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Start by identifying where the skill is failing: Claude.ai (the web app) and Claude Code use different controls and file checks. A missing or greyed-out skill in Claude.ai usually points to code-execution or organization permissions. A Claude Code skill that will not load usually has a path, filename, YAML frontmatter, or description-matching problem. If the skill is visible but never selected, test a direct invocation before changing its instructions.
Use the branch below that matches your symptom, then confirm progress at each checkpoint: the skill is visible and enabled, its metadata parses, Claude can discover or invoke it, and the session can reach the required services.
First, determine which Claude environment is involved
Do not apply Claude.ai instructions to Claude Code or vice versa. Their skill systems have different permission models and failure modes.
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| Claude.ai | Skills section is missing, a skill is greyed out, Claude ignores an enabled skill, or creation/upload is unavailable | Code execution setting and account or organization policy | Open the settings area and confirm code execution and Skills access |
| Claude Code | Upload or parse error, skill absent from the list, automatic matching fails, or a slash command does not work | Skill directory, exact SKILL.md file, YAML frontmatter, and description |
Inspect the directory and validate the metadata before debugging the prompt |
| Either | Installation errors, timeouts, or behavior that changes by machine or network | CLI installation, runtime version, proxy, firewall, or session diagnostics | Run the available diagnostic commands and compare the environment with the current setup requirements |
Fix Claude.ai when Skills is missing or disabled
Check code execution first
Claude.ai Skills depend on the code-execution environment. If the Skills section is not visible or controls are greyed out, open the relevant user or organization settings and verify that code execution is enabled. A skill cannot run when the execution environment it depends on is disabled, even if the skill itself was configured correctly.
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After enabling the setting, reload the Claude.ai session and check the customization area again. If the control still does not appear, sign out and back in, then test from a new conversation. These steps separate a stale session from a policy or entitlement problem without changing the skill’s content.
Check Team and Enterprise policy
On Team and Enterprise accounts, an owner or administrator can disable Skills or skill creation for the organization. Custom roles may also omit permission to create skills. This produces a permissions symptom, not a defect in your instructions: an existing skill may be usable while the create or upload control remains unavailable.
- Ask an organization owner whether Skills are enabled for the workspace.
- Confirm that your custom role includes permission to create or upload skills.
- If the skill was provisioned by an owner, check whether you are allowed to enable it even when you cannot create your own.
- Test with a simple, already-provisioned skill. If it works, the account can run skills and the problem is limited to creation or access for the other skill.
Do not try to work around an organization restriction by repeatedly uploading the same file. The owner must change the policy or assign the required role.
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Confirm the toggle and customization path
Open Customize > Skills and verify that the intended skill is toggled on. If it is off, Claude has no reason to load it. If the toggle is unavailable, return to the permissions checks above rather than rewriting the skill.
Make the description match the user’s request
Claude uses the skill’s description and instructions to decide whether a request matches. A broad description such as “helps with documents” gives the model little signal when several skills could apply. State both the task and the conditions for using it, using phrases that people actually type.
For example, a useful description identifies the input, the transformation, and the expected output: “Use when the user asks to convert a CSV into a normalized JSON file and preserve the original column names.” This is more discriminating than “data utility.” Keep the description focused on the skill’s job; unrelated capabilities create competing matches.
Use an explicit prompt to test matching
Ask for the task while naming the skill or its distinctive action: “Use the invoice-normalization skill to convert this CSV to JSON.” If Claude selects it after that wording but not after a vague request, the skill is available and the remaining issue is automatic trigger matching. Refine the description with the missing user language rather than adding unrelated instructions.
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Test one task at a time in a new conversation. A long thread can contain prior instructions that make it difficult to tell whether the current request matched the skill.
Separate matching from execution
If the skill is visible, enabled, and selected but its result is wrong, the trigger worked. Debug the skill’s instructions, input assumptions, and output requirements next. If Claude never selects it, stay focused on the description, prompt wording, and account access; changing operational instructions will not fix a trigger that never occurs.
Fix Claude.ai skill creation or upload failures
Creation and upload can be blocked by either account policy or the execution setting. Confirm code execution, then verify that your role is allowed to create skills. On managed workspaces, ask an owner to create the skill or grant the capability if policy permits.
When a small test skill uploads successfully but the real one does not, compare their metadata and instructions. Remove optional complexity, upload again, and add sections back incrementally. This isolates a malformed field from a policy restriction. If no skill can be created, stop editing content and have an administrator check workspace settings.
Fix Claude Code skills that will not load
Verify the directory and exact filename
Anthropic’s Skills guidance treats a missing or incorrectly cased SKILL.md as a common upload problem. The filename must be exactly SKILL.md, including capital letters. Check for variants such as skill.md, SKILL.MD, an extra extension, or a file nested one directory deeper than the location Claude Code scans.
Confirm that the skill directory itself is in the supported location for your installation and that your account can read it. A path that works in one shell may point to a different home directory under another user or operating system.
Validate YAML frontmatter
The metadata at the top of SKILL.md must use valid YAML and proper delimiter lines. A typical file starts with an opening line of three hyphens, contains the metadata fields, and closes the frontmatter with another line of three hyphens before the instruction text. Check for:
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- Tabs or indentation that YAML does not accept.
- Unescaped colon, quote, or multiline text that changes the value’s structure.
- Duplicate keys or unsupported fields.
- Smart quotes or other characters introduced by a rich-text editor.
Save the file as plain UTF-8 text. Reopen it in a code editor and inspect the first lines directly; a visual editor can hide whitespace or substitute punctuation.
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Keep the name simple and machine-friendly. Anthropic’s examples use lowercase, hyphenated names such as invoice-normalizer. Avoid spaces, capital letters, and punctuation that may be rejected by the loader. The directory name, metadata name, and any user-invocable command should be consistent so that you can recognize the skill in listings and prompts.
Make the description specific about what and when
Claude Code uses the skill’s name and description to decide whether a request matches; it loads the full instructions only after triggering. The description therefore needs two parts:
- What it does: identify the operation and the type of input or output.
- When to use it: list concrete tasks, phrases, or conditions that should activate it.
Replace vague text such as “general helper” with language tied to real requests: “Use when the user asks to lint a Python package, explain a linter failure, or generate a configuration for the package’s CI run.” Include synonyms users might use, but do not turn the description into a catalog of unrelated tasks.
Check discovery before testing behavior
Ask Claude Code what skills are available. If the skill does not appear, the problem is still installation, path, filename, or metadata parsing. Fix those first. If it appears, automatic matching is the next suspect.
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Rephrase the request using the exact terms from the description. If the skill is user-invocable, try its slash command directly, for example /skill-name. A successful direct invocation proves that the skill can be found and loaded; failure points to availability, naming, or parsing instead of prompt matching.
Validate plugin-provided skills
When the skill is delivered through a plugin, run claude plugin validate against the relevant skills directory. Validation can identify structural and metadata problems before a conversation attempts to load the skill. Use the command on the directory that actually contains the plugin’s skill files, not on a parent folder with unrelated content.
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Diagnose broader Claude Code installation and session problems
Use the built-in diagnostics
Run claude doctor to inspect the installation type and version. Use Claude Code’s --verbose mode when you need turn-by-turn session output. These are general installation and session diagnostics, not guaranteed skill-specific error detectors, but they can reveal that the command is using an unexpected installation, runtime, or configuration.
Record the command output, Claude Code version, operating system, installation method, and the exact skill path. That evidence makes it possible to distinguish a local file problem from a session-wide failure.
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Compare the current setup requirements
Setup requirements and installer behavior change, so check the current official setup documentation before changing a production machine. The setup information consulted for this guide listed the following baseline requirements:
| Area | Requirement listed in the setup guidance | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | 10.15 or later | Verify the current supported release before installation |
| Linux | Ubuntu 20.04 or later, or Debian 10 or later | Other distributions may require separate confirmation |
| Windows | Windows 10 or later with WSL or Git for Windows | Confirm the currently supported Windows integration |
| Memory | 4 GB or more RAM | Available memory can still affect large tasks |
| Runtime | Node.js 18 or later | Check the live documentation for current runtime changes |
| Connectivity | Internet access | Corporate proxies and firewalls may require additional configuration |
If your machine falls below a listed baseline, fix that mismatch before debugging a skill file. A skill that works on one computer but fails on another often reflects a different runtime or installation rather than different instructions.
Choose an installation method deliberately
The setup guidance describes global npm, local, and native-binary installation options. Keep one installation method per test machine when possible; multiple copies can cause the shell to run a different version than the one you updated.
Avoid sudo npm install -g. The setup guidance cautions that using sudo for a global npm install can create permission problems and security risks. If a global install requires elevated permissions, use the documented user-level or native installation path instead, then reopen the terminal and verify which executable is being used.
Check proxy and firewall configuration
Network failures can look like a skill failure when the skill loads but cannot complete an API request. For a corporate network, compare the machine’s proxy configuration with the current Claude Code proxy documentation.
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Use the supported proxy variables
Anthropic documents HTTP and HTTPS proxy environment variables for Claude Code. Set the variables using the syntax required by your shell and organization, then start a new Claude Code session so it inherits the values. Do not assume that a browser proxy setting automatically applies to the terminal.
Claude Code does not support SOCKS proxies or NO_PROXY. If your network architecture depends on either, request a supported HTTP or HTTPS proxy path from the network administrator instead of adding an unsupported bypass variable.
Allow the documented destinations
The proxy guidance lists api.anthropic.com, statsig.anthropic.com, and sentry.io as network destinations to allow. Network policies and destination lists can change, so confirm the current list before modifying a firewall. Permit only the destinations required by the current documentation and your organization’s security review.
Test connectivity from the same shell and user account that launches Claude Code. A successful browser request does not prove that the CLI can resolve DNS, authenticate through the proxy, or establish an outbound connection.
A complete troubleshooting sequence
Follow this order to avoid mixing unrelated causes:
- Classify the environment. Decide whether the symptom is in Claude.ai, Claude Code, or both.
- Record the symptom exactly. Note whether the skill is missing, greyed out, rejected on upload, absent from discovery, not automatically selected, or selected but failing during execution.
- Check access controls. In Claude.ai, verify code execution and workspace policy. In Claude Code, verify that the current user can read the skill directory.
- Check the artifact. Confirm the exact
SKILL.mdfilename, directory location, valid YAML frontmatter, and a simple lowercase-hyphenated name. - Check discoverability. Ask Claude Code to list available skills, or inspect Claude.ai’s enabled Skills list.
- Test direct invocation. Use an explicit skill name in Claude.ai or the slash command in Claude Code when supported.
- Test automatic matching. Use a natural request containing the phrases in the description. If direct invocation works but automatic matching fails, revise only the description and trigger language.
- Run diagnostics. Use
claude doctorand, when needed,--verbose. Capture the version and installation details. - Check the runtime and network. Compare operating-system, Node.js, memory, proxy, and firewall settings with the current setup documentation.
- Retest with a minimal skill. A tiny skill with simple metadata separates a platform problem from complexity in the original skill.
Use symptoms to choose the next check
| Symptom | Most likely area | Next action | Evidence that the branch is fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skills section absent in Claude.ai | Code execution or workspace policy | Enable code execution and ask an owner to verify Skills policy and role permissions | Skills appears in Customize and can be opened |
| Skill is greyed out | Account entitlement or organization restriction | Check whether an owner provisioned it and whether your role can enable it | Toggle becomes available |
| Claude.ai skill is enabled but ignored | Description or prompt mismatch | Use an explicit request naming the skill, then refine the description with concrete trigger phrases | Explicit and natural requests select the skill consistently |
| Claude Code upload or parse error | Filename, path, or YAML | Check exact SKILL.md casing and frontmatter delimiters and syntax |
Skill loads without a parse error |
| Skill absent from Claude Code listing | Directory location or metadata | Confirm the scanned path, file permissions, name, and frontmatter | Skill appears in the available-skills response |
| Slash command fails | Name, invocation support, or availability | Use the exact user-invocable name and inspect the skill’s discoverability | Direct invocation starts the skill |
| Direct invocation works but automatic selection fails | Description matching | Add the user’s terminology and clarify when the skill applies | A normal request triggers the skill without naming it |
| Skill starts, then times out or cannot connect | Runtime, proxy, or firewall | Run diagnostics and check supported HTTP/HTTPS proxy settings and destinations | The same task completes in the affected environment |
Improve a skill after the platform checks pass
Once the skill is visible, parseable, and invocable, improve behavior in small, testable changes. Keep the main instructions explicit about inputs, sequence, constraints, and output format. State what to do when required information is missing, and define a safe failure response instead of letting the model guess.
Use examples that represent the requests users actually make. Include edge cases only when they change the decision or output. Excessively broad instructions can compete with other skills and make automatic selection less predictable.
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What to collect before asking an administrator or support team
- The environment: Claude.ai or Claude Code.
- The exact symptom and the smallest prompt that reproduces it.
- Account type and, for managed workspaces, whether an owner controls Skills.
- Operating system, Claude Code version, Node.js version, and installation method.
- The skill directory path and confirmation that the file is exactly
SKILL.md. - Whether the skill appears in discovery and whether direct invocation succeeds.
- Output from
claude doctoror a relevant--verbosesession. - Proxy type, relevant environment-variable configuration, and the point at which the network request fails.
Remove secrets, tokens, private prompts, and customer data before sharing logs. This evidence lets an administrator determine whether the fix belongs in workspace policy, the skill package, the local installation, or the network.
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