Skill Development for Claude Code FAQs

Question 1

What is progressive disclosure in skill design?

Accepted Answer

Progressive disclosure is a three-level loading system consisting of Metadata, the SKILL.md body, and Bundled Resources. This ensures Claude only loads the specific information required for the current task, maximizing efficiency.

Question 2

Why should I use the references folder instead of the main SKILL.md?

Accepted Answer

Moving detailed documentation and schemas to the references/ directory keeps the core SKILL.md lean, preventing context window bloat while ensuring Claude can still access the data when needed.

Question 3

How does Claude know when to use a specific skill?

Accepted Answer

Claude identifies relevant skills based on the 'name' and 'description' fields in the SKILL.md YAML frontmatter, which should include specific trigger phrases the user might say.

Question 4

What is a Claude Code Skill?

Accepted Answer

A skill is a modular, self-contained package that extends Claude's capabilities by providing specialized knowledge, tools, and procedural workflows for specific domains or tasks.

Question 5

Can skills include executable code?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the scripts/ directory within a skill allows you to include Python, Bash, or other executable code for tasks that require deterministic reliability or are too token-heavy to rewrite repeatedly.

Skill Development for Claude Code

About

Key Features

Use Cases

Skill Development for Claude Code

About

Key Features

Use Cases