Free Lesson
Claude Skills, Explained: What They Are and How They Work
Part of The Definitive Claude Skills Masterclass
60 min
Aug 27, 2026 12:00 PM
What you'll learn
What a Claude skill is and what it's for
A capability you load on demand: a plain-English file that makes Claude run a task the same way every time.
How a skill is built inside
The three parts of every skill: its name, the trigger that tells Claude when to use it, and its instructions.
Where skills run: chat, Cowork, and Code
The same skill working across Claude chat, Cowork, and Claude Code, so you know where each one fits.
How skills and agents work together
When a skill calls in an agent, and when an agent reaches for a skill, shown live.
A tour of the Anthropic skills and plugin marketplace
Finding and customizing skills and plugins from the Anthropic marketplace
Why this topic matters
A skill packages a task so Claude does it the same way every time. You set it up once and run it on command, instead of explaining what you want on every try. And because each skill does one job, you can combine them: one skill feeds another, or several run together. That is how a single task becomes an orchestrated workflow. It starts with knowing what one skill is.
You'll learn from
Trained employees from
