skill-install
Install Claude skills from .skill files. Use when installing a new skill provided by the user as a .skill file (which is a zip archive containing the skill directory structure).
SKILL.md
| Name | skill-install |
| Description | Install Claude skills from .skill files. Use when installing a new skill provided by the user as a .skill file (which is a zip archive containing the skill directory structure). |
name: skill-install description: Install Claude skills from .skill files. Use when installing a new skill provided by the user as a .skill file (which is a zip archive containing the skill directory structure).
Skill Installation
Installation
Extract the .skill file to ~/.claude/skills/:
unzip skill-name.skill -d ~/.claude/skills/
The .skill file is a zip archive containing a directory with the skill name (e.g., skill-name/), which includes SKILL.md and optional bundled resources.
Post-Installation Behavior
After installation:
-
Read frontmatter only: Load and read the YAML frontmatter from the skill's
SKILL.mdto understand its name, description, and when to use it. This is essential metadata for knowing the skill's capabilities. -
Lazy-load body: Do NOT read the full body of
SKILL.mdor any bundled resources at this time. Only load these when the skill actually triggers for a relevant task.
This progressive loading approach minimizes context usage while ensuring new skills are available when needed.