How to install Claude skills on claude.ai and the desktop app (Mac and Windows)

Before you upload: turn on code execution

From Anthropic's help center, read 6 November 2026. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner can also turn off skill creation for users; then there's no option to create or upload one, and you ask the Owner.

Upload the skill in the browser or the desktop app

1. Open Claude at claude.ai, or the Claude desktop app on Mac or Windows, and click Customize in the left sidebar.
2. Open Skills, click the + button, then + Create skill.
3. Choose Upload a skill and pick the ZIP.
4. Check the toggle. The skill appears in your list; make sure it's on.
5. Try it in a new chat: ask for the task in your own words, or once by name ("Use my receipt-check skill").

Skills you upload stay private until you share them, and sharing is a Team and Enterprise feature. On the other plans each person uploads to their own account.

Make the ZIP on Mac or Windows

Anthropic's rule: the ZIP holds the skill's folder as its root, not loose files, and the folder is named like the skill.

receipt-check.zip
└── receipt-check/
    ├── SKILL.md
    └── (any files the skill uses)

• Mac: in Finder, Control-click the skill's folder (the folder, not the files in it) and choose Compress. You get receipt-check.zip beside it.
• Windows: in File Explorer, right-click the folder and select Show more options > Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder. A ZIP with the same name appears in the same place.

The usual mistake is selecting SKILL.md and the other files and compressing them. On a Mac that gives Archive.zip with the files at its root, the structure Anthropic's help marks as wrong.

From Anthropic's, Apple's and Microsoft's help, read 6 November 2026.

Or add a ready-made skill from the directory

Skills made by Anthropic and by partners such as Notion, Figma and Atlassian don't need a ZIP. In Customize > Skills, click +, then Browse skills, and click Add on the one you want. It's on as soon as it's added, and you can switch it off later. Directory skills are view-only: to change one, download a copy, edit it and upload it as your own. On Team and Enterprise, the Your organization tab lists the skills your colleagues and Owners have published or provisioned.

Is there a Claude skills folder on Windows or Mac?

Not for Claude itself. Chat and Cowork in the desktop app use the skills in your Claude account, the ones under Customize, not files on your disk. That's also why one upload is enough: Anthropic says skills work the same on the web, your phone and the desktop app.

The folder people find when they search is Claude Code's: %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills on Windows and ~/.claude/skills on Mac. Only Claude Code reads it. How to install skills in Claude Code covers that folder.

Upload failed, or the skill isn't showing up

Anthropic lists four usual reasons an upload fails:

• The ZIP is too big. The help doesn't give the limit; leave out large files the skill doesn't need.
• The folder's name doesn't match the skill's name.
• SKILL.md is missing, often because the files were zipped without their folder.
• The name or description has characters that aren't allowed. Keep the name to 64 characters and the description to 200.

If it uploaded but you can't see it, it's greyed out, or Claude never uses it, work through Claude skills not showing up: the checks, in order.

A worked example: one skill, a Mac and a Windows PC

Illustration: a made-up business. Maya and Ken run a two-partner bookkeeping practice. Maya works in the Claude desktop app on a MacBook, Ken on a Windows PC, both on Claude Pro. Every month-end Maya pastes the same prompt:

Check these receipts against our expense rules: meals over $60 need the names of who attended, travel needs the client code, nothing paid with a personal card. List each receipt as OK, query or reject, with the reason, and total the OK ones.

And she always has to add a correction: "If the client code is missing, write missing. Don't guess it." She gives the prompt and the correction to the prompt-to-skill skill in Claude, and gets back a SKILL.md that starts:

---
name: receipt-check
description: Checks a month's receipts against the firm's expense rules and marks each OK, query or reject, with the reason. Use when someone uploads receipts or asks "are these expensable?"
---

## Steps
1. Read every receipt. One row each: date, payee, amount, category.
2. Meals over $60: OK only if attendees are named; otherwise query.
3. Travel: needs a client code. If none is written, put "missing".
   Never infer one.
...

1. Maya saves it as receipt-check/SKILL.md, Control-clicks the folder, chooses Compress, and uploads receipt-check.zip in Customize > Skills.
2. She emails the ZIP to Ken. He doesn't unzip it: it already has the folder at the top. He uploads it in his own Customize > Skills on Windows.
3. Both test it on last month's receipts, and both see it in the browser too.

In March Maya adds a rule: receipts from abroad need the currency written out. Her copy changes. Ken's doesn't, until she sends a new ZIP and he replaces his.

Next step: add the team's pod once, not a ZIP for each person

A ZIP is a copy. For a team, every person uploads every skill to their own account, and again after each edit; sharing a skill is only on Team and Enterprise. Share Claude skills without a Team plan compares the ways around that.

AI Skill Pod, this site's product, is the shortest: share AI skills with your team, easily, free to start. Each person adds the team's pod to Claude once, as a custom connector in Customize > Connectors, and everyone reaches the same skills. Edit a skill once and the next chat uses the new version, for everyone. Its skills don't appear in Customize > Skills: Claude fetches them through the connector when a task matches, or when you ask for one by name. Claude Free allows one custom connector; on Team and Enterprise an Owner adds it for the organization. Free covers up to 3 members and 10 skills.

Questions

How do I install a skill in Claude?

Open Customize > Skills on claude.ai or in the desktop app, click +, choose + Create skill, then Upload a skill, and pick a ZIP whose top level is the skill's folder with SKILL.md inside. Code execution must be on: Settings > Capabilities on Free, Pro, Max and Ultra, or the organization's policy on Team and Enterprise.

Where is the Claude skills folder on Windows?

Claude itself has none: chat and Cowork in the desktop app use the skills in your Claude account, under Customize. The folder people find is Claude Code's, %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills on Windows and ~/.claude/skills on Mac, and only Claude Code reads it.

Do I have to install a skill again in the desktop app?

No. A skill belongs to your Claude account, and Anthropic says skills work the same on the web, your phone and the desktop app. Sign in with the same account and it's there.

Why won't my skill ZIP upload?

Anthropic lists four usual reasons: the ZIP is over the size limit, the folder's name doesn't match the skill's name, SKILL.md is missing, or the name or description has characters that aren't allowed. Also check that you zipped the folder itself, not the files inside it.