How to Create Your First Claude Code Skill in 5 Minutes

Claude Code skills are the hottest thing in AI dev tools right now. One skills repo hit 2,245 stars in 6 days . But most developers don't know how to create their own. Here's how. What Is a Claude Code Skill? A skill is a reusable prompt/configuration that extends Claude Code. Think of it as a "macro" — you define it once, use it everywhere. Skills live in your project's .claude/ directory or globally in ~/.claude/ . Step 1: Create the Skill File mkdir -p .claude/skills touch .claude/skills/code-review.md Step 2: Write the Skill --- name : code-review description : Review code changes for bugs, security issues, and style --- Review the current git diff and provide: 1. **Bugs** — Logic errors, edge cases, null checks 2. **Security** — SQL injection, XSS, secrets in code 3. **Performance** — N+1 queries, unnecessary loops, memory leaks 4. **Style** — Naming, structure, readability 5. **Tests** — Missing test cases For each issue, show: - File and line number - What's wrong - How to fix i