What Are Claude Code Skills?
A Claude Code skill is a portable set of instructions that teaches Claude Code how to handle a specific development task. Think of skills like recipes: they encode expert knowledge into a format Claude can follow consistently. Unlike plugins (which bundle multiple tools) or MCP servers (which provide external data), skills focus on a single capability and can be mixed and matched freely.
How Skills Work
Claude Code skills are Markdown files that contain structured instructions. When you install a skill, it becomes available as a set of instructions that Claude can reference during your coding session. Skills are stored locally in your project or globally on your machine.
Each skill defines a specific workflow — for example, a code review skill might include a checklist of things to verify, patterns to look for, and a format for delivering feedback. When you ask Claude to review your code, it follows the skill's instructions to produce consistent, high-quality results.
Skills are lightweight by design. Unlike plugins (which bundle multiple tools) or MCP servers (which require a running process), skills are simple text files that load instantly and can be version-controlled alongside your code.
Types of Skills
Skills span a wide range of development tasks. Here are the most common categories:
Code Quality & Review
Automated code review checklists, style enforcement, and best practice validation. These skills help maintain consistent code quality across your team.
Testing & QA
Generate unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests in any framework. Skills can encode your team's testing standards and coverage requirements.
DevOps & Infrastructure
Docker management, CI/CD pipeline configuration, and deployment automation. These skills bring infrastructure knowledge directly into your editor.
Documentation
Auto-generate API docs, README files, and inline comments. Documentation skills ensure your code is always well-documented.
Git & Version Control
Structured commit messages, branch management, and merge conflict resolution. These skills standardize your Git workflow.
Most Popular Skills
These are the top 5 most-used skills across the Claude Code community, ranked by installs and community votes.
Find Skills
The open agent skills tool - npx skills
by vercel-labs
Apple Reminders
Your own personal AI assistant. Any OS. Any Platform. The lobster way. 🦞
by steipete
Vercel Cli With Tokens
Vercel's official collection of agent skills
by vercel-labs
Fix
Use when you have lint errors, formatting issues, or before committing code to ensure it passes CI.
by facebook
Create Pr
Creates GitHub pull requests with properly formatted titles that pass the check-pr-title CI validation. Use when creating PRs, submitting changes for review, or when the user says /pr or asks to create a pull request.
by n8n-io
How to Install a Skill
Installing a skill is straightforward. Most skills can be added with a single command in your terminal:
claude skill add <skill-url> Skills can also be installed globally (available in all projects) or locally (scoped to a single project). Visit any skill's detail page on Claude Bazaar to find its specific install command.
Finding the Right Skill
With 542 skills available, finding the right one is easy. You can browse skills by category on our Explore Skills page, check the Top Skills rankings, or search by tag to find tools for specific technologies and workflows.
Skills are composable — you can install multiple skills that work together. For example, combine a code review skill with a testing skill and a Git commit skill to create a complete quality-assurance workflow.