Repeatable instructions Claude follows the same way every time.
The full script, word for word — 186 words, about 1 minutes to read. Current as at July 2026. AI tools change quickly; if something looks different when you try it, check the product's own help pages.
Custom instructions tell Claude who you are. But most work isn't about who you are — it's about how you do things. The way you build a report. Your presentation rules. That's what Skills hold.
A skill is a way of working, written down once: how you summarise a document, the standards a deck has to meet, the steps of your weekly report. They live here — and Claude reaches for the right one by itself when the task matches. You don't have to invoke anything.
You can browse ready-made skills, add ones others have built, or create your own — and creating one is just describing your process to Claude and letting it write the skill for you. No code, no format to learn.
Then it just works. Ask for the thing, and the skill shapes the result — same structure, same standards, every time, in every chat. Write once, use forever.
Start with the task you repeat every week — the one where you always give the same instructions. Turn those instructions into a skill today, and you've given them for the last time.