Claude Skill MartBrowse skillsWhat is a Skill?
 
← Back to list

Skill Template (empty scaffold)

Official

The minimal SKILL.md scaffold from Anthropic's official skills repo, meant to be copied as the starting point for your own Claude Code skill.

UtilitiesBeginner★ 167,132⑂ 19,920AI score 3/10Last updated: Aug 7, 2026

What it does

This is not a functional skill — it is an empty template that you copy to start authoring a new skill.

  • Provides a bare SKILL.md with the two required frontmatter fields: name and description.
  • The body contains only a placeholder heading, so you fill in your own instructions.
  • Matches the exact convention used by Anthropic's official skills repository, reducing format mistakes that prevent a skill from loading.

Who it's for

  • Anyone writing their first custom Claude Code skill.
  • Teams packaging internal conventions, style guides, or review checklists as a skill.
  • Developers maintaining many skills who want a consistent structure.

Examples

  1. Commit convention skill — copy the template, set name: commit-convention, describe it as "use when writing or reviewing commit messages", and list your team's rules in the body.
  2. Report formatting skill — set the description to "use when drafting the weekly report" and define required sections and table layout in the body.
  3. Reference for learning the format — read this file first to understand the minimum frontmatter requirements before studying larger, more complex skills.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart.
Copy the template folder from the GitHub repo anthropics/skills into my ~/.claude/skills/template-skill/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/template-skill && cp skills/template/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/template-skill/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Clone the official repo: git clone https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git
  3. Create your skill folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/my-new-skill
  4. Copy the template: cp skills/template/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/my-new-skill/
  5. Open ~/.claude/skills/my-new-skill/SKILL.md, change name to match the folder (my-new-skill), and write a description that states what the skill does and when Claude should trigger it.
  6. Replace # Insert instructions below with the actual instructions you want Claude to follow.
  7. Restart Claude Code and check your skill list to confirm the new skill is detected.
View source on GitHub ↗