Anthropic releases 'Claude Skills,' a service that allows AI agents to be given specialized knowledge, organizational context, and other information in advance and then called upon as 'skills.'



Anthropic's chat AI, '

Claude ,' is equipped with ' Claude Research ,' an AI agent function that reads users' Google Docs and Gmail and then conducts detailed research and analysis. On October 16, 2025, details were announced for ' Claude Skills ,' which allows Claude to load documents related to the task at hand and combine them with specialized skills to perform tasks more efficiently.

Claude Skills: Customize AI for your workflows \ Anthropic
https://www.anthropic.com/news/skills





While a typical AI model can produce useful results with a single agent processing one prompt, Claude combines multiple agents to process prompts in parallel, enabling more sophisticated and complex tasks than a single agent could perform. Anthropic's internal research and evaluation reveals that this 'multi-agent system' breaks down problems into tasks for subagents, making it more likely to find the correct answer.

Anthropic details how it built its multi-agent Claude Research system, significantly improving internal evaluations compared to single-agent systems - GIGAZINE



Claude faced the challenge of needing assistance with procedures, organizational knowledge, file manipulation skills, and other areas to further enhance the practicality of its chat AI. This led to the introduction of the new 'Claude Skills' feature. Claude Skills allows users to access folders containing task-specific scripts and resources, enabling them to more efficiently perform specialized tasks, such as Excel operations or output in compliance with organizational guidelines.

Below is a video about Claude Skills released by Anthropic.

Claude Skills: Specialized capabilities you can customize - YouTube


The video imagines a certain game company and generates slide decks by combining data uploaded by users (materials for new games and other internal information).



After uploading the file, I asked Claude to 'create a slide deck for a new game.' Claude invoked the skills required for the task and automatically extracted the necessary information from the uploaded materials.



Claude combines general skills like documentation with information about new games and other company information to create slide decks.



It is also possible to combine poster creation skills with game materials to propose poster designs.



Typically, loading files into an AI agent to perform a task can take a long time and place a heavy load on the system. Claude loads only the minimum amount of information and files necessary, allowing it to access specialized knowledge and perform tasks quickly. Alex Albert, who is developing Claude at Anthropic, explains, 'Claude Skills packages specialized knowledge and allows Claude to load it on demand as he tackles complex tasks. Roughly speaking, it's like Neo in The

Matrix loading his kung fu skills and acquiring them in a matter of seconds.'



Other features of Claude Skills include the ability to combine skills, the ability to use a common format across the Claude app, Claude Code, and APIs, and the ability to include actual code within a skill, rather than simply generating it through prompts, which Claude can then safely execute and return.

Anthropic's engineering blog provides a detailed explanation of how Agent Skills are designed, including the detailed mechanisms and architecture for efficiently incorporating specialized knowledge and procedures into Claude.

Equipping agents for the real world with Agent Skills \ Anthropic
https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/equipping-agents-for-the-real-world-with-agent-skills



Agent Skills are configured by describing the skill name and description in a basic file called 'SKILL.md,' and combining other files as necessary. As skills become more complex, they contain more context than can fit into a single 'SKILL.md.' However, Claude invokes specific skills by referencing their names, efficiently loading only the information required for each task, allowing specialized work to be performed while avoiding unnecessary processing. Skills do not require direct instructions; the required skills are triggered by the user's message, changing Claude's response.



While skills provide Claude with new capabilities, malicious skills in the environment could potentially cause Claude to take unintended actions or steal data. Therefore, Anthropic warns, 'Only install skills from trusted sources, and thoroughly audit skills installed from less trusted sources before use.'

Also, when creating your own skill, you don't need to manually edit files, you can simply communicate with Claude about the workflow. Below is a movie that shows the steps to create a custom skill.

Creating custom Skills with Claude - YouTube


Claude Skills is available through the Claude app (Pro/Max/Team/Enterprise), API, and Claude Code. Anthropic says it will continue to work on further simplifying the skill creation workflow and developing mechanisms to make it easier to share skills within organizations.

Related Posts:

in AI,   Software, Posted by log1e_dh