Master the art of automating your terminal with custom AI skills.
Stop explaining yourself every session.
Every new Claude session starts cold. You paste in your stack, your conventions, your deploy process — again. It's a tax on your time that compounds every single day.
Skills fix this. A skill is a markdown file that lives in your project. Claude reads it automatically and knows your workflow forever.
Write it once, never repeat yourself again. Skills are just markdown files — no scripts, no installs, no configuration wizards.
“Claude stopped asking questions I've already answered a hundred times.”
What is Claude Code, exactly?
Claude Code is a full CLI that runs in your terminal. It doesn't just answer questions — it opens files, writes code, runs commands, and manages git. It's an agent, not a chatbot.
You need a paid Claude account (Pro, Max, or Team — from $20/month). On first launch it authenticates via browser. No API keys to manage.
Install in 30 seconds
Claude Code installs as a native binary. Pick your platform:
Install via the official curl script. It auto-updates silently in the background.
curl-fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh |bash
Once installed, navigate to your project and start it. The first launch opens a browser tab to authenticate.
cd your-project && claude
How Claude understands your project
Claude Code uses a layered context system — two tiers that stack on top of each other:
Global (~/.claude/)
Your personal preferences across every project — your name, coding style, communication tone.
Project (.claude/)
Per-repo context — your stack, deploy process, folder conventions, team rules.
Skills and commands are now the same thing under the hood. Both show up as /slash-commands. The skills/ folder is the recommended location going forward because it supports extra features like bundled scripts and templates.
Write your first skill in 3 steps
This is the full process. It takes about two minutes.
01
Create the folder
The folder name becomes your slash command. Choose it carefully.
mkdir-p .claude/skills/deploy
For a global skill (works in every project):
mkdir-p ~/.claude/skills/deploy
02
Write SKILL.md
The description field is what Claude reads to decide whether to auto-trigger this skill. Write it like you're explaining when a human would reach for this tool.
.claude/skills/deploy/SKILL.md
name: deploy
description: Deploy the project to staging or production. Use when the user says "deploy", "push to staging", "ship it", or "go live".Deploy Instructions1 Run npm run build and check for errors
2 Run npm run typecheck
3 Ask: staging or production?
4 Run the appropriate deploy command5 Confirm the deployment URL
03
Use it
Type /deploy explicitly, or just say "push this to staging" — Claude will auto-detect and load the skill.
Discovering skills you already have
Claude Code ships with built-in skills and lets you install community ones via plugins. Here's how to navigate all of it:
List all skills
CLI Plugin
Run /skills inside Claude Code to see every built-in and custom skill available in your current project.
Browse community plugins
CLI Plugin
Run /plugin inside Claude Code to open the plugin manager. Tab to Discover to browse the marketplace — these are GitHub repos bundling skills, hooks, and commands.
Check context budget
CLI Plugin
If you have many skills, Claude can only load so many descriptions. Run /context to check if any skills are being excluded due to the character budget.
Skills auto-trigger when their description matches your prompt. If a skill isn't firing, the description probably needs better trigger vocabulary. Use action verbs: "review", "deploy", "audit", "fix", "explain".
What separates good skills from great ones
Keep skills small and focused
One skill = one workflow. A 'webdev' mega-skill will barely trigger. A 'fix-typescript-errors' skill triggers every time TypeScript screams.
Bundle supporting files
Skills can include templates, example outputs, and shell scripts in the same folder. Claude can reference and run them as part of the workflow.
Use priority levels
Enterprise > personal (~/.claude/) > project (.claude/). If you and your org have a skill with the same name, the org's version wins. Plugin skills use a plugin-name:skill-name namespace so they never conflict.
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