Skill (Claude Code)
A reusable instruction file that teaches Claude how to do one job your way, invoked with a slash command. Your taste, your review process, your rules, made portable.
What it is
A skill is a small markdown file that teaches Claude how to perform one specific job the way you want it done. It lives in ~/.claude/skills/, has a name and a description, and you trigger it with a slash command like /taste or /ux-copy. Claude reads the file and follows it.
Simple analogy
A prompt is something you say once. A skill is a saved playbook the model runs the same way every time. It is the difference between explaining your review process each session and pressing a button that runs it.
Why this matters for designers
Skills are how you stop re-explaining your standards. Encode your taste, your copy rules, or your motion limits once, and invoke them in any project. Because a skill lives in your home folder, not one repo, it travels with you across every codebase you touch.
How it works in practice
- Create a folder and a SKILL.md file with a name and description.
- Write the rules and the steps the skill should follow.
- Invoke it with its slash command after Claude generates something.