Anthropic skills are the skills Anthropic builds and maintains itself: the Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF skills that Claude uses automatically, plus open example skills on GitHub and pre-built skills for financial services. You don't install the four document skills; as of October 2026 they're available on every plan, Free included, as long as code execution and file creation is switched on.
A skill is a folder of instructions, scripts and resources that Claude loads only when a task needs it. That's all the background you need here. The question behind this search is simpler: which skills did Anthropic make, where do you find them, and do you have to do anything to get them?
What counts as an Anthropic skill
The Claude Help Center sorts skills onto four shelves, and only the first one is Anthropic's own work:
- Anthropic skills: created and maintained by Anthropic, available to all users, and invoked by Claude automatically when they're relevant.
- Custom skills: ones you or your organisation write for your own workflows.
- Organisation provisioned skills: on Team and Enterprise plans, owners can push a skill to everyone, and it appears in each person's skills list.
- Partner skills: built by companies such as Notion, Figma and Atlassian, listed in the skills directory and designed to work with those companies' connectors.
People mix up the last shelf with the first all the time. Partner skills sit in the same directory inside Claude, but Anthropic didn't write them. If someone tells you to grab "the Anthropic Notion skill", what they mean is Notion's skill, hosted in Anthropic's directory.
The four document skills built into Claude
Anthropic's Help Center lists four built-in skills: enhanced Excel spreadsheet creation and manipulation, Word document creation, PowerPoint presentation generation, and PDF creation and processing. You don't call them by name. Ask Claude to "Create a PowerPoint presentation about Q3 results" and, if the capability is on, it reaches for the PowerPoint skill by itself.
| Skill | What it does | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| Excel (xlsx) | Creates spreadsheets, analyses data, generates reports with charts | claude.ai, the Claude API, Claude Platform on AWS, Microsoft Foundry |
| Word (docx) | Creates documents, edits content, formats text | claude.ai, the Claude API, Claude Platform on AWS, Microsoft Foundry |
| PowerPoint (pptx) | Creates presentations, edits slides, analyses presentation content | claude.ai, the Claude API, Claude Platform on AWS, Microsoft Foundry |
| PDF (pdf) | Generates formatted PDF documents and reports | claude.ai, the Claude API, Claude Platform on AWS, Microsoft Foundry |
| Claude API skill | Up-to-date API reference, SDK docs and best practices for eight programming languages | Bundled with Claude Code, also in the GitHub repository |
Here's the catch most people never spot. Anthropic-made doesn't mean installed everywhere. The Claude Platform docs say the pre-built document skills aren't available in Claude Code. Claude Code bundles the open-source Claude API skill instead. So if you live in the terminal and wonder why Claude won't build you a tidy deck there, that's why. The fix is to install the document skills as a plugin from Anthropic's GitHub repository, with the command /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills after adding the repository as a marketplace.
How to check they're switched on
Skills need the code execution environment to run, so the setting that matters sits under Capabilities, not under Skills. As of October 2026 the menu path looks like this:
- On Free, Pro or Max, open Settings, then Capabilities, and turn on Code execution and file creation. In the updated Settings layout it's called Create and edit files.
- Go to Customize, then Skills.
- Check the list. It shows Anthropic skills, any custom skills you've uploaded, when each one was enabled or uploaded, and a short description of what it does.
- Toggle on anything you want Claude to use. Disabled skills aren't available to Claude at all.
- On a Team plan, skills are on by default at organisation level. On Enterprise, an owner has to check that both Code execution and file creation and Skills are enabled in Organization settings, then Plugins and skills, in the Policy tab.
- If the Skills section is missing or greyed out, code execution is off, either for you or for your whole organisation.
What Anthropic publishes on GitHub
Anthropic also keeps a public repository called anthropics/skills. Its README says the skills there range from creative applications (art, music, design) to technical tasks (testing web apps, generating MCP servers) to enterprise workflows such as communications and branding. They're there to show what's possible and to give you patterns for your own skills.
Two details matter before you copy anything. First, the licence split. Many skills in that repository are open source under Apache 2.0, but the docx, pdf, pptx and xlsx skills, the ones that power Claude's document features, are source-available, not open source. Anthropic shares them as a reference for complex skills used in production. Second, the disclaimer. The README says the skills are for demonstration and educational purposes, and what you get inside Claude may differ from what's shown. Read the GitHub copy of the Word skill as a teaching document, not as a promise of how Claude's live Word skill will behave.
Finance skills and partner skills
Beyond the four document skills, Anthropic's skills page points to pre-built skills for financial services, such as DCF modelling and comps analysis. The same page lists the built-in workflows every team gets: Excel sheets with working formulas, PowerPoints with your branding, analysing and visualising your own data, and converting files between formats.
Partner skills live in the directory. Go to Customize, then Skills, click the plus button and choose Browse skills. Skills you add from there are view-only. You can use them, but you can't edit them. To change one, download a copy, modify it and upload it as your own custom skill. The December 2025 update that brought organisation-wide management and the partner directory also published Agent Skills as an open standard, which I cover in my guide to Agent Skills as an open standard.
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Why Anthropic's shelf is the safe place to start
Skills can run code, and Anthropic is blunt about it. The Platform docs say to use skills only from trusted sources, meaning ones you created yourself or got from Anthropic, and to audit every bundled file, scripts included, before enabling anything else. A malicious skill could direct Claude to call tools or run code in ways that don't match what it claims to do. That's the quiet advantage of Anthropic skills: they're the one shelf that already meets Anthropic's own trust rule. If you later want skills bundled with connectors and sub-agents for a particular role, that's what Claude plugins package together.
Which Anthropic skill to try first
I'd start with the document skills, because they need no setup at all beyond the Capabilities toggle. Ask Claude for the spreadsheet, report or deck you'd normally build by hand this week, and check its thinking to see which skill it loaded. Skip the GitHub repository unless you build things or want a pattern to copy for a skill of your own. For most business owners, the directory inside Claude is the easier route, and if you're ready to write your own, start with my plain-English explainer on Claude skills.
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Frequently asked questions
What are Anthropic skills?
They're the skills Anthropic creates and maintains itself: Excel, Word, PowerPoint and PDF skills that Claude uses automatically, plus example skills in the anthropics/skills GitHub repository and pre-built skills for financial services.
Do I need to install Anthropic skills?
No. The document skills are available to all users and Claude invokes them automatically, as long as code execution and file creation is on in Settings, then Capabilities.
Are Anthropic skills available on the Free plan?
Yes. As of October 2026 the Help Center lists skills on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans, with code execution enabled.
Does Claude Code have the Anthropic document skills?
Not by default. The Platform docs say the pre-built document skills aren't available in Claude Code, which bundles the Claude API skill instead. You can add the document skills as a plugin from the anthropics/skills repository.
Are Anthropic's skills open source?
Many skills in the anthropics/skills repository are Apache 2.0, but the docx, pdf, pptx and xlsx document skills are source-available, not open source, and shared as a reference.
