Claude Skills are sets of instructions, examples and supporting files that teach Claude to complete one task the same way every time. Put simply, instead of explaining how the work has to be done on every occasion, you can use a Skill in which that process is already written down.
For example, a Skill can tell Claude how to:
- write documents to your company’s structure and brand guidelines;
- prepare presentations in a set design and content format;
- process data by the analysis method your company uses;
- prepare meeting minutes to one template;
- write commercial proposals to a set structure and set rules;
- do the other recurring tasks in your working process.
There is an important difference between ready-made Skills and Custom Skills. Anthropic and other trusted developers write the ready-made ones. They can help you write and edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF files, for example. With a Custom Skill you can teach Claude to follow your own company’s processes, templates, terms and working rules.
When you ask for a task, Claude can select the right enabled Skill on its own. A simple Custom Skill needs no code — clear instructions and a few examples of a good result can be enough.
How to add or create a Skill
You can find a Skill in the Claude Skills directory, upload it as a prepared ZIP file, or ask Claude to build one in a direct conversation.
- Open Claude and select Customize.
- Open the Skills section.
- Press + or Add.
- Choose how: Browse skills, upload your own ZIP file, or build a new Custom Skill in a conversation.
- Before you add the Skill, review its purpose, its instructions, its supporting files and the cases it is used in.
- Add the Skill you chose and make sure it is enabled.
- Start a new conversation and describe the task.
To build a Skill in a direct conversation, describe the recurring task, the working process you want and the format of the final result. You can also attach company templates, instructions or examples of a good result.
Help me create a Custom Skill for preparing meeting minutes. It should be used when I give you meeting notes or a transcript. The result should hold a short summary, the decisions made, the agreed actions, the people responsible and the deadlines. Do not invent missing information. First ask me questions about the process I use and ask for the examples you need. Then prepare all the Skill files and give them to me as a ZIP file ready to upload to Claude Skills.
When Claude has prepared the ZIP file, upload it through Customize → Skills → Add and enable it.
You manage the Skills you have added under Customize → Skills. There you can enable, disable, edit or remove them.
Which Custom Skills can you build?
Help me create a Custom Skill called “Company writing style”. It should be used when we draft or edit our website copy, articles, proposals and other communication. Analyse the examples of good writing I give you and identify their tone, their sentence structure, the terms they use most, and the phrasing to avoid. Before you build the Skill, ask what further information or examples you need. Prepare all the Skill files so that I can upload it to Claude Skills.
Upload examples of good writing, so that Claude writes new text in the same tone.
Help me create a Custom Skill called “Meeting minutes”. It should be used when I give you meeting notes or a transcript. The result must hold a summary of the meeting, the topics discussed, the decisions made, the agreed actions, the people responsible and the deadlines. Claude must not invent missing information, and must mark clearly anything that is unclear. First ask me for a few examples of good minutes and confirm the structure I want. Then prepare a Skill that is ready to upload.
Every time, meeting notes become minutes with the same structure.
Help me create a Custom Skill called “Writing commercial proposals”. It should be used when I give you a client enquiry, meeting notes or a scope of work. The Skill must prepare a proposal in the structure we use: the client’s situation, the proposed solution, the scope of work, the results, the timeline, the price, the assumptions and the next step. Missing information must not be invented — give me questions to clarify it first. Ask me to upload examples of earlier proposals, our template and our pricing rules. Build a Skill from them that is ready to upload.
The Skill holds your proposal structure, your standard terms and your pricing rules.
