How to Create a Claude Skill (Step-by-Step, 2026)

A Claude skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that teaches Claude how to do one job your way. Claude only reads the skill's name and description until a request matches, so you can install many without slowing it down.

1. Pick one job

Good skills do one repeatable thing: "summarise meeting notes", "review a PR", "write product descriptions". If you keep pasting the same instructions into chat, that's a skill.

2. Create the folder

meeting-notes/
  SKILL.md
  references/      (optional)
  scripts/         (optional)

The folder name must match the name in SKILL.md.

3. Write SKILL.md

---
name: meeting-notes
description: Turns meeting notes or transcripts into decisions, action items and owners. Use when the user pastes meeting notes or asks to summarise a call.
---

# Meeting Notes

## Workflow
1. List decisions...

Rules from Anthropic's docs: name is lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, max 64 characters, and can't contain "anthropic" or "claude". description is required, max 1,024 characters, and should say what the skill does and when to use it.

4. Package and install

• Claude apps: zip the *folder* (not its contents) — zip -r meeting-notes.zip meeting-notes/ — then go to Customize → Skills → + → Create skill → Upload a skill. Code execution and file creation must be on (Settings → Capabilities). Available on all plans, including Free.
• Claude Code: copy the folder to .claude/skills/ (project) or ~/.claude/skills/ (all projects). Claude Code picks up changes without a restart; type /meeting-notes to run it directly.

5. Test and iterate

Ask for the task in plain words. If the skill doesn't trigger, make the description more specific about when to use it.

Shortcut: MakeASkill asks you a few questions and emails you a validated, ready-to-upload zip for free.