Antropic has introduced a new feature, "Skills," to Cloud. Available to subscribers, this feature allows users to automate specific tasks by pre-defining how they perform them, eliminating the need to repetitively input the same requests.
Skills are a type of folder structure containing instructions, scripts, and data files that Cloud can retrieve when needed. For example, they can automate specialized tasks, such as Excel analysis or document creation using brand guidelines. Users can create new skills by uploading a "SKILLS.md" file and a zip file containing related resources, and immediately apply them to various tasks, such as creating presentation materials.
Skills operate in the same format across Claude apps, Claude Code, APIs, and agent SDKs. This allows for automated generation of professional documentation, including document creation, presentation creation, and PDF creation. Developers can version-manage custom skills within their code execution environment and share them across teams. Skill creation, viewing, and upgrading are also supported through the Claude console.
Claude automatically loads relevant skills based on the task, allowing you to see which skills are being used during the task through the "chain of thought." Furthermore, tasks requiring code execution are designed to run in a secure environment.
This feature is part of a broader push to evolve AI agents into practical work tools. Earlier this month, OpenAI unveiled a similar concept, "AgentKit," at its annual developer event. OpenAI says this allows developers and businesses to build their own data-driven agents and bring them to production, and that companies like Box, Canva, Evernote, and Lamp are already using it.
