Your best rep has a way of prepping for a call that the other nine do not. Your best marketer has a repurposing routine that lives entirely in their head. A skill is how you get that out of one person's head and into a file that the whole team, and Claude, runs the same way.
That is the whole idea: expertise you can package once and reuse forever, instead of a great prompt someone wrote and nobody else can find.
A skill is a repeatable procedure in a file
A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md at its center. The file has a short bit of frontmatter (a name and a description), then the instructions: the steps, the rules, the shape of the output. It can bundle extra files too, a template, a script, an example. That is the entire object.
The point of putting it in a file is that a file is reusable, shareable, and versioned. A brilliant prompt typed into a chat is gone the moment the tab closes. A skill is the same brilliance made durable.
How Claude loads a skill
Claude does not hold every skill in mind at once. It reads the short description of each, and when a task matches, it pulls in that skill's full instructions and follows them. This on-demand loading is why you can have many skills without drowning the model in irrelevant text.
It also explains why the description is the most important line you write. If the description does not clearly say what the skill does and when to use it, Claude will not reach for it at the right moment, and the best procedure in the world sits unused.
Skill vs prompt vs project
These three get muddled, and the distinction is practical. A prompt is a single ask you make once. A project is a persistent workspace that holds context for a whole body of work. A skill sits between them: a repeatable procedure for one task that travels wherever you invoke it.
Rule of thumb: if you are going to do the task once, write a prompt. If you will do it the same way again and again, make it a skill. If you need a place where a stream of related work shares context, use a project.
- A one-off ask, just this once Prompt
- The same task, done the same way every time Skill
- Persistent context for a whole body of work Project
What goes in a good skill
A strong skill reads like a sharp operator handing off a procedure. A description that nails what it does and when to use it. A tight set of instructions that includes the hard rules, the ones that keep the output trustworthy, not just the happy path. The exact output shape. And, where it helps, one worked example so Claude can pattern-match.
The failure mode is a skill that is really just a long prompt with no rules. Encode the judgment, what to refuse, what to double-check, what never to invent, and the skill starts producing work you can trust without re-reading every line.
Where skills run
In Claude Code, a skill lives in a skills directory (for a project, that is a folder like .claude/skills/your-skill/SKILL.md) and Claude loads it when relevant. In the Claude apps, the skills feature lets you do the same from the interface. Because it is just a file, a skill is easy to share: commit it to a repo and the whole team is running the identical procedure.
That portability is the quiet superpower. The skill you refine on Monday is the skill every rep uses on Tuesday.
Skills are how a GTM team scales its plays
This is where it pays off for go-to-market. The plays that separate your best people from the rest, the pre-call brief, the honest battlecard, the discovery questions tailored to the buyer, are exactly the kind of repeatable procedure a skill captures. Turn each into a skill and the whole team runs the good version, consistently, at volume.
The skills on this site are that pattern made concrete. Each one is a play you can drop into your own setup and run today.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Claude Skill?
A folder, a SKILL.md file plus optional supporting files, that teaches Claude how to do one task well. Claude loads it on demand when the task comes up and follows the procedure, so you get the same quality every time instead of re-explaining the job.
What is the difference between a skill and a prompt?
A prompt is a one-off ask you make once. A skill is a reusable procedure in a file: the steps, the rules, and the output shape for a task you do repeatedly. If you will do it the same way again, make it a skill so it is consistent and shareable.
Where do skills live and how do I add one?
In Claude Code, a project skill lives in a folder like .claude/skills/your-skill/SKILL.md and loads when relevant. In the Claude apps, the skills feature lets you add them from the interface. Since it is just a file, you can commit it to a repo and share it with the team.
Do skills work in the Claude app or only in Claude Code?
Both, where the feature is supported. The same SKILL.md can be used in Claude Code and in the Claude apps. Writing it once and using it across surfaces is a big part of the value.
What makes a good skill?
A description that clearly says what it does and when to use it (that is how Claude decides to load it), tight instructions that include the hard rules, an explicit output shape, and one worked example. Encode the judgment, not just the steps.
Can my whole team use the same skill?
Yes, and that is the point. Because a skill is a file, you commit it and everyone runs the identical procedure. Your best rep's prep or your best marketer's routine becomes the team default instead of tribal knowledge.
Sources & further reading
Claude ships fast. This page was last reviewed Aug 22, 2026; verify time-sensitive details against the official docs above before relying on them.