From the blog · AI basics for owners

What are Claude skills (and why your business needs one)?

By Elena CorraoNovember 4, 20265-minute read
the short answer

A Claude skill is a saved set of instructions Claude follows every time a certain job comes up. You set it up once, and the next time you paste in a review or ask for this week's posts, Claude already knows how you like it done. No retyping the same instructions. No "wait, I told you this last time."

Why this matters when you run a business

Most of what eats your week isn't new work. It's the same jobs on repeat: replying to reviews, writing the weekly posts, confirming bookings, pulling the sales numbers. If you use Claude for those, you've probably typed the same instructions a dozen times.

A skill fixes that. It's like the recipe card you'd leave for a new hire: here's the job, here's how we do it, here's what good looks like. Claude reads the card every time that job comes up, so you get the same quality on a busy Saturday as you did on the day you set it up.

Prompt, project or skill?

These three get mixed up a lot. Here's the simple version:

PromptWhat you type onceA one-time ask. Great for a quick job. Gone when the chat ends.
ProjectWhat Claude knowsYour business info: prices, policies, your voice. Claude reads it before it answers.
SkillHow to do one jobThe steps for a specific task, used every time that task comes up.

They work best together. The project tells Claude about your business. The skill tells Claude how to do a job for it.

What a skill actually looks like

It's a short text file. No code. At the top, a name and a one-line description that starts with "Use when…", which is how Claude knows when to pull it out. Below that, the steps, in plain English, the way you'd explain it to a new hire.

A tiny example
---
name: booking-confirmations
description: Use when I paste a booking request and need a confirmation message.
---
1. Thank them by first name.
2. Repeat the day, time and service so there's no mix-up.
3. Add our cancellation policy in one sentence.
4. Keep it under 60 words and sign off as [your name].

5 skills every small business should have

  • 1Review repliesPaste a review, get a reply that thanks them, mentions what they said, and handles complaints without excuses.
  • 2Weekly promo postsA few notes about your week turn into five posts in your voice, planned around your slow days.
  • 3Booking confirmations and remindersEvery confirmation has the right day, time, service and policy, every time.
  • 4Weekly sales recapUpload your sales report, get a plain-English recap and one thing to do next week.
  • 5Team questionsYour policies and how-tos in one place, so your team asks Claude before they come find you.

How to add a skill to Claude

The easy way: do the job once in a chat, go back and forth until it's how you like it, then say "turn what we just did into a skill." Claude writes the file for you.

Or upload one, like the free skill below:

  1. Download the skill. It comes as a .zip file. Don't unzip it.
  2. In Claude, open Settings, go to Capabilities, and find Skills. (Claude moves its menus around sometimes. If you don't see it there, search the settings for "Skills.")
  3. Make sure code execution and file creation is turned on. Skills need it.
  4. Click Upload skill, pick the .zip file, and make sure the skill is switched on.
  5. Open a new chat and ask for the job, like "write this week's posts." Claude picks up the skill on its own.

Steps checked against Claude's help center in November 2026. Skills are available on Claude's free plan and paid plans.

free download

Get my Weekly Promo Posts skill

The ready-made version of skill #2. Tell Claude what's happening this week, and it writes five posts in your voice: a hook, a caption, a call to action, a photo idea and local hashtags for each, planned around your slow days. It won't make up prices or deals.

  • 01Works with Instagram, Facebook, Google and TikTok
  • 02Uses your real prices and hours from your project
  • 03Upload once, use every week

No spam. Just the good stuff and the occasional useful thing.

Quick questions

What is a Claude skill?

A Claude skill is a saved set of instructions Claude follows every time a certain job comes up, like replying to reviews or writing your weekly posts. You set it up once, and Claude uses it automatically when that job shows up.

Do I need to know how to code to use skills?

No. A skill is a short text file written in plain English. You can also do a job once in a chat and ask Claude to turn it into a skill for you.

Do skills work on Claude's free plan?

Yes. As of November 2026, skills are available on Claude's free plan as well as the paid plans. Paid plans give you more room to use them.

What's the difference between a skill and a project?

A project holds what Claude knows about your business: your prices, policies and voice. A skill holds how to do one specific job, step by step. They work best together.

Want your skills built for you?

In a free 30-minute Strategy Session, we find the jobs you repeat every week and pick the first one to hand off to AI.

Book a free Strategy Session or grab the Prompt Must-Haves
Book a free Strategy Session