invoked |
Before moving on, consider:
In the next set of lessons, you'll start to expand Claude's reach with connectors. These powerful tools make information gathering seamless, and can give Claude the ability to perform actions right inside the tools where your work is happening.