There Are 3 Types of Claude Code Skills — Here's What Each One Does 🧩

If you've been watching tutorials about Claude Code skills, you've probably noticed that almost everyone talks about building custom skills. Which is great! But it left me confused for a while, because it felt like I was missing something. Turns out, there are actually 3 different types of skills — and understanding the difference made everything click for me. Let me break it down simply. 🔍 First, what even is a skill? A skill is a reusable set of instructions stored in a SKILL.md file that Claude loads when it's relevant. Think of it like a recipe card you hand to a very smart chef — the chef already knows how to cook, but they don't know your family's secret sauce. Skills are part of the Agent Skills system , which works across Claude Code, claude.ai, and other AI tools. Same format, different surfaces. Now, the 3 types: 1. Pre-built skills (Anthropic bundled) 🟣 These ship with Claude Code and claude.ai — no setup, no config, they just work behind the scenes. You've already been usin