Skills shipping

A slash command with a brain.

A Skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file. The frontmatter declares its name and when it should trigger. The body is the prompt Claude follows when invoked. Optional helper scripts live alongside. You call it with /<name>.

Three sources.

Five minutes.

1. Create the folder: ~/.claude/skills/my-skill/
2. Write SKILL.md with frontmatter. Name, description, when to trigger.
3. Reference any helper scripts in the same folder.
4. Type /my-skill in any Claude Code session — Claude loads and runs it.

---
name: my-skill
description: One sentence describing what this skill does.
trigger: When the user mentions X or asks for Y.
---

You are doing X.

Steps:
1. Read the file …
2. Run …
3. Report back with …

Patterns that pay back.

• session-close — end-of-session checkpoint: deploy uncommitted work, run a security scan, mirror to backup, surface action items, update memory.
• review-diff — review the current branch's pending changes against a checklist (style, security, test coverage).
• news-fetch — pull RSS for a list of sources, dedupe, summarize, post to a static site.
• warranty-claim — given a vendor and product, draft the email, capture the case number, schedule the follow-up.
• onboard-tenant — given a new tenant, generate the welcome email, the lease PDF, and the move-in checklist.

Distribute, don't copy.

A plugin is a packaged bundle of Skills, MCP servers, and configuration. Install once; share across your team. Anthropic publishes a marketplace; you can publish to it (or to a private registry) when a Skill set is worth sharing.

Related products.

Every Anthropic surface has its own page on this guide.