Claude Skills

The open format is called Agent Skills and works in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents — most people know it as Claude Skills.

Every Agent Skill we could find on GitHub, deduplicated by content. 79 437 files from 1 744 authors, of which 61 785 are unique — the rest is the same skill repackaged into someone else's repository. For each one: what it weighs in tokens, whether it ships runnable scripts, and which MCP servers it needs.

61 785

unique skills

out of 79 437 files found on GitHub

17 652

are copies

same content, someone else's repository

1 737

tokens, median

what a typical skill costs you in context

7 884

name collisions

two skills with one name cannot sit side by side

50 101–50 160 of 61 785

page 836 of 1 030

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by ComeOnOliver

3k tokens

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Claude Skills — questions

Answers built from the skills we actually parsed.

What is a Claude Skill?

A folder with a SKILL.md file: instructions that teach an agent to do one thing well, optionally with scripts and reference files alongside. The format is open and called Agent Skills — Claude Code, Codex and other agents read the same files. It is not a program you run; it is knowledge the agent loads when the task calls for it.

How is a skill different from an MCP server?

A server gives the agent new abilities — it connects to something and exposes tools. A skill gives the agent knowledge: how to use what it already has. They combine, and often literally: 11 333 of the skills here declare which MCP servers they need to work.

Why are there fewer skills here than in other catalogues?

Because we deduplicate by content. Of 79 437 files found on GitHub, 61 785 are unique — the rest is the same skill copied into someone else's repository, word for word. Catalogues that count files rather than skills show every copy as a separate entry.

What does the token count mean?

A skill is loaded into the model's context when it is used, so its size is a running cost on every request that touches it. We measure the whole folder, not just SKILL.md: one official skill is 377 tokens, another drags 83 files of fonts behind it.

How do I install a skill?

Copy the skill folder into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project. The agent picks it up by the name in the SKILL.md header — which is worth checking: 7 884 skills here share a name with another skill, and two of them cannot sit side by side.