Where Claude Code skills are stored
Short answer: personal skills go in ~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md and project skills in .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md at the root of the repository. Here is every location Claude Code reads, the exact path on each operating system, and where other agents expect the same files.
Updated · Skill Index docs
Every place Claude Code loads skills from
| Location | Path | Available in |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md | All your projects on this machine |
| Project | .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md | Sessions in that repository |
| Nested | <subdir>/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md | Sessions started in or below that folder |
| Extra directory | .claude/skills/ inside a folder passed with --add-dir | That session |
| Plugin | <plugin>/skills/<name>/SKILL.md | Wherever the plugin is enabled, as /plugin-name:skill-name |
| Enterprise | .claude/skills/ in the managed settings directory | Every user on machines your organization manages |
Claude Code also reads project skills from .claude/skills/ in each parent directory up to the repository root. If two skills share a name, enterprise beats personal and personal beats project; plugin skills never clash because they are namespaced.
The personal skills folder on macOS, Windows and Linux
~ is your home folder, so the same personal location resolves to:
| System | Personal skills folder |
|---|---|
| macOS | /Users/<you>/.claude/skills/ |
| Linux | /home/<you>/.claude/skills/ |
| Windows | C:\Users\<you>\.claude\skills\ (%USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills) |
| WSL | ~/.claude/skills/ inside the Linux distribution, not the Windows profile |
Create it if it doesn't exist yet:
$ mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsThe one layout rule that matters
Each skill needs its own folder, with SKILL.md directly inside it, because the folder is the skill. When you clone a repository of skills, copy the individual skill folders, not the whole repository:
- Right:
~/.claude/skills/release-notes/SKILL.md - Wrong:
~/.claude/skills/SKILL.md(no skill folder)
Claude Code watches these folders, so adding or editing a skill takes effect in the running session. If you created the top-level skills folder after the session started, run /reload-skills.
Where Codex, Cursor, Copilot and Gemini CLI look
SKILL.md is an open format, but each agent reads its own folder. These are the folders the open-source skills CLIinstalls into for each agent; check the agent's own docs for any extra locations it also reads.
| Agent | Project folder | Global folder |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | .claude/skills/ | ~/.claude/skills/ |
| Codex | .agents/skills/ | ~/.agents/skills/ |
| Cursor | .agents/skills/ | ~/.cursor/skills/ |
| GitHub Copilot | .agents/skills/ | ~/.copilot/skills/ |
| Gemini CLI | .agents/skills/ | ~/.gemini/skills/ |
| OpenCode | .agents/skills/ | ~/.config/opencode/skills/ |
| Windsurf | .windsurf/skills/ | ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/ |
| Cline | .agents/skills/ | ~/.agents/skills/ |
Install a skill straight into a given agent's folder with the -a flag, and add -g for the global folder:
$ npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design -a codex -gNext steps
Skill in the right folder but still missing? Work through the skill not showing up checklist. Writing your own? See the SKILL.md format. Looking for skills to install? Browse the directory or start with the official skills.