Installing skills#

The skillsctl install command downloads a skill from the registry and saves it where Claude Code can find it.

Install the latest version#

skillsctl install git-commit
Installed git-commit@2.0.1 to /home/you/.claude/skills/git-commit/SKILL.md

Install a pinned version#

Append @<version> to install a specific version:

skillsctl install git-commit@1.1.0
Installed git-commit@1.1.0 to /home/you/.claude/skills/git-commit/SKILL.md

Pinning a version is useful in team environments where you want everyone using the same skill revision, or when a newer version changed behavior you rely on.

Verify with a digest#

Use --digest to verify the content hash before saving:

skillsctl install git-commit@2.0.1 --digest sha256:a3f8c1d2e4b567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890

If the downloaded content does not match the digest, the install is aborted and nothing is written to disk:

Error: digest mismatch
  expected: sha256:a3f8c1d2e4b567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef1234567890
  got:      sha256:b9e1f23a4c678901bcdef2345678901bcdef2345678901bcdef2345678901bcde

You can get the expected digest from skillsctl explore show <name> or from the skill publisher.

Where skills are stored#

Skills are saved under ~/.claude/skills/:

~/.claude/skills/
  git-commit/SKILL.md
  code-review/SKILL.md
  sql-optimizer/SKILL.md

Each skill gets its own directory with SKILL.md at the root plus any supporting files (scripts, references, assets) the publisher included. Installing a newer version overwrites the existing directory. If a directory already exists when installing a multi-file skill, the command refuses unless you pass --force.

Install into a project#

Use --project to install into a project’s local skills directory instead of the user-level one. Skills installed this way are only active for Claude Code sessions started in that project.

# Installs to ./.claude/skills/git-commit/
skillsctl install git-commit --project

# Installs to /path/to/repo/.claude/skills/git-commit/
skillsctl install git-commit --project=/path/to/repo

--project is mutually exclusive with --skills-dir.

Claude Code picks up skills automatically#

Claude Code reads SKILL.md files from subdirectories of ~/.claude/skills/ on startup. Once a skill is installed, it is available to Claude Code in all your projects without any additional configuration.

To confirm a skill is active, start Claude Code and ask it to describe the skill you just installed.

Uninstalling a skill#

To remove a skill, delete its directory from ~/.claude/skills/:

rm -r ~/.claude/skills/git-commit/

There is no skillsctl uninstall command - file deletion is sufficient and immediate.

Next steps#

Backward Exploring skills Publishing skills Forward