Are Claude skills free?

The skills feature itself is part of Claude. Anthropic ships some skills, and open-source skills are free on GitHub. Professionally built skills are usually paid. HuntingHydra publishes 31 skills built for B2B SaaS growth work at $29/month for all of them, or $199 lifetime.

Where do Claude skills work?

In the Claude apps (web, desktop, mobile), in Claude Code, and via the Claude API. In Claude Code they live in a .claude/skills folder. In the Claude apps you enable them in settings under capabilities. The skill format is the same everywhere.

What is the difference between a Claude skill and a prompt?

A prompt is a one-off instruction you paste into a chat. A skill is packaged and persistent: it has metadata that tells Claude when to activate it, structured instructions, and optionally scripts and reference files. Claude loads it automatically when the task matches, so the quality is repeatable instead of depending on how well you prompted that day.

What is the difference between Claude skills and MCP?

MCP (Model Context Protocol) connects Claude to external tools and data sources, like a database or a browser. Skills teach Claude procedures: how to approach a task, in what order, with what output format. They complement each other. MCP gives Claude hands, skills give it a playbook.

Do Claude skills work with ChatGPT or Gemini?

The SKILL.md format is Claude-native, but the instructions inside a well-written skill are plain text. Every HuntingHydra skill is tested in Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini: paste it as a custom instruction or Gem and it runs the same playbook.

How do I install a Claude skill?

In Claude Code, save the skill folder into .claude/skills in your project or home directory. In the Claude apps, enable skills in settings and upload the skill. From the HuntingHydra marketplace you copy or download any skill and paste or save it in under a minute.

Can Claude write its own skills?

Yes. Anthropic ships a skill-creator skill, and you can ask Claude to draft a SKILL.md from a description of your workflow. The catch is quality: a skill is only as good as the process it encodes. Our guide on building skills covers the format and the common mistakes.

What are the best Claude skills for business use?

For B2B SaaS growth work: ICP research, competitive positioning analysis, SEO page audits, GEO brand visibility audits, cold email sequences, and LinkedIn outreach. Those six cover the highest-leverage tasks founders repeat weekly. Our best-skills roundup compares ours and the strongest open-source options.

Who builds the HuntingHydra Claude skills?

The two founders of HuntingHydra, a B2B SaaS studio. Every skill in the marketplace started as an internal tool used in paid client sprints ($5k to $18k) before being packaged. Nothing is scraped from prompt lists.

How many Claude skills exist?

Thousands. GitHub hosts large community collections, Anthropic ships official ones, and directories aggregate them. The problem is not supply, it is signal: most are thin wrappers around a one-line prompt. Curated, tested collections matter more than big numbers.

Do I need to know how to code to use Claude skills?

No. Skills are written in plain language. If you can paste text into Claude, you can run a skill. Claude Code users get automatic activation, but the Claude web and desktop apps work without touching a terminal.

Claude Skills

Claude skills: what they are and 31 you can use today

Skills are the biggest change to how Claude works since tool use. This page explains what Claude skills are, how they work across Claude, Claude Code, and the API, and gives you a directory of 31 sprint-tested skills for B2B SaaS growth work.

// Last updated July 3, 2026. Written by the two founders of HuntingHydra.

What a Claude skill actually is

A Claude skill is a folder that teaches Claude a procedure. At minimum it contains a SKILL.md file with two parts: metadata (a name and a description of when to use it) and instructions (the playbook Claude follows). Bigger skills add scripts, templates, and reference files.

The important mechanic is called progressive disclosure. Claude keeps only the name and description of every installed skill in memory. When your request matches a description, Claude loads that skill fully and follows it. You get specialist behavior without stuffing your context window with instructions you are not using.

Skills turn prompting from a typing problem into an installation problem. You stop rewriting your best instructions and start reusing them.

Anthropic introduced skills for Claude and Claude Code, and the format is deliberately simple: markdown plus optional files. That simplicity is why an ecosystem formed around them within weeks. If you want the full mechanics, read our guide on what Claude skills are and how they work.

Where skills run

Claude apps (web, desktop, mobile). Enable skills in settings under capabilities. Upload a skill once and it is available in your chats.
Claude Code. Drop a skill folder into .claude/skills in your project or home directory. Claude Code activates it automatically when the task matches. Full walkthrough: Claude Code skills guide.
Claude API. Skills run in the code execution container, so agents you build inherit the same procedures your team uses interactively.
Other models. The format is Claude-native but the content is plain text. Well-written skills run as custom instructions in ChatGPT or Gemini. Every skill below is tested in all three.

The directory: 31 Claude skills for B2B SaaS

Every skill below was built inside paid client work at our studio, then packaged. Each link goes to a detail page with what the skill does, how to use it, and example output. All 31 unlock with one marketplace subscription at $29/month.

Positioning3 skills

Competitive Positioning MatrixFeed 5 competitor URLs. Find the gap nobody has claimed.Positioning Statement BuilderEight sections to the one thing you actually compete on.ICP Research WorkflowWho's actually buying, what triggered it, and why they chose you.

SEO1 skill

SEO Page AuditPaste your page. Get 5 prioritized fixes.

GEO / AEO3 skills

AI Brand Visibility AuditFind out what ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity say about you.Dead Content Resurrection AuditTriage every post: Resurrect, Rewrite, Repurpose, or Kill.AI Buyer Journey MapMap every question your ICP asks AI before they find you.

GTM13 skills

Demo ScriptStop touring. Start proving.LinkedIn OutreachSignal-first DMs that book calls.LinkedIn Outreach (Batch)Paste a list. Get a week of DMs.Objection MapMap every objection. Write every answer.Churn DiagnosisMap the root cause before you fix the wrong thing.Job Description RewriteStop filtering in the wrong candidates.Onboarding AuditFind the exact step where users disconnect before they churn.Pitch NarrativeFrom company context to fundable story.Pricing ArchitectureDiagnose what your pricing signals. Fix it.Proposal WriterA proposal written for the buyer, not the seller.Sales Call DebriefWhat the transcript shows. Not what the rep heard.Signal-Based ProspectingBuild a list from buying signals, not ICP filters alone.Win/Loss InterviewWhat actually killed the deal. Not what the rep said.

Copywriting9 skills

Case Study in 30 MinutesRaw interview to publishable proof. A real story, not a template.Pricing Page TeardownScored audit and specific rewrite plan for the page where decisions get made.About Page RewriteTurn your most-wasted page into a conversion tool.Cold Email SequenceFive emails. One job each. Zero filler.Hero Section6 seconds. One layout. Full copy.Onboarding Email SequenceFive emails that turn signups into retained users.LinkedIn Content SystemOne real insight. Five ready-to-post formats.Podcast Content MachineMine one episode for a month of content.Hero H1URL in. Winning headline out.

UX Design1 skill

Design System AuditRoot cause, not symptom. Repair plan before a line of code changes.

AI Coding1 skill

Prompt Cost AdvisorClassify before you code. Stop burning tokens on vague prompts.

Guides

Everything else you need, in reading order:

What Are Claude Skills/claude-skills/what-are-claude-skills Best Claude Skills/claude-skills/best-claude-skills Build a Skill/claude-skills/how-to-build-a-claude-skill Claude Code Skills/claude-skills/claude-code-skills

Why we publish our skills

HuntingHydra is a two-founder B2B SaaS studio. Clients pay $5k to $18k for sprints where we fix positioning, SEO, GEO, GTM, copy, and UX. The skills in this directory are the internal tools those sprints run on.

Publishing them is not charity. Founders who run our skills and want deeper work hire the studio. Founders who never hire us still get tools that were validated on real companies instead of assembled from prompt lists. Both outcomes are fine with us.

What makes a skill worth installing

A defined input and a defined output. If the skill cannot say what you get, it is a vibe, not a tool.
A description specific enough for Claude to know when to activate it.
An opinion. Good skills encode judgment: what to look at first, what to ignore, when to stop.
Proof it ran on real work before you installed it.

Questions, answered

Claude skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and reference files that teach Claude how to do a specific task your way. Each skill has a SKILL.md file with a name and description. Claude reads the description, and when your request matches, it loads the full skill and follows it. Think of a skill as a repeatable procedure you install once instead of a prompt you rewrite every time.

Skip the blank page. Start from sprint-tested skills.

31 Claude skills for positioning, SEO, GEO, GTM, copywriting, and UX. The same skills we run in $5k to $18k client sprints. $29/month, all of them.

Browse the Claude Skills Marketplace See all 31 skills