Lesson 6Claude Skills

How to Use Claude Skills

Learn how to invoke skills with slash commands, let Claude pick them up automatically, and use them in both Claude Code and claude.ai.

Slash commandsAuto-detectionClaude Code & claude.aiCombining skills

Two ways to invoke a skill

Skills can be triggered in two ways: you can call them explicitly with a slash command, or let Claude detect the right skill automatically from your request.

⌨️Explicit slash command

Type /skill-name directly in the Claude input. Claude runs that skill immediately, regardless of context.

> /commit
🔍Auto-detection

Claude reads the description field of every installed skill and picks the best one when your request matches. No slash needed.

> can you format these meeting notes?
💡 Tip: To stop auto-detection for a specific skill, add disable-model-invocation: true to its SKILL.md frontmatter. The skill will only run when you type the slash command explicitly.

Using skills in Claude Code

Start a Claude Code session with claude in your terminal. Skills installed in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ (project) are automatically available. Type / to see the list, or type the slash command directly.

claude
# Start Claude Code in your project
$ claude
# See all available skills
> /
Available skills: /commit /code-review /daily-standup
# Run a skill explicitly
> /code-review
→ Running skill: code-review
Reviewing src/auth/token.ts...
Found 2 issues: 1 high, 1 low severity
See full report above.
ℹ️ Info: Skills respect scope: a skill in .claude/skills/ inside your project folder is only available in that project. Skills in ~/.claude/skills/ are available everywhere.

Using skills in claude.ai

On claude.ai, skills are managed from claude.ai/customize/skills. Installed skills appear in the chat input as slash commands.

claude.ai/customize/skills
My Skills+ Add skill
⚡
/commit
Stage all changes and write a descriptive commit message
Global
⚡
/code-review
Review code for bugs, style issues, and security risks
Global
⚡
/daily-standup
Guide a team through a 5-minute standup
Global
claude.ai

Chat with skills active:

/commit
C

Running skill: /commit

Staged all changes. Here's the commit message:

feat(auth): add token refresh with exponential backoff

Implements retry logic with jitter to avoid thundering herd.
1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

Combining multiple skills

Skills are independent — you can run several in one session. A common workflow is to run a review skill first, fix issues, then commit.

claude
# 1. Review code before committing
> /code-review
→ Running skill: code-review
1 high: missing input validation in src/api/users.ts:42
# 2. Fix the issue, then commit
> /commit
→ Running skill: commit
fix(api): add input validation to users endpoint
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)
💡 Tip: You can also reference one skill from another via context: fork in SKILL.md — covered in the Skills with Subagents lesson.

Quick reference

ActionHow
Run a skill explicitly/skill-name
See all installed skillsType / in Claude Code, or visit claude.ai/customize/skills
Let Claude pick the skillJust describe your task — auto-detection uses the description field
Disable auto-detectionAdd disable-model-invocation: true to SKILL.md frontmatter
Limit to explicit calls onlyAdd user-invocable: true (and disable-model-invocation: true)
Hide skill from / menuAdd user-invocable: false to SKILL.md frontmatter
Run skill in subagentAdd context: fork to SKILL.md frontmatter
Check skill is loadedAsk Claude: 'What skills are available?'

What's Next

You're using skills confidently. The next lesson shows you how to refine them over time — editing instructions and updating behaviour.