Skills
A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file in it. Claude loads the instructions when they are relevant, or you call it by name with a slash. It is how you stop explaining the same procedure every Tuesday.
I taught myself to catch flies once and wrote it down. Best decision I ever made.
Make your first skill
- Create the folder. Personal skills go in
~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/. Project skills, shared with everyone in the repo, go in.claude/skills/<skill-name>/. - Add a
SKILL.md. Frontmatter between---lines, then plain markdown instructions. - Use it. Type
/summarize-changes, or just ask “what did I change?” and let Claude pick it up from the description.
---
description: Summarizes uncommitted changes and flags risks. Use when the user asks what changed or wants a commit message.
---
Summarize the changes in `git diff HEAD` in two or three bullet points, then list any risks you notice.The frontmatter fields
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
description | What the skill does and when to use it. Recommended, because it is how Claude decides to load it. |
name | The command name. Defaults to the folder name. |
when_to_use | Extra trigger context |
disable-model-invocation | true means only you can run it; Claude will not load it on its own |
user-invocable | false hides it from the / menu |
allowed-tools | Tools it may use without prompting during that turn |
context | fork runs the skill in a subagent |
Every field is optional. Arguments you type after the command arrive as $ARGUMENTS.
Skill or CLAUDE.md?
CLAUDE.md is loaded into every session. A skill's body loads only when it is used, so a long reference costs almost nothing until needed. Standing facts go in CLAUDE.md. Repeatable procedures go in skills.
Claudhopper move: The third time you type the same paragraph of instructions, stop and make it a skill. The frog made one for catching flies. It is four lines.
Skills use the open Agent Skills format, which Anthropic donated to the Agentic AI Foundation in October 2026, so the same folder works in other tools that read it, including TurnPanel.
Source: the Claude Code documentation at code.claude.com/docs, read on November 11, 2026.