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/:

bash

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.md to 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.md or 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.