Skills

Install skills in Claude Code

Claude Code looks for skills in .claude/skills/ in a project, and in ~/.claude/skills/ for all your projects.

Where Claude Code looks for skills

This project

  • .claude/skills/

All projects

  • ~/.claude/skills/

Source: code.claude.com (opens in a new tab), checked 26 Oct 2026.

Install a skill

  1. Copy the skill's folder, with its SKILL.md at the top, into .claude/skills/ in your project, or into ~/.claude/skills/ for all your projects.
  2. Keep the folder named exactly as the name field in its SKILL.md, as the Agent Skills spec asks.
  3. Or use the Claude Code tab on any skill's page here: its commands copy that skill at the commit we checked.

What it honours

Frontmatter fields Claude Code reads beyond the six in the Agent Skills spec.

  • when_to_use
  • argument-hint
  • arguments
  • disable-model-invocation
  • user-invocable
  • disallowed-tools
  • model
  • effort
  • context
  • agent
  • background
  • hooks
  • paths
  • shell

Watch out for

  • A personal skill in ~/.claude/skills wins over a project skill with the same name.
  • New and edited skills load in the running session; if the skills folder did not exist when the session started, run /reload-skills.
  • Its docs list only .claude/skills folders, not the shared .agents/skills folder other agents read.
  • Cowork and cloud sessions do not read ~/.claude/skills; they load the skills enabled on your claude.ai account.

Where every other agent looks for skills