Skills Overview

Understanding AI agent skills

Skills

Skills are reusable prompt templates that extend AI agent capabilities. They provide structured instructions for common tasks.

What is a Skill?

A skill is a markdown file (SKILL.md) containing:

  • Frontmatter with metadata
  • Instructions for the AI agent
  • Examples and guidelines

Where Skills Live

Skills are stored in .claude/skills/ directories:

| Location | Purpose | |----------|---------| | ./.claude/skills/ | Project-specific skills | | ~/.claude/skills/ | Global skills for all projects |

Skill Discovery

AI agents automatically detect and load skills from these directories. When you ask an agent to perform a task, it can invoke matching skills.

Built-in vs Custom Skills

Built-in Skills

Some AI agents come with built-in skills for common tasks:

  • Code generation
  • Git operations
  • File manipulation

Custom Skills

You can create custom skills for:

  • Team-specific workflows
  • Domain knowledge
  • Code style enforcement
  • Review checklists

Skill Examples

Common skill patterns include:

  • Code Review - Enforce coding standards
  • Commit Messages - Generate conventional commits
  • Documentation - Write consistent docs
  • Testing - Generate test cases
  • Refactoring - Apply specific patterns

Next Steps