Getting Started with AI Skills - A Beginner's Guide

What are AI Skills?

AI Skills are instruction files (typically named SKILLS.md) that teach AI assistants like Claude how to perform specific tasks. Think of them as "plugins" or "extensions" for your AI agent. They give it new capabilities without requiring any code changes.

When you install a skill, your AI assistant can suddenly do things it couldn't before: browse websites, interact with APIs, manage files in specific ways, or follow specialized workflows. Skills are the bridge between a general-purpose AI and a specialized tool that knows exactly how to help with your specific needs.

Why Skills are Awesome

1. Instant Capabilities

Instead of explaining complex workflows every time, a skill gives your AI persistent knowledge. Install once, use forever.

2. Community-Powered

Browse hundreds of skills created by developers worldwide. Don't reinvent the wheel. Find a skill that already does what you need.

3. Shareable & Portable

Skills are just markdown files. Share them with teammates, publish them to SkillRegistry, or keep them private in your projects.

4. AI-Readable Format

Written in plain markdown, skills are designed to be understood by both humans and AI. Easy to read, easy to modify, easy to extend.

Installing Your First Skill: Agent Browser

Let's install a real skill to see how it works. We'll use agent-browser, a powerful skill that lets AI agents navigate and interact with websites.

What is Agent Browser?

Agent Browser is a headless browser automation tool built for AI agents. It allows your AI to:

Open and navigate websites
Click buttons and fill forms
Extract text and data from pages
Take screenshots
Handle complex multi-step web interactions

Step 1: Install the CLI Tool

First, install agent-browser globally using npm:

npm install -g agent-browser

Then download the browser engine:

agent-browser install

Step 2: Install the Skill

Now, install the agent-browser skill from SkillRegistry. Run this command in your project directory:

mkdir -p .claude/agent-browser && curl -L https://skillregistry.io/skills/agent-browser.md > .claude/agent-browser/SKILL.md

This creates a .claude folder in your project with the skill file inside.

Step 3: Use the Skill

Now when you use Claude Code or another compatible AI assistant in that directory, it will automatically pick up the skill. Try asking your AI:

"Go to github.com and find the most starred repository"

"Open example.com and take a screenshot"

"Fill out the contact form on my-website.com with test data"

How Skills Work Under the Hood

Skills are markdown files with a simple structure. Here's what a typical skill looks like:

---
name: My Skill
description: What this skill does
tags: automation, web
---

# My Skill

## Overview
Explain what this skill enables...

## Commands
List the commands or actions available...

## Examples
Show example usage...

When your AI loads a project directory, it reads these skill files and incorporates their instructions into its context. The AI then knows how to use the tools and follow the workflows described in the skill.

Finding More Skills

Ready to explore? Browse the SkillRegistry homepage to discover skills for:

Password managers - 1Password, Bitwarden integrations
Cloud services - AWS, Vercel, Cloudflare
Development tools - Git workflows, testing, deployment
Communication - Slack, email, notifications
And much more...

Each skill page shows the install command, documentation, and download count so you can find trusted, popular skills quickly.

Next Steps

Now that you understand skills, you can:

Browse Skills →

Explore the full directory of available skills

Create a Skill →

Build and publish your own skill to the registry