How to Use Claude Skills: A Complete Guide

Getting Started with Claude Skills

Before using Claude Skills (the "Tool Use" feature), you must understand one thing: The essence of Skills is the interaction between Claude and external interfaces (APIs). To fully run a skill, the following conditions are usually required:

• API Access: Generally requires API access for the Claude 3 model family (Opus, Sonnet, or Haiku).
• Development Environment: Currently, Skills are primarily implemented through code integration, or used within the Claude Desktop client and the Console Analysis Tool provided by Anthropic.
• Third-Party Credentials: If the skill you intend to use involves services like GitHub or Google Drive, you will need to have the corresponding API keys ready.

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Core Steps: From Configuration to Execution

Step 1: Searching and Selecting Skills

Before you begin, determine which "skills" you actually need.

• Built-in Skills: Such as Claude’s native Code Interpreter, which requires no additional installation.
• Custom Skills: Depending on your business needs (e.g., checking weather, accessing a database), you can browse the Anthropic Tool Use Library for inspiration or ready-made JSON templates.

Step 2: Skill Definition

In your code, you need to describe the skill to Claude using a JSON format. This acts as a "manual" for Claude:

{
    "name": "get_weather",
    "description": "Get real-time weather data for a specified city",
    "input_schema": {
        "type": "object",
        "properties": {
            "location": { "type": "string", "description": "City name, e.g., San Francisco" }
        },
        "required": ["location"]
    }
}

Step 3: Client Configuration (Example: Claude Desktop)

For general users, the simplest way to import skills is through the Claude Desktop configuration file:

1. Locate the configuration file: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.
2. Add the servers or skills you want to run under the mcpServers section.
3. Restart Claude Desktop. A "Plug" icon will appear in the bottom-left corner of the chat box, indicating the skill is active.

Step 4: Execution and Interaction

• Triggering the Skill: Simply describe your need in natural language. For example: "Check the weather in London for today and suggest what I should wear."
• Permission Confirmation: For security, when Claude attempts to call a Skill (e.g., reading a local file or accessing an external link), the system will usually prompt you. Click "Allow" to proceed.

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Best Practices: Using Skills More Efficiently

1. Be Specific to Reduce Ambiguity

While Claude has strong reasoning capabilities, providing specific parameters when calling a Skill significantly improves the success rate.

Bad Instruction: Check the data. Good Instruction: Query the March 2024 quarterly financial report for Company X and generate a summary.

2. Skill Chaining

Claude can call multiple skills consecutively in a single conversation. For example:

• Call a Web Search Skill to gather information.
• Use the Code Interpreter to process the gathered data.
• Call a Google Doc Skill to write the results into a document.

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Troubleshooting

Issue	Likely Cause	Solution
Skill icon not visible	Config file format error or wrong path	Check JSON syntax; restart the app
No response after call	External API Key expired or limit reached	Check the Token status of the third-party service
Claude refuses execution	Task involves sensitive/security operations	Adjust the Prompt; clarify the safety of the operation

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Conclusion

The process of using Claude Skills is essentially transitioning Claude from a "Chatter" to an "Operator." With the introduction of the MCP (Model Context Protocol), installing and configuring skills is becoming increasingly standardized. Once you complete the basic setup, you will experience the power of an AI assistant truly taking over tedious manual workflows.