DIRECTORY / HELP
Frequently asked questions
What a Skill is, how to install one, and how to fix the common problems. Everything here is written by us — no scraped feeds.
The basics
- What is a Claude Skill?
- A Skill is a folder of instructions, and optionally scripts and resources, that Claude loads when a task matches it. At minimum it is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter for the name and description, plus the guidance you want Claude to follow. The model decides whether to use a Skill from that description, so the description matters as much as the instructions.
- How is a Skill different from a prompt or an MCP server?
- A saved prompt re-states your instructions every time. A Skill is discovered and loaded on demand, so it scales past the handful of prompts you would remember to paste. An MCP server exposes tools and data over a protocol and runs as its own process; a Skill is usually just files. They compose — a Skill can tell Claude when and how to call an MCP tool.
- Where can I use a Skill?
- Skills work in Claude Code, the Claude apps and the API, subject to the limits of each surface. Claude Code reads them from a skills directory in your project or home folder; the apps and API load them through their own packaging. Check the surface you use for where it expects the files.
Installing and using
- How do I install a Skill from this directory?
- Each skill page shows an install command you can copy. Most are published as plugin marketplaces, so the command adds the source repository and then installs the plugin. If the skill is a plain folder instead, copy it into the skills directory your Claude surface reads.
- How do I choose between similar skills?
- Compare the description, the source repository and the last update. A skill whose description states exactly when it should fire is easier for the model to route to than one with a broad claim. Popularity is a weak signal here: repositories are curated collections, so stars measure the collection rather than the individual skill.
- I installed a Skill but Claude is not using it.
- The usual cause is the description. Claude picks a Skill by matching your request against it, so a vague or overly broad description competes badly. Name the trigger conditions in the description, restart the session so the Skill is re-read, and confirm the file sits in the directory your surface actually loads.
About this directory
- What is skills.pub?
- A third-party directory. We index Skills published in public repositories and make them searchable by category, tag and source repository. We are not affiliated with Anthropic, and we do not author the Skills we index — every page links back to the original repository, which is the authoritative source.
- A Skill is missing, wrong, or out of date. What now?
- Skill pages are synced from their source repositories, so the fastest fix is usually upstream. If the repository content is correct and our page still disagrees, or the source is not indexed at all, tell us through the submit form and include the repository URL.Submit a skill or a correction
- How current is the content on a skill page?
- Each page shows when it was last updated, and the body is fetched from the source repository. A page that has not finished syncing says so and links to the source file, so you can always read the current version even when our copy lags.
Not answered here?
Tell us what you were trying to do and include the skill or repository URL.