How to Use Claude Skills: Setup Guide with Examples

What is a Claude Skill?

At its core, a Skill is a folder with a file called SKILL.md. It holds a name, a short description (what the Skill does and when to use it) and the instructions Claude follows. It can optionally bundle templates or small scripts.

The clever part is progressive disclosure: Claude first reads only the short description. If it matches your request, it loads the full instructions — and any extra resources only when they're actually needed. That keeps the context lean while still giving Claude deep, task-specific know-how.

What you need

Skills are available on the Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans. The one requirement is that code execution is enabled — you turn this on once in Settings under Capabilities (on Team/Enterprise, the organization owner also enables Skills).

Anthropic's built-in document Skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) are already included and switch on automatically when relevant. On top of that, you can upload your own or third-party Skills as a ZIP file.

Set up a Skill in the Claude app (step by step)

1. 1

   Enable code execution

   Open Settings → Capabilities and turn on code execution. Skills won't run without it.

2. 2

   Open Skills

   Go to Customize → Skills. You'll see the built-in Skills and can toggle each on or off.

3. 3

   Upload the Skill

   Click “+” → “Create skill” → “Upload a skill” and choose the .skill (ZIP) file.

4. 4

   Turn it on and test

   Enable the Skill and give Claude a matching task. Claude decides on its own when the Skill applies.

Using Skills in Claude Code

If you work with Claude Code, Skills are just folders: put them in ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use, or in .claude/skills/ inside a project so your team gets them too. Each folder contains the SKILL.md, which Claude Code loads automatically.

Six free Skills from EasyLife

So you can start right away, we offer six practical Skills for free: a job application writer, a professional email writer, a meeting-notes summarizer, an invoice & quote helper, a blog & SEO writer, and a social media post pack. All of them respond in your language — English or German.

Download the one you need, follow the steps above, and try it on a real task. It's always worth a quick test before you rely on any Skill day to day.

Safety: what to check before installing

A Skill is a set of instructions Claude follows, so only install Skills from sources you trust, and take a quick look at the SKILL.md before importing. Skills you upload yourself stay private to your account and aren't visible to anyone else.

FAQ