Introduction to Claude Skills Beginner

Claude Skills are slash commands that extend Claude Code CLI's capabilities. They turn complex, multi-step workflows into single commands you can invoke with a forward slash.

What Are Claude Skills?

A skill in Claude Code is a predefined prompt template that gets expanded and executed when you type a slash command. When you type /commit, Claude does not just receive the word "commit" — it receives a detailed prompt that instructs it to analyze your changes, write a commit message, and create the commit.

Terminal 
# Instead of typing this:
Claude > Look at my staged changes, write a descriptive commit
         message following conventional commits format, and create
         a git commit. Include a Co-Authored-By line.

# You just type this:
Claude > /commit

Built-in vs Custom Skills

Feature Built-in Skills Custom Skills
Source Ship with Claude Code Created by you or your team
Location Built into the CLI binary .claude/commands/ directory
Examples /commit, /pr, /review-pr /deploy, /test-all, /document
Customizable No (behavior is fixed) Fully customizable
Shareable Available to everyone Share via git (project-level)

How Skills Work

When you invoke a skill, here is what happens behind the scenes:

  1. You type a slash command

    For example: /commit or /review-pr 123

  2. Claude Code expands the skill prompt

    The slash command is replaced with its full prompt template, including any arguments you passed.

  3. The expanded prompt is sent to Claude

    Claude receives the detailed instructions along with access to relevant tools (Read, Write, Bash, etc.).

  4. Claude executes the multi-step workflow

    Claude follows the skill's instructions, using tools as needed to accomplish the task.

The Skill Tool

Claude Code has a special internal mechanism called the Skill tool. When Claude detects that a user's request matches a known skill, it can invoke the skill to get specialized instructions and domain knowledge.

User-Invocable vs System Skills: Some skills are designed for users to invoke directly (like /commit). Others are used internally by the system to provide Claude with specialized capabilities when it detects relevant tasks.

Why Skills Matter for Productivity

⚡

Consistency

Skills ensure the same workflow is followed every time. Commit messages always follow your format. PRs always include the sections you need.

🕒

Speed

Replace multi-minute workflows with a single command. Type /commit instead of manually writing commit messages every time.

👥

Team Alignment

Custom skills encode your team's best practices. Everyone uses the same deployment process, the same code review checklist.

🔬

Automation

Skills can be used in headless mode (claude -p "/commit") for CI/CD pipelines and automated workflows.

Try It Now

Open Claude Code in any git repository with staged changes and type /commit. Watch how Claude analyzes your changes and creates a well-formatted commit message automatically.

← Course Overview Built-in Skills →