Claude Code Skills: How to Set Them Up and Use Them

Reading time: 10 minutes | Difficulty: Beginner-friendly You’ve probably repeated the same instructions to Claude over and over: “Use our style guide,” “Always run tests before committing,” “Format the output like this.” Skills fix that. A skill is a small folder of instructions that teaches Claude how to handle specific tasks or workflows so you don’t have to re-explain every time. This guide walks you through what they are, how to set them up, and how to use them—based on the official Complete Guide to Building Skills for Claude . 📁 What Are Claude Skills? A skill is a folder that contains: SKILL.md (required) — Instructions in Markdown with YAML frontmatter that tell Claude when to use the skill and what to do. scripts/ (optional) — Executable code (Python, Bash, etc.) the skill can call. references/ (optional) — Extra docs Claude can open only when needed. assets/ (optional) — Templates, fonts, or images used in the workflow. Skills work well when you have repeatable workflows : tu