travisvn/awesome-claude-skills

Awesome Claude Skills

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A curated list of awesome Claude Skills, resources, and tools for customizing Claude AI workflows

Claude Skills teach Claude how to perform tasks in a repeatable way

They are specialized folders containing instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude dynamically discovers and loads when relevant to tasks.

How Skills Work

Skills employ a progressive disclosure architecture for efficiency:

1. Metadata loading (~100 tokens): Claude scans available Skills to identify relevant matches 2. Full instructions (<5k tokens): Load when Claude determines the Skill applies 3. Bundled resources: Files and executable code load only as needed

This design allows multiple Skills to remain available without overwhelming Claude's context window.

🚀 Getting Started

Claude.ai Web Interface

1. Go to Settings > Capabilities 2. Enable Skills toggle 3. Browse available skills or upload custom skills 4. For Team/Enterprise: Admin must enable Skills organization-wide first

Claude Code CLI

# Install skills from marketplace
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
Or install from local directory
/plugin add /path/to/skill-directory

Claude API

Skills are accessible via the /v1/skills API endpoint. See the Skills API documentation for detailed integration examples.

import anthropic
client = anthropic.Client(api_key="your-api-key")
See API docs for full implementation details

🎯 Official Skills

Document Skills

Skills for working with complex file formats:

• docx - Create, edit, and analyze Word documents with support for tracked changes, comments, formatting preservation, and text extraction
• pdf - Comprehensive PDF manipulation toolkit for extracting text and tables, creating new PDFs, merging/splitting documents, and handling forms
• pptx - Create, edit, and analyze PowerPoint presentations with support for layouts, templates, charts, and automated slide generation
• xlsx - Create, edit, and analyze Excel spreadsheets with support for formulas, formatting, data analysis, and visualization

Design & Creative

• algorithmic-art - Create generative art using p5.js with seeded randomness, flow fields, and particle systems
• canvas-design - Design beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf formats using design philosophies
• slack-gif-creator - Create animated GIFs optimized for Slack's size constraints

Development

• frontend-design - Instructs Claude to avoid "AI slop" or generic aesthetics and to make bold design decisions. Works very well for React & Tailwind.
• web-artifacts-builder - Build complex claude.ai HTML artifacts using React, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn/ui components
• mcp-builder - Guide for creating high-quality MCP servers to integrate external APIs and services
• webapp-testing - Test local web applications using Playwright for UI verification and debugging

Communication

• brand-guidelines - Apply Anthropic's official brand colors and typography to artifacts
• internal-comms - Write internal communications like status reports, newsletters, and FAQs

Skill Creation

• skill-creator - Interactive skill creation tool that guides you through building new skills with Q&A

🌟 Community Skills

[!Warning]

Skills can execute arbitrary code in Claude's environment.

See Security & Best Practices for more information

Collections & Libraries

• obra/superpowers - Core skills library for Claude Code with 20+ battle-tested skills including TDD, debugging, and collaboration patterns
• Features /brainstorm, /write-plan, /execute-plan commands and skills-search tool
• superpowers-skills - Community-editable skills repository
• Blog: Superpowers - Author's overview by Jesse Vincent
• Installation: /plugin marketplace add obra/superpowers-marketplace
• obra/superpowers-lab - Experimental skills for Claude Code Superpowers (see above)
• Uses new techniques that are still being refined and tested (i.e. skills here may change over time)
• Blog post about its development
• Install from superpowers-marketplace plugin

Individual Skills

These will be broken down into categories once there are enough community skills available to list

| Skill | Description | | --- | --- | | ios-simulator-skill | iOS app building, navigation, and testing through automation | | ffuf-web-fuzzing | Expert guidance for ffuf web fuzzing during penetration testing, including authenticated fuzzing with raw requests, auto-calibration, and result analysis | | playwright-skill | General-purpose browser automation using Playwright | | claude-d3js-skill | Visualizations in d3.js | | claude-scientific-skills | Comprehensive collection of ready-to-use scientific skills, including working with specialized scientific libraries and databases | | web-asset-generator | Generates web assets like favicons, app icons, and social media images | | loki-mode | Multi-agent autonomous startup system - orchestrates 37 AI agents across 6 swarms to build, deploy, and operate a complete startup from PRD to revenue | | Trail of Bits Security Skills | Security skills for static analysis with CodeQL/Semgrep, variant analysis, code auditing, and vulnerability detection | | frontend-slides | Create animation-rich HTML presentations — from scratch or by converting PowerPoint files | | Expo Skills | Official skills by the Expo team for developing Expo apps | | shadcn/ui | Give Claude Code context on shadcn components as well as pattern enforcement | | get-shit-done | Lightweight meta-prompting, context engineering, and spec-driven development system for Claude Code by TÂCHES |

_More community skills coming soon! Submit a PR to add your skill._

Tools

• yusufkaraaslan/Skill_Seekers - Convert documentation websites into Claude Skills

✏️ Creating Your First Skill

   my-skill/
   ├── SKILL.md          # Main skill file with frontmatter
   ├── scripts/          # Optional executable scripts
   │   └── helper.py
   └── resources/        # Optional supporting files
       └── template.json
   

   ---
   name: my-skill
   description: Brief description for skill discovery (keep concise)
   ---
# Detailed Instructions
Claude will read these instructions when the skill is activated.
## Usage
   Explain how to use this skill...
## Examples
   Provide clear examples...
   

📚 Official Documentation & Resources

Getting Started

• What are Skills? - Official support article explaining Claude Skills
• Using Skills in Claude - How to enable and use skills

Documentation

• Claude Skills Announcement - Official announcement from Anthropic
• Equipping Agents with Skills - Engineering deep dive on Agent Skills
• Claude Developer Platform - Official documentation
• Skills API Endpoint - /v1/skills API documentation

Repositories & Examples

• anthropics/skills - Official public repository for Skills
• Claude Cookbooks - Skills - Example notebooks and tutorials

📅 Recent Updates

November 2025

• Nov 13: Anthropic publishes Skills Explained - Comprehensive guide covering progressive disclosure architecture, decision matrices for Skills vs Prompts/Subagents/Projects, and best practices

October 2025

• Oct 18: Major community repositories emerge: obra/superpowers skills library
• Oct 17: Community publishes practical tutorials on DEV.to and Medium
• Oct 16: 🎉 Claude Skills officially announced - Available across Claude.ai, Code, and API
• Oct 16: Initial skills released including docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx, algorithmic-art, canvas-design, and more

💡 Skills vs Other Approaches

Quick Reference: When to Use What

| Tool | Best For | |------|----------| | Skills | Reusable procedural knowledge across conversations | | Prompts | One-time instructions and immediate context | | Projects | Persistent background knowledge within workspaces | | Subagents | Independent task execution with specific permissions | | MCP | Connecting Claude to external data sources |

Use Skills when: Capabilities should be accessible to any Claude instance. They're portable expertise.

Use Subagents when: You need self-contained agents designed for specific purposes with independent workflows and restricted tool access.

Combined approach: Subagents can leverage Skills for specialized expertise, merging independence with portable knowledge.

Key insight: If you find yourself typing the same prompt repeatedly across multiple conversations, it's time to create a Skill.

Skills vs MCP (Model Context Protocol)

| Feature | Skills | MCP | | -------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | | Purpose | Task-specific expertise and workflows | External data/API integration | | Portability | Same format everywhere (Claude.ai, Code, API) | Requires server configuration | | Code Execution | Can include executable scripts | Provides tools/resources | | Token Efficiency | 30-50 tokens until loaded | Varies by implementation | | Best For | Repeatable tasks, document workflows | Database access, API integrations |

Use Together: Skills can create MCP servers! The mcp-builder skill helps build high-quality MCP integrations.

Skills vs System Prompts

| Feature | Skills | System Prompts | | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | | Structure | Folder with YAML frontmatter, instructions, scripts | Plain text instructions | | Reusability | Version-controlled, shareable, composable | Copy-paste, conversation-specific | | Loading | On-demand (only when relevant) | Always in context | | Maintenance | Centralized updates | Manual updates per conversation | | Composability | Multiple skills stack automatically | Manual combination |

📖 Tutorials & Guides

Written Tutorials

• How to Create Your First Claude Skill - Step-by-step tutorial with examples
• How to Use Skills in Claude Code - Installation, project scoping, and testing guide

Video Tutorials

_Video tutorials coming soon! Have a good video about Claude Skills? Submit a PR!_

📰 Articles & Blog Posts

• Skills Explained - Official Anthropic blog post covering progressive disclosure, use cases, and when to use Skills vs other tools
• Simon Willison: Claude Skills are awesome, maybe a bigger deal than MCP - Technical deep dive and analysis

🔒 Security & Best Practices

⚠️ Important: Skills can execute arbitrary code in Claude's environment. Only install skills from trusted sources.

🛠️ Troubleshooting

❓ FAQ

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! See contribution guidelines for details. To add a skill or resource: fork, add to appropriate section, submit PR.