Claude Code Skills Tutorial: Create Reusable AI Workflows

By Daniel Ávila and Claude Code Templates contributors. Original article.

*Existing Claude Code brand asset; not a screenshot of the skills interface.*

RocketLauncher editorial check, October 24, 2026: the invocation and context-loading details below follow the official Claude Code skills documentation.

What are Claude Code Skills?

Claude Code Skills are modular capabilities that extend Claude's functionality automatically. Skills package instructions, metadata, and optional resources (scripts, templates, documentation) that Claude uses on-demand when relevant to your request. Claude can load a skill when its description matches your task, or you can invoke a user-invocable skill directly with /skill-name.

Key Capabilities

• Automatic Activation, Claude triggers Skills automatically when they match your request
• Progressive Context Loading, Three-level loading: metadata (always), instructions (when triggered), resources (as needed)
• Domain Expertise Packaging, Bundle workflows, best practices, scripts, and reference materials
• Small Discovery Context, Skill names and descriptions use context; full instructions load when the skill is invoked
• Filesystem-Based Architecture, Skills exist as directories with SKILL.md and optional resources
• Executable Scripts Support, Include Python/Node scripts that run without loading into context

Installation

Skills are typically created manually or installed from templates. Here's how to use the example skills-creator from Claude Code Templates:

npx claude-code-templates@latest --skill=development/skill-creator

Where are skills installed?

Skills are saved in .claude/skills/ directory in your project:

your-project/
├── .claude/
│   └── skills/
│       └── my-skill/
│           ├── SKILL.md          # ← Required skill instructions
│           └── scripts/          # Optional executable scripts
│               └── helper.py     # Example script
├── src/
│   └── components/
├── package.json
└── README.md

How Skills Work

Skills activate automatically when Claude detects they're relevant to your request. You can describe what you need and let Claude select a relevant skill, or type /skill-name to select it explicitly. A skill can disable automatic invocation with disable-model-invocation: true.

# Start Claude Code
claude

# Skills activate automatically based on your request
> Review this code for security vulnerabilities

# Claude automatically uses the code-review Skill if installed

Progressive Loading: Skills load in three levels, metadata (always loaded), instructions (when triggered), and resources (as needed). This keeps full instructions out of context until needed. Installed skill names and descriptions still occupy context, and a large collection can exceed the description budget.

Usage Examples

Example 1: PDF Processing Skill

claude

> Extract text from this PDF and create a summary

# Claude automatically detects PDF task and loads pdf-processing Skill

Result: The Skill provides Claude with PDF extraction expertise. Claude reads SKILL.md instructions, uses bundled pdfplumber scripts, and delivers extracted text with summary. Advanced features like form-filling documentation (FORMS.md) remain unloaded unless needed.

Example 2: Database Schema Skill

claude

> Write a query to get all users with pending orders

# Claude detects database query and loads database-schema Skill

Result: Skill loads with your database schema as reference material. Claude accesses table definitions, relationships, and example queries from bundled files. The schema file only enters context if Claude needs to reference it, otherwise it stays on the filesystem.

Example 3: API Integration Skill

claude

> Show me how to authenticate with the Stripe API

# Claude recognizes API integration task and loads stripe-api Skill

Result: Skill provides Stripe API documentation, authentication patterns, and example code. Claude can execute bundled test scripts to validate API calls without loading script code into context, only the output appears.

Official Documentation

For more information about Skills in Claude Code, see the official documentation.

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