Anthropic's Claude skills live on GitHub in the anthropics/skills repository, which held 19 skill folders when I checked on 30 October 2026, alongside a spec folder and a starter template. You don't have to download anything to use most of them: the README says the example skills are already available to paid plans in Claude.ai, and Claude Code users can install them as plugins with two commands.
GitHub repositories look intimidating if you've never used one. This one's easier than most, because every skill is just a folder with a SKILL.md file inside. Here's what's in it, which parts matter to a business owner, and how to get a skill from GitHub into Claude without touching anything you don't understand.
What's in the anthropics/skills repository
GitHub describes it as the public repository for Agent Skills, and the last change was pushed on 28 October 2026. At the top level there are three folders. skills holds the skills themselves. spec holds the Agent Skills specification, the open format these files follow. template holds a starter skill you can copy. The README groups the skills into Creative and Design, Development and Technical, Enterprise and Communication, and Document Skills.
| Folder or skill | What it holds | Licence note |
|---|---|---|
| skills/docx, pptx, xlsx | The Word, PowerPoint and Excel skills that power Claude's document features | Source-available, not open source |
| skills/pdf | Extracting, merging, splitting, filling forms and OCR for PDFs | Its frontmatter says proprietary, with terms in LICENSE.txt |
| skills/internal-comms, doc-coauthoring | Team updates, newsletters, proposals and specs | Read the LICENSE.txt in the folder |
| skills/brand-guidelines, theme-factory, canvas-design | Branding, themes and static visuals | Read the LICENSE.txt in the folder |
| skills/skill-creator | Builds and tests new skills, about 33 KB of instructions | Read the LICENSE.txt in the folder |
| skills/mcp-builder, webapp-testing, claude-api | Developer tools for servers, web app tests and the Claude API | Read the LICENSE.txt in the folder |
| spec | The Agent Skills specification | Covers the format, not a single skill |
| template | A minimal starter skill | Copy it as your starting point |
The full list of 19 is academy-guide, algorithmic-art, brand-guidelines, canvas-design, claude-api, discernment-nudge, doc-coauthoring, docx, frontend-design, internal-comms, mcp-builder, pdf, pptx, skill-creator, slack-gif-creator, theme-factory, web-artifacts-builder, webapp-testing and xlsx.
Licences: what you can and can't reuse
This is the bit most people skip. The README says many skills in the repository are open source under Apache 2.0. But the four document skills, docx, pdf, pptx and xlsx, are source-available, not open source. Anthropic shares them so developers can study a complex skill that runs in a production AI app. Reading them to learn is the point. Copying them into a product you sell is a different question, and the answer sits in each folder's LICENSE.txt, not in the README.
The README also carries a disclaimer: the skills are for demonstration and educational purposes only, and the behaviour you get from Claude may differ from what's in the repository. Treat the GitHub versions as worked examples, and test anything before you rely on it for client work.
Three ways to get a skill into Claude
The README gives a route for each place you might use Claude. Menu paths are as of October 2026.
- Claude.ai and the desktop app. The example skills are already available to paid plans. The quickest way to add a skill without touching GitHub at all is the directory: Customize, then Skills, click the plus button, choose Browse skills, then Add. Skills added this way are view-only. To use a modified copy, download the folder, ZIP it with the folder at the root, and upload it through Create skill, then Upload a skill.
- Claude Code. Register the repository as a plugin marketplace, then install either the document-skills or the example-skills plugin. After that, you use a skill just by mentioning it, for example asking Claude Code to use the PDF skill to pull the form fields out of a file.
- The Claude API. Developers can call Anthropic's pre-built skills (pptx, xlsx, docx and pdf) or upload custom skills through the Skills API.
Copy these commands
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills
/plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skills
Plugins are how Claude Code packages skills for sharing, and the same idea now reaches the chat app too; my guide to Claude plugins explains how they bundle skills with connectors. Some repository skills, such as doc-coauthoring and skill-creator, are written to start fresh helper agents when they run in Claude Code, which is where Claude Code subagents come in.
Which folders to open first
If you're not a developer, open a SKILL.md file directly on GitHub and read it like a recipe. Start with the frontmatter at the top: the name, the description that tells Claude when to use it, and the licence line. Then read the body. internal-comms is a good first read because it's short: it lists the message types it handles, then tells Claude to load a different guideline file from its examples folder for each one. Next, open the template folder to see the bare minimum a skill needs. Leave the long developer skills for later, or for never.
Want AI doing the heavy lifting in your marketing?
I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
The one skill in the repository that's about making skills, rather than documents or designs, is skill-creator. Its SKILL.md runs to about 33 KB and covers test prompts, evaluations and tuning a skill's description so Claude uses it at the right time.
Check a skill before you enable it
Skills can run code, so Anthropic's rule is to use skills only from trusted sources: ones you made or got from Anthropic. A skill from a fork or a third-party repository carries its own terms and its own risks, even when it looks identical to Anthropic's. Before enabling one:
- Check whose repository it came from. anthropics/skills is Anthropic's; a copy elsewhere isn't.
- Read every file in the folder, not just SKILL.md. The Help Center says to pay attention to code dependencies and bundled resources like images or scripts.
- Look for any instruction to connect to an untrusted network source, or for network calls that don't match what the skill says it does.
- Read the folder's LICENSE.txt if you plan to reuse or adapt the skill.
- Test it on work that doesn't involve client data first.
My take on the repository
I'd browse the repository for ideas and patterns, then install anything you want through the directory inside Claude, where it's one click. Skip cloning or downloading the repository unless you use Claude Code; for everyone else, GitHub is a reading room, not a shop. If you're curious about the spec folder and why the same skill format works beyond Claude, my explainer on Agent Skills covers the open standard.
If your team wants to make sense of Anthropic's skills and decide which ones are safe and useful to adopt, that's the kind of AI enablement I help with. I run AI training and workshops for teams, and help businesses with AI enablement and workflow automation, so the busywork runs itself and people get time back. Most of that work is with SaaS marketing teams and small businesses. Here's how we can work together.
Frequently asked questions
Where are Claude skills on GitHub?
In Anthropic's anthropics/skills repository. It has a skills folder with 19 skill folders when checked on 30 October 2026, plus a spec folder for the Agent Skills specification and a template folder.
Do I need GitHub to use Claude skills?
No. The README says the example skills are already available to paid plans in Claude.ai, and you can add skills from the directory in Customize, then Skills, then Browse skills.
How do I install the GitHub Claude skills in Claude Code?
Run /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills, then install document-skills or example-skills, for example with /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills.
Are the Claude skills on GitHub open source?
Many are Apache 2.0, but the docx, pdf, pptx and xlsx skills are source-available, not open source. Check the LICENSE.txt in each folder.
Are skills from other GitHub repositories safe?
Only if you've checked them. Anthropic says to use skills you made or got from Anthropic, and to read every bundled file, including scripts, before enabling one from anywhere else.
