How to install a Claude skill, step by step
- Open Claude and click the toolbox icon. In the Claude desktop app, click the toolbox icon on the left side. This is your Customize icon, where your connectors and skills live.
- Open the Skills section. At the top of the Customize panel you will see Skills. Click Skills to open your personal skill library.
- Click the plus and choose Upload a skill. Click the plus button at the very top. Put your mouse over Create skill, then click Upload a skill.
- Drag in the skill file. Click and drag the .skill file that was emailed or shared with you, or that you downloaded from a website, and drop it into the window. Claude installs it into your personal skill library.
- Review what the skill does. Click the newly installed skill to read its description so you know exactly what it does and what it will ask you for, such as your name.
- Run it by describing what you want. Start a new chat and describe the task in plain English. You do not have to ask for the skill by name. Claude uses the context of your conversation to figure out which skill to use.
What a Claude skill actually is
A Claude skill is essentially a recipe that helps you do a repetitive task over and over again with Claude's help. It is a multi-step process saved in one single file, so the same steps happen the same way every time you run it.
Ben shares a lot of free skills, and the file people receive is exactly what gets installed here. Once a skill is in Claude, you stop thinking about the steps and just ask for the outcome. Installing one takes about a minute and requires no coding.
Where skills live in the Claude desktop app
Everything happens inside the Claude desktop app. On the left side is a toolbox icon, which is your Customize area. That is the same place connectors live, and it is where you manage skills.
Click the toolbox, then click Skills at the top. This opens your personal skill library, the list of every skill you have installed. New installs land here, and you can click any one to see what it does.
Installing a skill file in a few clicks
With the Skills area open, click the plus button at the top. Hover over Create skill and then click Upload a skill. This opens a drop zone for the file.
Now click and drag the .skill file into that window. It does not matter whether Ben emailed it to you, someone else shared it, or you downloaded it from a website. Drop it in and Claude installs the skill for you. In the example, the famous namesakes skill installed straight into the personal skill library, and clicking it showed a plain description of what it does.
Running a skill without naming it
The nice part is you do not have to remember the skill's name. Start a new chat and describe what you want. In the example, Ben simply asked who the most famous people with his name are, and Claude replied that it would use the famous namesakes skill, picking it from the context of the conversation.
From there the skill follows its instruction set, its recipe. The famous namesakes recipe asks for your name, or uses the name already saved in Claude's memory, then returns the five most famous people who share it. It is a small example, but it shows the pattern: install once, then trigger the skill just by asking for the result in plain language.