Anthropic's Claude Skills: Open-Source Examples & Guide

Anthropic has unveiled its skills repository on GitHub, offering a public collection of examples designed to extend the capabilities of its AI model, Claude. This initiative provides developers with an invaluable resource for understanding and implementing 'skills'—folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude dynamically loads to perform specialized tasks with greater efficiency and precision.

What are Claude Skills?

Skills are essentially modular components that teach Claude how to complete specific tasks in a repeatable manner. Whether it's generating documents adhering to brand guidelines, analyzing data with unique workflows, or automating personal tasks, skills equip Claude with the specialized knowledge and tools required for diverse applications. The skills repository showcases a wide array of these examples, ranging from artistic endeavors to complex technical and enterprise-level operations.

Exploring the Repository

The GitHub repository is organized with each skill self-contained in its own directory, featuring a SKILL.md file that includes instructions and metadata for Claude. Developers can browse through these examples to gather inspiration and learn various patterns for skill creation. The examples are open-source under the Apache 2.0 license, promoting collaboration and community development.

Notably, the repository also includes source-available document creation and editing skills, which power Claude's internal document capabilities. These provide a reference for more complex skills that are actively used in production AI applications, offering a glimpse into Anthropic's advanced skill development methodologies.

Diverse Example Skills

The repository covers a broad spectrum of applications, categorized for ease of exploration:

• Creative & Design: Examples like algorithmic-art (for generative art with p5.js) and canvas-design (for visual art in PNG/PDF) demonstrate Claude's creative potential.
• Development & Technical: Skills such as artifacts-builder (for creating HTML artifacts with React) and webapp-testing (using Playwright for UI verification) highlight technical applications.
• Enterprise & Communication: brand-guidelines (applying corporate branding) and internal-comms (writing internal communications) showcase business utility.
• Meta Skills: skill-creator acts as a guide for building effective skills, while template-skill provides a foundational starting point.
• Document Skills: Advanced skills for manipulating various document formats including DOCX, PDF, PPTX, and XLSX, offering comprehensive toolkit for document creation, editing, and analysis.

How to Utilize Skills

Anthropic offers multiple avenues for using these skills:

• Claude Code: Users can register the repository as a Claude Code Plugin marketplace and install specific skill sets, enabling direct interaction within the Claude Code environment.
• Claude.ai: Paid plan subscribers to Claude.ai already have access to these example skills, alongside the ability to upload custom skills.
• Claude API: Developers can leverage Anthropic's pre-built skills and integrate custom ones via the Claude API, facilitating programmatic skill invocation.

Creating a basic skill is straightforward, requiring a folder with a SKILL.md file containing YAML frontmatter for name and description, followed by markdown content for instructions, examples, and guidelines. This structure allows for clear and concise skill definitions, making it accessible for developers to extend Claude's utility.

This open-source initiative by Anthropic not only enhances Claude's versatility but also fosters a community where developers can collaborate, learn, and innovate in the burgeoning field of AI agent capabilities.