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Installing and Using AI Skills

What an AI skill is, how it differs from writing your own prompts, how to install one in Claude, and what to expect when you use it.

Last updated 2026-02-24

Summary

A skill is a tested set of instructions you paste into Claude's Project Instructions—it handles the prompting so you don't have to.

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  • Unlike prompts you write yourself, skills define the full interaction flow: what to ask, how to handle edge cases, and what output looks like.
  • Start with a beginner skill like Document Brand Voice. Its output feeds into other skills, so you get compounding value.

If you’ve been writing your own prompts to get things done with AI, skills are the next step. They do the prompt-writing for you—and usually do it better than a prompt you’d write yourself in five minutes.

What a skill is

A skill is a pre-written set of instructions that you load into an AI tool to specialize it for a particular job.

When you install a skill, you’re giving the AI a detailed briefing: here’s what we’re doing, here’s how you should approach it, here are the questions you should ask, here’s the format the output should take. That briefing was written and tested by someone who has done that specific task many times.

A good skill isn’t just a long prompt—it defines a complete interaction flow. It knows when to ask you for information, what to do with that information, how to handle edge cases, and what the finished output should look like.

How skills differ from prompts you write

When you write a prompt yourself, you’re starting fresh each time. You have to remember to include context about your brand, specify the format, note what to avoid, and describe what good output looks like. This takes effort, and results vary.

A skill handles all of that. You provide your specific inputs—the product you’re describing, the content samples for your brand voice—and the skill handles the rest of the interaction.

The other difference is testing. Skills on SkillShelf are reviewed by engineers who verify that the output quality holds up across different inputs. You’re getting something that’s been evaluated, not something someone wrote once and hoped worked.

How to install a skill in Claude

Claude supports a feature called Project Instructions (sometimes called System Prompt or Custom Instructions, depending on the version you’re using). Installing a skill means pasting the skill’s instructions into that field.

Step-by-step:

  1. Open the skill page on SkillShelf and copy the skill content (the full text of the SKILL.md file)
  2. In Claude, create a new Project or open an existing one
  3. Open the Project Instructions field (usually via the project settings or a pencil icon)
  4. Paste the skill content into the instructions field
  5. Save, then start a new conversation in that project

The skill is now active. When you start a conversation, Claude will behave according to the skill’s instructions rather than its defaults.

You can create one project per skill, or combine a few related skills into a single project depending on how you work.

What to expect when you use a skill

A well-designed skill will guide you through the process—you don’t need to figure out what to provide or how to structure your request. The skill’s introduction usually tells you what it needs from you.

For example, the Document Brand Voice skill opens by asking you to paste 5–10 samples of your existing content. It then analyzes them, offers you three different interpretations of your brand voice to confirm which one fits, and generates a complete structured brand voice guide. You provide the inputs; the skill handles the rest.

Some things to keep in mind:

It’s still a conversation. Skills streamline the interaction but don’t eliminate it. You’ll still need to review output, confirm choices, and provide feedback when something isn’t right.

Your inputs affect output quality. The better the material you provide (richer product specs, more representative content samples), the better the output will be. Garbage in, garbage out still applies.

You can modify the output. Nothing the skill produces is final. Treat it as a high-quality draft that you edit, not a finished artifact.

Skills are context-specific. A skill built for writing Amazon listings will produce different results from a general product description. Use the skill designed for your specific use case.

A note on other AI tools

Skills on SkillShelf use the open SKILL.md format. The instructions work with Claude, but the underlying approach is compatible with ChatGPT and other tools as well—you can paste the instruction content into a custom GPT or ChatGPT system prompt and get similar results.

Start with a beginner skill

If this is your first time using a skill, start with a Beginner-level skill—these are designed for immediate use with minimal setup. The Document Brand Voice skill is a good starting point because its output (a brand voice guide) is useful on its own and also feeds into other content skills.

Browse the skill catalog by category to find what fits your most pressing job.