On this page
A skill is a recipe card you hand to Claude. It's a saved set of instructions for one job.
If you ran a restaurant, you'd have a recipe card for every dish, so it comes out exactly the same no matter who's cooking. A skill does that for your work.
Once it's saved, Claude finds and uses the right card on its own. You don't have to ask for it by name.
Every AI employee starts as one simple skill, which makes it the best first thing to build. This page shows you how to build any basic skill, then walks you through a real example.
🤔 When should something be a skill?
A task is a good fit for a skill when all three of these are true:
- It takes more than a sentence to explain.
- You do it again and again.
- There's a right answer, or a format you want every time.
🌟 Real-life examples
- Calendar Link Generator: type the event details and get a link anyone can click to add it to their calendar
- Content Atomizer: turn one call or video transcript into a newsletter, social posts and ad ideas
- Proposal Writer: turn your notes from a client walkthrough into a clean, priced proposal
- Sales Call Coach: paste in a sales call transcript and get a score plus three things to do better next time
- Hook Writer: turn one idea into ten scroll-stopping opening lines for social posts
✅ Before you start
- Any Claude plan works, including Free.
- You can use claude.ai in your browser or the desktop app.
- Set aside about 10 minutes.
🛠️ How to build a basic skill
Step 1: Turn on file creation
A skill is saved as a file, so Claude needs permission to create files before it can build one.
- Click your profile icon in the bottom left corner.
- Click Settings.
- Click Capabilities.
- Turn on Code execution and file creation.
On a Team or Enterprise plan, the account owner turns this on in Organization settings instead.
Step 2: Add the Skill Creator
The Skill Creator is a skill made by Anthropic that helps you build other skills. Without it, Claude is building from scratch with no plan.
- Click Customize in the left sidebar.
- Click Skills.
- Find Skill Creator in your list and turn it on.
- If it isn't in your list, click +, then Browse skills, then find Skill Creator and add it.
Step 3: Describe the job
Open a brand new chat, not one inside a project. Then tell Claude what the skill should do.
Copy this template and fill in the brackets:
Use the Skill Creator to build me a skill called [name of the skill]. When I give you [what you'll give it], [what you want it to do]. The result should [what a great result looks like]. If something is missing, ask me. Use this skill whenever I [the words you'll use to ask for it].Step 4: Answer its questions
Claude will ask a few questions before it builds the skill. Short answers are fine.
Step 5: Save the skill
- Click Save skill.
- If that button doesn't work, download the skill file Claude made.
- Go to Customize, then Skills.
- Click +, then Create skill, then Upload a skill.
- Choose the file you downloaded.
Step 6: Test it
- Open a new chat.
- Ask for the job the way you normally would, without naming the skill.
- Check that Claude uses the skill and the result looks right.
- Test it once more with a different example.
That's your first AI employee at Level 1: a skill that does one job the same way every time.
📈 Make it better
The first version of a skill is a starting point, not the finish line.
Read the result like you're about to send it to a client. If something's off, tell Claude exactly what's wrong and ask it to update the skill.
You can also ask Claude for ideas: Give me 3 high-impact things that would take this skill from useful to uncommonly good.
🔄 Update a skill
Skills do not update on their own. When Claude changes a skill, you need to replace the old version yourself.
- Download the updated skill file.
- Go to Customize, then Skills, and find the skill.
- Click Upload and Replace and choose the new file.
🤝 Share a skill
On a Team or Enterprise plan, go to Customize, then Skills, click the … next to the skill, click Share and pick the people or groups you want (how sharing works).
On a personal plan, download the skill file and send it by email, Slack or a shared drive. The other person uploads it using Step 5.
Keep in mind that the copy you send won't get your later updates.
💡 Tips
- Don't open the skill file on your computer. It will look like a foreign language, which is normal. Just upload it.
- A skill is only as good as the process behind it. If you don't know yet what great looks like, gather three to five good examples first and show them to Claude.
- A skill doesn't know your business on its own. To give it your knowledge, use it inside a Project. See The AIEB | What Is an AI Employee?
🟢 Using ChatGPT?
ChatGPT has skills too, and they use the same format as Claude skills.
- Click Skills, then Create, then Create with chat. You can also type @skill-creator in a chat and describe the skill you want.
- Review the draft ChatGPT makes.
- Click Install.
Skills are available on Plus and higher (Skills in ChatGPT).
📅 Example: build a Calendar Link Generator
Now try it with a real skill. The Calendar Link Generator takes the details of an event and gives you a link anyone can click to add it to their calendar.
It's a great first skill because you'll use it all the time, and it's easy to tell when it works.
1. Get set up. Do Steps 1 and 2 above if you haven't already.
2. Open a brand new chat and paste this prompt:
Use the Skill Creator to build me a skill called Calendar Link Generator. When I give you event details like the name, date, time and place, give me a Google Calendar link and an .ics file anyone can click to add it to their calendar. If something is missing, ask me. Use this skill whenever I ask for a calendar link.3. Answer Claude's questions, then click Save skill.
4. Test it in a new chat:
Make me a calendar link for dinner at Spoon and Stable, Thursday at 5.You should get a link you can tap to add the event to your calendar.
5. Make it better. AI is often wrong about dates, so ask Claude to add a check:
Update the Calendar Link Generator skill so it confirms the day of the week and the time zone before it creates the link, and shows me a one-line summary of the event to double-check.Then download the updated skill and click Upload and Replace (see Update a skill above).
In A2A? Log in to TUB Connect with your A2A email.
