How to Install Claude Code Skills

1. Install Claude Code first

macOS, Linux, or WSL:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Windows CMD:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.cmd -o install.cmd && install.cmd && del install.cmd

Homebrew (two casks — claude-code tracks stable, claude-code@latest tracks every release):

brew install --cask claude-code

WinGet:

winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode

apt, dnf, and apk are also supported on Debian, Fedora, RHEL, and Alpine. Confirm the install:

claude --version

Then start a session — you'll be prompted to log in on first use:

claude

Native installs auto-update in the background. Homebrew and WinGet installs don't — run brew upgrade claude-code or winget upgrade Anthropic.ClaudeCode yourself periodically.

2. The three ways to add a skill

Unlike some agent ecosystems, there's no single "install a skill" command. Which path applies depends on what you're adding:

Method	Use when	Shareable?
Write the file by hand	You're writing your own skill, or copying one from a repo you've already read	Commit it to the repo
`npx skills`	Pulling a skill from GitHub without cloning it yourself	Per-machine, not versioned with your project
Plugin marketplace	The skill ships as part of a plugin (bundled with agents, hooks, or MCP servers)	Yes — this is the only path with any review process behind it

3. Write a skill by hand

A skill is just a file. For a personal skill available in every project:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/my-skill

For a project skill, scoped to one repo:

mkdir -p .claude/skills/my-skill

Save SKILL.md inside it with at minimum name and description in the frontmatter (see the SKILL.md format for the full field reference). Claude Code picks up the new file within the current session — no restart needed unless the top-level skills directory itself is brand new.

4. Install with npx skills

npx skills is a third-party, MIT-licensed, cross-agent skill installer maintained by Vercel — not an Anthropic tool, but built specifically to pull SKILL.md files from GitHub into whichever agent you're using, Claude Code included.

List what a repo offers before installing anything:

npx skills add <owner>/<repo> --list

Install a specific skill into Claude Code:

npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/skills --skill docx --agent claude-code

Add --yes for non-interactive installs. The tool defaults to symlinking rather than copying, so updating the source updates every project that references it.

5. Install a skill bundled in a plugin

Plugins can bundle skills alongside agents, hooks, and MCP servers, distributed through a marketplace — a catalog of plugins someone else published. Anthropic runs two:

claude-plugins-official — curated by Anthropic, added automatically the first time you start Claude Code interactively. If it wasn't added automatically:
```
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-official
```
claude-plugins-community — third-party plugins that passed automated validation and safety screening, pinned to a commit SHA. Not added automatically:
```
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community
```

Install from either:

/plugin install <plugin-name>@claude-plugins-official
/plugin install <plugin-name>@claude-community

Anyone can also host their own marketplace and you add it directly — a GitHub repo (owner/repo), any git URL, a local path, or a remote marketplace.json:

/plugin marketplace add owner/repo
/plugin marketplace add https://gitlab.com/company/plugins.git

If the install summary says Run /reload-plugins to activate., run that command — new plugin skills don't apply automatically until you do. Plugin skills are namespaced by plugin name, so a commit-commands plugin's commit skill is /commit-commands:commit, never a bare /commit.

Managing plugins and marketplaces

/plugin                                    # open the interactive plugin manager
/plugin list                                # list installed plugins
/plugin disable <name>@<marketplace>
/plugin enable <name>@<marketplace>
/plugin uninstall <name>@<marketplace>
/plugin marketplace list
/plugin marketplace update <marketplace-name>
/plugin marketplace remove <marketplace-name>
/reload-plugins

For scripting or CI, use the non-interactive shell commands instead, which target user scope by default:

claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace> --scope project
claude plugin uninstall <name>@<marketplace> --scope project
claude plugin validate ./your-plugin

Is a skill checked for anything before it runs?

Not automatically, and not for every path above. This is the single biggest difference from ecosystems that scan every install:

Hand-written or npx skills-installed skills pass through nothing before their instructions become active — a skill is just a file Claude reads. Any allowed-tools grant in its frontmatter takes effect the moment you invoke it.
Plugins from the community marketplace go through Anthropic's automated validation and safety screening before publication, and are pinned to a specific commit — the closest thing to a trust gate in this system, and it only covers that one path.
The official marketplace is curated by Anthropic directly, at Anthropic's discretion.

Anthropic's own guidance is blunt about the rest: "Anthropic doesn't control what MCP servers, files, or other software are included in plugins and can't verify that they work as intended." Read a skill's SKILL.md and any bundled scripts before installing anything outside the two official marketplaces — see evaluating a skill on GitHub for what to check.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
`/plugin` command not recognized	Update: `brew upgrade claude-code`, `npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code@latest`, or re-run the native installer, then restart your terminal
Plugin skills don't appear after install	`rm -rf ~/.claude/plugins/cache`, restart Claude Code, reinstall
Skill doesn't trigger automatically	Check the description includes words you'd naturally use; try `/skill-name` directly if it's user-invocable; run with `--debug` to catch a malformed-YAML parse error
Skill triggers too often	Make the description more specific, or add `disable-model-invocation: true` for manual-only use
`Marketplace "..." not found`	Add it first with `/plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>`, then retry the install