Claude skills, explained
What a skill file actually is, how Claude decides to use one, and how to install a skill from the Academy in two clicks.
Every team has jobs that come back every week: the status update, the meeting recap, the launch checklist. You explain the format once to a new teammate and from then on they just do it. A skill is that explanation, written down for Claude.
Concretely, a skill is a small folder containing a file called SKILL.md — plain markdown that says when the skill applies and what to do, step by step. No code, no configuration screens. If you can write a good handover doc, you can write a good skill.
How Claude decides to use a skill
You don't run a skill; you just ask for the work. Installed skills live in your workspace's Claude setup folder, and Claude checks their descriptions whenever you ask for something. Say "clean up these meeting notes" and Claude notices the meeting-notes skill matches, follows its steps, and produces the format the skill defines — same structure every time, whoever asks.
That consistency is the point. Without a skill, Claude improvises a reasonable format each time. With one, your team's format is the format.
Installing a skill from the Academy
- Download the skill from the library below — it arrives as a small zip.
- In Sofos, find Claude setup at the top of the sidebar and click the upload icon next to it.
- Pick the downloaded zip. Sofos unpacks it into the right place and the skill is live — no restart needed.
Every skill in the library also ships with a how-to-setup.md inside the folder, covering what the skill does and any app connections it needs. A skill that creates Jira tickets, for example, needs Jira connected in Sofos's Apps section first — the skill card on this page tells you before you download.
Writing your own
Start from a job you've explained to a person more than twice. Open the SKILL.md of any Academy skill to borrow the shape: a short frontmatter block with a name and description, a "when to use this" section, and numbered steps. Be specific about the output — "a table with owner and due-date columns" beats "a summary". Then ask Claude in Sofos to create it for you; describing the job in chat and asking Claude to save it as a skill works surprisingly well.