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How to Import Skills into Claude Code Step by Step

Oct 14, 2026 2 min read By SkillVault Team

Claude Code treats your repository as the agent’s workspace, which makes it the friendliest platform for file-based skills. This guide installs a SkillVault .aiskill config in under five minutes.

Step 1 — Download the skill

Sign in and download the .aiskill file from any skill page — for example Code Review Assistant. The file is plain JSON; open it once to see the prompts.system block and the variables list.

Step 2 — Choose your integration point

You have two options, and they compose:

Option A: Project skill file. Keep the raw file in your repo so both humans and agents can read it:

.claude/
  skills/
    code-review-assistant.json

Option B: Slash command. Create a markdown command at .claude/commands/review.md and paste the system prompt as its body. Now /review invokes the skill from any session in that project.

Many teams use both: the JSON as the source of truth, the command as the ergonomic entry point.

Step 3 — Fill the user template

Copy prompts.user_template and replace the {{variables}} with real content — the code to review, the language, your focus areas. Claude Code works best when the template is explicit about what “done” looks like, so keep the skill’s output-format instructions intact.

Step 4 — Version and sync

Add .claude/skills/ to git. When a skill updates on SkillVault, re-download it, diff, and commit — the same discipline you apply to dependencies. The skill’s version and tested_environment fields tell you whether an upgrade touches behavior you rely on.

Troubleshooting

  • Skill seems ignored — check that the command file has no accidental truncation; long prompts get cut at paste time far more often than at runtime.
  • Literal {{variable}} output — a placeholder wasn’t substituted before sending.
  • Different behavior per machine — someone edited the local copy. Centralize the file and re-sync.

Once your first skill is in, the rest of the library becomes drop-in. Happy building.