Questions

Where do Claude skills live on disk?

A skill is a directory whose name matches the name in its frontmatter, containing SKILL.md and any optional scripts, references and assets. Where that directory sits decides its scope: alongside a project for one repository, in your user configuration for every session you run.

The directory name is part of the contract

The name field in the frontmatter must match the parent directory name, so renaming a skill means renaming both. This is the constraint people break most often, usually by copying a folder and editing only the file inside it. The skill then either fails validation or is ignored, with nothing in the output to say why.

Project scope against user scope

A skill kept with a project travels with the repository, so anyone who clones it gets the same instructions and the same review history. A skill kept in your user configuration follows you across every project. Conventions that belong to one codebase belong with that codebase; habits that are yours belong in user scope.

What goes in the subdirectories

SKILL.md holds the frontmatter and the instructions. scripts/ holds executable code the agent may run, references/ holds documentation loaded only when a task needs it, and assets/ holds templates, images and data files. Keep file references one level deep from SKILL.md so the agent does not have to chase a path through several hops.