Claude Skills: A Detailed Tutorial

What Are Claude Skills?

Claude Skills are specialized knowledge modules that enhance my abilities in specific domains. Think of them as expert "playbooks" - curated sets of best practices, techniques, and workflows that I can access when working on particular types of tasks.

When you ask me to create a document, presentation, spreadsheet, or work with specialized tools, I can read the relevant skill documentation to apply proven techniques and avoid common pitfalls.

How Skills Work

Skills are stored as markdown files (SKILL.md) in specific directories:

Public Skills (/mnt/skills/public/): Core capabilities available to everyone
Example Skills (/mnt/skills/examples/): Additional specialized skills
User Skills (/mnt/skills/user/): Custom skills you can create yourself

When I encounter a task, I:

Identify which skill(s) are relevant
Read the SKILL.md file(s) before starting work
Apply the best practices and techniques documented in the skill
Execute the task with enhanced quality and accuracy

Available Built-in Skills

📄 docx - Word Documents

Location: /mnt/skills/public/docx/SKILL.md

Use for:

Creating professional documents
Editing existing .docx files
Working with tracked changes and comments
Preserving formatting
Text extraction and analysis

Example scenario: "Create a technical specification document for our new API"

📊 pptx - Presentations

Location: /mnt/skills/public/pptx/SKILL.md

Use for:

Creating presentations from scratch
Modifying slide layouts
Adding speaker notes and comments
Professional formatting and design

Example scenario: "Make a presentation about React performance optimization with 10 slides"

📈 xlsx - Spreadsheets

Location: /mnt/skills/public/xlsx/SKILL.md

Use for:

Creating spreadsheets with formulas
Data analysis and visualization
Reading/analyzing CSV and Excel files
Preserving and recalculating formulas
Advanced formatting

Example scenario: "Create a budget tracker with formulas for monthly expenses"

📑 pdf - PDF Manipulation

Location: /mnt/skills/public/pdf/SKILL.md

Use for:

Extracting text and tables from PDFs
Creating new PDFs programmatically
Filling PDF forms
Merging/splitting documents
Large-scale PDF processing

Example scenario: "Fill out this job application PDF form with my information"

🛠️ skill-creator - Creating Custom Skills

Location: /mnt/skills/public/skill-creator/SKILL.md

Use for:

Designing your own skills
Extending Claude's capabilities
Creating specialized workflows
Building domain-specific knowledge bases

Example scenario: "Create a skill for my company's code review process"

📚 product-self-knowledge - Anthropic Products

Location: /mnt/skills/public/product-self-knowledge/SKILL.md

Use for:

Accurate information about Claude products
API documentation guidance
Feature capabilities and limits
Pricing and access information

Example scenario: "How do I use Claude Code from the terminal?"

Practical Examples

Example 1: Creating a Presentation

Your request: "Create a presentation about Bitcoin cold wallet security"

What happens behind the scenes:

1. I identify this needs the pptx skill
2. I read /mnt/skills/public/pptx/SKILL.md
3. I learn best practices for:
   - Slide layouts and structure
   - Content hierarchy
   - Visual design principles
   - Common pitfalls to avoid
4. I create the presentation applying these techniques
5. I save it to /mnt/user-data/outputs/bitcoin-security.pptx

Example 2: Working with Spreadsheets

Your request: "Analyze this sales data CSV and create charts"

Behind the scenes:

1. I read /mnt/skills/public/xlsx/SKILL.md
2. I learn optimal approaches for:
   - Reading CSV files
   - Creating formulas
   - Data visualization techniques
   - Chart types and when to use them
3. I process your data with best practices
4. I create an Excel file with analysis and charts

Example 3: Creating a Custom Skill

Your request: "Create a skill for reviewing STM32 embedded systems code"

Process:

1. I read /mnt/skills/public/skill-creator/SKILL.md
2. I learn how to structure a skill properly
3. I create a custom skill with:
   - Domain-specific knowledge (STM32 best practices)
   - Common pitfalls to check for
   - Code review checklists
   - Testing approaches
4. I save it to /mnt/skills/user/stm32-review/SKILL.md

Why Skills Matter

✅ Higher Quality Output

Skills contain lessons learned from extensive testing and iteration.

✅ Consistency

The same high-quality approach is applied every time.

✅ Efficiency

I don't need to rediscover best practices for each task.

✅ Customization

You can create skills specific to your workflows and domain expertise.

Creating Your Own Skills

You can create custom skills for your specific needs! Here's a simple template:

# Skill Name

## Purpose
What this skill helps accomplish

## When to Use
Specific triggers and scenarios

## Best Practices
- Key principle 1
- Key principle 2
- Common pitfalls to avoid

## Examples
Concrete examples of using this skill

## Tools & Techniques
Specific methods and approaches

Want to create a custom skill? Just ask me something like:

"Create a skill for reviewing React TypeScript code"
"Make a skill for our company's technical documentation standards"
"Design a skill for STM32 embedded systems development"

Try It Out!

Want to see skills in action? Try any of these:

"Create a PowerPoint about React hooks with 5 slides" (uses pptx skill)
"Make a budget spreadsheet with formulas for tracking expenses" (uses xlsx skill)
"Create a technical spec document for a REST API" (uses docx skill)
"Design a custom skill for reviewing Rust code" (uses skill-creator skill)

The difference will be in the quality, structure, and professional polish of the output!