Creating your first skill

To create a skill, first create a directory for it in your home directory, specifically within the 'skills' directory. This ensures it's a personal skill accessible across multiple projects, and allows Claude to identify and use it when needed.

The skill's name identifies it, while the description acts as the matching criterion, telling Claude when to use it. Instructions for Claude are specified after the second set of dashes. After creating the skill, restart your Claude session to load it, then test it by prompting Claude with a relevant request, like 'Write a PR description for my changes'.

Claude scans four locations for skills at startup: enterprise paths, personal skills, project skills, and installed plugins, loading only their names and descriptions initially. When you make a request, Claude compares it to these descriptions. If a match is found, it asks for confirmation before loading the full skill content and following its instructions.

In cases of overlapping skill names across different locations, Claude follows a priority list: enterprise (highest), personal, project, and then plugins (lowest). This allows organizations to enforce standards while enabling individual customization. To avoid conflicts, use descriptive skill names instead of generic ones. To update a skill, edit its '.md' file, and to remove one, delete its directory, always restarting Claude afterwards for changes to take effect.