If you have just downloaded a Claude skill file and you are hunting your machine for a skills folder to drop it into, stop looking. For Claude on the web there is no such folder, and the file does not get installed anywhere. This trips up almost everyone the first time, so here is the whole thing in one place.
The short version
A skill file is plain text. You do not install it. You open it, copy what is inside, and paste that into Claude's Custom Instructions field. That is the entire installation. It takes about a minute.
Installing a skill in Claude (claude.ai)
- Find the downloaded file. It is a
.mdfile, usually in your Downloads folder. - Open it. Any text editor will do: Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac, VS Code, or even the browser. Do not worry that it looks like plain text with a few
#symbols. That is exactly what it should look like. - Select everything (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) and copy it.
- Go to claude.ai, open Settings, then Custom Instructions.
- Paste into the box and save.
- Start a new conversation. Claude now behaves as that specialist.
That is it. Nothing is downloaded to Claude, nothing runs on your computer, and no permissions are needed.
So where is the skills folder?
The confusion comes from the fact that different Claude surfaces work differently, and people search for one answer expecting it to cover all three.
- Claude on the web and in the desktop app - no folder. Custom Instructions, as above. This is what most people mean and what our files are written for.
-
Claude Code - this one does read from disk. Skills live in a
.claude/skills/directory, either inside your project (so the skill travels with the repo) or in your home directory (so it applies everywhere). Each skill is its own subfolder containing aSKILL.mdfile. If a guide told you about a skills folder, this is the one it meant. - Claude Cowork - skills come from what is enabled for your account rather than from a folder you manage by hand.
So the honest answer to "where is the Claude skills folder" is: it exists for Claude Code, and it does not exist for Claude on the web. If you bought a skill file for your day-to-day work, you want Custom Instructions.
Only one skill at a time
Custom Instructions is a single field. One skill lives there at a time. To switch, clear it, paste the next one, save. It takes under a minute.
Two habits make this painless. First, keep your skill files in one folder on your machine that you actually named something findable, so swapping is a copy-paste and not a search. Second, if you catch yourself switching more than a few times a day, that is a sign you want a bundle built around the way you work rather than separate files.
Common problems
The file opens as gibberish or the browser downloads it again
Right-click the file and choose Open with, then pick a text editor. The .md extension confuses some systems into thinking it needs a special app. It does not.
Claude ignores the instructions
Almost always one of three things: you pasted into the wrong box (Project instructions rather than Custom Instructions, or vice versa), you did not save, or you are continuing an old conversation that started before you saved. Start a fresh conversation and check.
Nothing arrived by email
Check spam first. If it is genuinely missing, the file is also in your account order history, and you can email us and we will resend it.
Does this work with ChatGPT and Gemini?
Yes. A skill file is instructions in plain English, and any assistant with a custom-instructions or system-prompt field will accept them. ChatGPT calls it Custom Instructions too; Gemini calls it Saved Info. Our files are written and tested against Claude, so that is where they behave most predictably, but nothing about the format is Claude-specific.
Where to get skill files
We sell about a thousand of them, organised by role. Browse the catalogue, or start with the free ones if you want to test the workflow before paying for anything.
KissMySkills is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Anthropic, OpenAI, or any other AI company.