Where to find skills for Claude Code
Every directory that indexes Claude Code skills, with the actual install command for each and where the files have to land on disk.
Contents
Claude Code reads skills from two places. Project skills sit in .claude/skills/ inside the repository, personal skills in ~/.claude/skills/, and each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md. Everything below is about getting files into one of those two paths, or getting Claude Code to do it for you.
The directories
skills.sh (Vercel Labs) has the best usage data of any index: install counts and eight-week trend lines across 18 agent platforms. If your question is “what do people actually run”, start here. Install is through its own CLI.
skillsdirectory.com leads on security posture, with grades and author badges, and ranks first for most Claude-related directory searches. The review method behind the grades is not published. Install is copy and paste.
skillsmp.com is the largest claimed index and is organised by occupation rather than by tool, which is a genuinely different way in if you are looking by job rather than by task. Install is copy and paste.
clawhub.ai is OpenClaw’s official registry with vector search. Smaller and more focused, with a real CLI.
agenticskills.io lists a couple of hundred editorially chosen skills rather than crawling. Worth a look precisely because it is small.
lobehub.com/skills is a well-presented marketplace inside the larger LobeHub product.
claudemarketplaces.com indexes Claude Code plugin marketplaces rather than individual skills, which makes it the right place to look if you want plugins specifically.
skillmd.com, ours, indexes the open corpus with format linting, capability flags and published third-party scanner results, and supports every install route Claude Code has.
A fuller table, including the ones not aimed at Claude Code, is in the agent skills directory landscape.
The install routes, in increasing order of laziness
By hand
Works everywhere, no tooling.
mkdir -p .claude/skills/pdf-tables
# save the SKILL.md into that directoryThe directory name is the skill name. Claude Code picks it up on the next run. Personal rather than project: use ~/.claude/skills/ instead.
With a CLI
One command, and it writes to the right directory for whichever agents it detects on the machine:
npx skillmds@latest add anthropic/pdfThis is worth it mainly because it stops being a single directory once you use more than one agent. The same skill usually needs to exist in .claude/skills/, .cursor/skills/ and .agents/skills/, and doing that by hand three times is how copies drift.
As a plugin
Claude Code has a native package format, and a plugin can carry several skills at once. Add a marketplace once, then install from it:
/plugin marketplace add https://skillmd.com/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json
/plugin install frontend-ui@skillmdClaude Code fetches the plugin, unpacks it and registers its skills. Nothing to copy, and the second line is all that is needed for every later plugin from that marketplace.
This is the route worth knowing about, because a bundle of a dozen related skills through any other route is a dozen separate operations. Our plugins directory lists what is available.
Through MCP
If you would rather the agent did the fetching, connect the registry as an MCP server and ask for skills by description:
claude mcp add skillmd -- npx -y skillmds@latestThen ask in plain language: find me a skill for reviewing pull requests. Setup for other clients is on the MCP page.
In CI
For a repository where the skills should stay current without anyone remembering, a GitHub Action keeps .claude/skills/ in sync on a schedule. That matters more than it sounds once a team is involved, because the alternative is one person’s laptop being the source of truth.
Where the files go for other agents
Same layout everywhere, different directory. The full list is at /agents, and the short version is:
| Agent | Project | Personal |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | .claude/skills/ | ~/.claude/skills/ |
| Cursor | .cursor/skills/ | ~/.cursor/skills/ |
| Codex | .codex/skills/ | ~/.codex/skills/ |
| Windsurf | .windsurf/skills/ | ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/ |
| Gemini CLI | .agents/skills/ | ~/.gemini/skills/ |
| GitHub Copilot | .agents/skills/ | ~/.copilot/skills/ |
Because the layout does not change, a skill you find in any of the directories above works in any of these agents once the file is in the right place. That is the whole point of the standard, and it is the reason brand loyalty to a particular index is not worth much.
Before you install
Open the SKILL.md. It is a text file, it is short by design, and it is the instructions your agent is about to follow. Check whether it ships scripts, whether it fetches anything at runtime, and whether it declares a licence. Most do not declare one, which is covered in how to evaluate a skills registry.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Claude Code look for skills?
Project skills live in .claude/skills/ in the repository, and personal skills in ~/.claude/skills/. Each skill is its own directory containing a SKILL.md file, and the directory name becomes the skill name.
How do I install a Claude Code skill?
Three routes. Copy the SKILL.md into .claude/skills/<name>/ by hand, run a CLI that writes it there for you, or install a plugin, which Claude Code fetches and wires up itself through /plugin install.
What is the difference between a skill and a plugin in Claude Code?
A skill is one SKILL.md file that teaches the agent one task. A plugin is a package that can bundle several skills, plus commands, agents, hooks and MCP servers, and installs in a single command from a marketplace.
Do skills from other agents work in Claude Code?
Usually yes. SKILL.md is an open standard, and the layout is identical across agents, one directory per skill. What changes is which directory the agent reads, so the same file works once it is in the right place.