How to Install Claude Skills: A Complete Guide (2026)

What Are Claude Skills?

Claude skills are small instruction files — typically a SKILL.md — that tell Claude how to use a specific tool or follow a specific workflow. Think of them as plugins for your AI assistant. Once installed, Claude can use GitHub, read PDFs, search the web, control a browser, and hundreds of other things it can't do out of the box.

Skills work by extending Claude's system prompt with tool-specific instructions. When you ask Claude to "search the web," it reads the relevant skill file and knows exactly which CLI commands to run and how to format the results.

Two Ways to Install: Personal vs Project

Before you install anything, decide where the skill should live.

Personal install — available in every project on your machine:

~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/

Project install — only available in the current project:

.claude/skills/<skill-name>/

Most people start with personal installs. If you're working on a team and want everyone to share the same skills, project installs are better — you can commit the .claude/skills/ folder to your repo.

Installing a Skill from DiscoverAISkills

Every skill on DiscoverAISkills has an install command on its page. The most common format looks like this:

# Using clawhub (recommended)
npx clawhub@latest install <skill-name>

# Manual install
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md <skill-url>

After running the install command, restart Claude Code. The skill is now active.

Step-by-Step: Installing the GitHub Skill

Let's walk through a real example with the GitHub skill — the most popular Claude skill with 148,000+ installs.

Step 1: Open your terminal.

Step 2: Run the install command:

npx clawhub@latest install github

Step 3: Restart Claude Code.

Step 4: Test it. Open a project with a git remote and ask Claude: "What are the open issues in this repo?" Claude should immediately call the GitHub tool and return results.

Installing Multiple Skills at Once

You can install several skills in one command:

npx clawhub@latest install github gog nano-pdf obsidian multi-search-engine

This is the fastest way to set up a new machine. Many developers keep a personal "starter pack" of skills they install on every new environment. Here are the most popular ones to consider:

• Self-Improving Agent — teaches Claude to learn from mistakes within a session (357,000+ installs)
• Skill Vetter — evaluates and validates skills before you install them (190,000+ installs)
• Proactive Agent — makes Claude take initiative rather than waiting for instructions (135,000+ installs)
• GOG — connects Claude to Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive (147,000+ installs)
• Weather — real-time weather data in any conversation (126,000+ installs)
• Obsidian — read and write your Obsidian knowledge base (75,000+ installs)
• Nano PDF — read any PDF directly in chat (84,000+ installs)
• Notion — connect Claude to your Notion workspace (73,000+ installs)
• Slack — send and read Slack messages from Claude (36,000+ installs)
• Apple Notes — access your Apple Notes from Claude (27,000+ installs)

Verifying Your Install

To see which skills are currently installed:

ls ~/.claude/skills/

To check a specific skill's contents:

cat ~/.claude/skills/github/SKILL.md

If the file exists and has content, the skill is installed correctly.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Claude doesn't seem to be using the skill

Make sure you restarted Claude Code after installing. Skills are loaded at startup, not dynamically.

"Command not found" when running clawhub

You need Node.js installed. Check with node --version. If it's not installed, download it from nodejs.org.

Skill installed but Claude says it can't do the task

Some skills require additional setup — API keys, config files, or CLI tools. Check the skill's page on DiscoverAISkills for prerequisites. The GitHub skill, for example, requires the gh CLI to be installed and authenticated. Similarly, Tavily Search needs a Tavily API key, and Brave Search needs a Brave API key.

Conflict between two skills

If two skills define the same tool name, the one loaded last wins. You can resolve conflicts by editing the skill files directly — they're just Markdown.

Project-Specific Skills for Teams

If you're working on a team, commit your skills to the repo:

mkdir -p .claude/skills
npx clawhub@latest install github --project
git add .claude/skills/
git commit -m "Add GitHub skill for Claude"

Now everyone who clones the repo gets the same Claude skills automatically. This works especially well for workflow-specific skills like Trello for project management or Discord for team communication.

What to Install First

If you're new to Claude skills, here's a recommended starter pack based on install counts and community ratings:

• GitHub — essential for any developer
• Multi Search Engine — real-time web search across multiple engines (106,000+ installs)
• Nano PDF — read any PDF in chat
• Obsidian — connect your knowledge base
• Agent Browser — full browser automation (72,000+ installs)
• Skill Creator — build your own custom skills (65,000+ installs)
• Auto-Updater — keeps your installed skills up to date automatically (67,000+ installs)

Browse the full catalog at DiscoverAISkills to find skills for your specific workflow. You can filter by platform, category, or browse top rankings.