Skills: reusable prompt templates
A skill is a markdown file that Claude loads when you invoke it with / in the chat input. Skills encapsulate workflows, coding conventions, or domain knowledge into a reusable command.
- User skills — ~/.claude/skills/{name}/SKILL.md — available in all projects.
- Project skills — {project}/.claude/skills/{name}/SKILL.md — available only in that project.
Create a skill
Go to Skills in the sidebar and click New Skill. Each skill has:
- Name — Becomes the slash command (e.g., "deploy" is invoked as /deploy).
- Description — Shown in the command palette when browsing available skills.
- Content — Markdown instructions that Claude follows when the skill is invoked. Can include step-by-step procedures, code templates, or architectural rules.
- Scope — User-level (global) or project-level (local).
Agents: specialized Claude instances
An agent is a Claude instance with its own system prompt, model, tool restrictions, and permission mode. Agents are defined as markdown files with YAML front matter.
- name — Display name.
- description — What the agent does.
- model — Override: opus, sonnet, or haiku.
- tools — Comma-separated whitelist of allowed tools.
- disallowedTools — Comma-separated blacklist.
- permissionMode — plan (review first), ask (read-only), or code (full access).
- maxTurns — Maximum conversation turns.
- skills — Comma-separated skills to pre-load.
Scoping
Agents follow the same scoping model as skills. User agents are in ~/.claude/agents/ and project agents are in {project}/.claude/agents/. The Agents page shows both levels with scope tabs.