skills-marketplace

Claude Skills Marketplace

A marketplace for Claude Agent Skills - organized packages of instructions, scripts, and resources that extend Claude's capabilities.

What Are Skills?

Agent Skills are directories containing a SKILL.md file that packages domain expertise and organizational knowledge for reuse across conversations. They enable Claude to perform specialized tasks by loading instructions, scripts, and resources dynamically.

Key Characteristics:

• Model-invoked: Claude autonomously decides when to use them based on the description
• Progressive disclosure: Only loads content when needed, optimizing token usage
• Composable: Multiple focused skills work better together than one comprehensive skill

Quick Start

1. Create Your Skill Directory

my-skill/
├── SKILL.md           # Required - core instructions
├── reference.md       # Optional - additional documentation
├── examples.md        # Optional - usage examples
├── scripts/           # Optional - executable code
└── templates/         # Optional - template files

2. Write Your SKILL.md

---
name: your-skill-name
description: Brief description of what this Skill does and when to use it
---

# Your Skill Name

## Instructions
Provide clear, step-by-step guidance for Claude.

## Examples
Show concrete usage examples with inputs and outputs.

## Guidelines
Best practices and constraints.

3. Install Your Skill

Location	Scope
~/.claude/skills/	Personal - available across all projects
.claude/skills/	Project - specific to repository

SKILL.md Metadata Reference

Field	Required	Constraints
name	Yes	Max 64 chars, lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens only
description	Yes	Max 1024 chars, explains function and trigger conditions
version	No	Semantic versioning (e.g., 1.0.0)
dependencies	No	List of required packages

Progressive Disclosure Architecture

Skills implement three levels of information loading:

1. Level 1 (Metadata): Name/description loaded into system prompt at startup
2. Level 2 (Instructions): Full SKILL.md loads when Claude determines relevance
3. Level 3+ (Resources): Additional files load only when referenced

This design keeps context consumption minimal while enabling unbounded skill complexity.

Best Practices

• Focus: Create separate skills for different workflows
• Clarity: Write specific descriptions for proper invocation
• Simplicity: Start with markdown; add code only when needed
• Examples: Include sample inputs and outputs
• Versioning: Track changes systematically
• Incremental Testing: Test after each significant change
• Scale Structure: Split into separate files when SKILL.md grows unwieldy

Security Considerations

• Install skills only from trusted sources
• Audit bundled files and dependencies
• Never hardcode sensitive information (API keys, passwords)
• Review instructions directing Claude toward external connections

Repository Structure

claude-skills-marketplace/
├── skills/                    # Community skills
│   ├── creative/              # Creative & design skills
│   ├── development/           # Development & technical skills
│   ├── enterprise/            # Enterprise & communication skills
│   └── document/              # Document generation skills
├── templates/                 # Starter templates
│   └── basic/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── docs/                      # Documentation
│   ├── CREATING_SKILLS.md
│   ├── API_SKILLS.md
│   └── SKILLS_BEST_PRACTICES.md
└── CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on submitting skills to the marketplace.

Resources

• Introducing Agent Skills | Anthropic
• How to create custom Skills | Claude Help Center
• GitHub - anthropics/skills
• Equipping agents for the real world | Anthropic Engineering

License

MIT