Where Are Claude Skills Stored? File Paths and Locations Explained

A skill is a set of instructions packaged as a SKILL.md file that an AI agent reads to learn a new workflow.

Quick Answer: Claude Code stores skills in two locations: ~/.claude/skills/ for personal skills (available across all projects) and .claude/skills/ for project-scoped skills (committed to the repo). On macOS, Linux, and Windows the paths are the same — ~ resolves to /Users/you, /home/you, or C:\Users\you. Claude Desktop uses the same ~/.claude/skills/ path.

One of the most common questions from developers new to AI agent skills is: where do the skills actually go? Each agent stores them in a slightly different location, and understanding the directory structure helps with installing, debugging, and organizing your skills.

Where does Claude Code store skills?

Claude Code stores skills in two places:

Personal skills live at ~/.claude/skills/. Every skill you put here is available across all your projects. This is where most individually installed skills go.

Project skills live at .claude/skills/ inside a specific repository. These are shared with anyone who clones the repo. Teams use this to standardize workflows — commit a code review skill to the project, and every developer on the team gets it automatically.

Claude Code scans both directories at session startup and loads the frontmatter from every SKILL.md it finds.

Where does OpenClaw store skills?

OpenClaw uses a similar structure:

Personal skills: ~/.openclaw/skills/ Project skills: .openclaw/skills/ in the project directory

OpenClaw calls these "AgentSkills" but the format is identical — the same SKILL.md file works in both Claude Code and OpenClaw without modification.

Where does Codex CLI store skills?

OpenAI's Codex CLI stores skills at:

Personal skills: ~/.codex/skills/ Project skills: .codex/skills/

Where does Cursor store skills?

Cursor reads skills from .cursor/skills/ in the project directory. Cursor focuses on project-level skills since it's tightly integrated with your workspace.

What does the skills directory look like?

Inside each skills directory, every skill gets its own folder:

~/.claude/skills/
├── code-reviewer/
│   └── SKILL.md
├── git-commit-writer/
│   ├── SKILL.md
│   └── scripts/
│       └── parse-diff.sh
├── env-doctor/
│   ├── SKILL.md
│   └── references/
│       └── common-issues.md

The only required file is SKILL.md. Everything else — scripts, references, assets — is optional.

What are the most common installation mistakes?

The most frequent installation error is nesting the skill one level too deep. The path must be ~/.claude/skills/skill-name/SKILL.md, not ~/.claude/skills/skill-name/another-folder/SKILL.md.

Another common issue is having a skill folder without a SKILL.md file inside it. The folder will be ignored.

If you download a zip file from a marketplace like Agensi, make sure unzipping doesn't create a double-nested folder. Check with ls ~/.claude/skills/skill-name/ — you should see SKILL.md directly.

How do I list my installed skills?

To see all skills you have installed:

# Claude Code
ls ~/.claude/skills/

# OpenClaw
ls ~/.openclaw/skills/

# Codex CLI
ls ~/.codex/skills/

To see the details of a specific skill:

head -20 ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer/SKILL.md

This shows the frontmatter with the skill's name, description, and configuration.

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Find and install security-scanned skills for Claude Code, OpenClaw, and more on Agensi.

What are the skill paths on each operating system?

macOS:

• Personal: /Users/YOUR_NAME/.claude/skills/
• Project: <repo-root>/.claude/skills/

Linux:

• Personal: /home/YOUR_NAME/.claude/skills/
• Project: <repo-root>/.claude/skills/

Windows:

• Personal: C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\.claude\skills\
• Project: <repo-root>\.claude\skills\

What's the difference between personal and project skills?

~/.claude/skills/ is your personal library — available in every project on your machine. .claude/skills/ (no tilde) lives inside a repo, gets committed to git, and ships with the codebase so every teammate has the same skills.

Where does OpenClaw store skills on disk?

OpenClaw mirrors the same structure under ~/.openclaw/skills/ and .openclaw/skills/. The SKILL.md format is identical, so the same skill folder works in both agents.

Does Claude Desktop use the same skills folder?

Claude Desktop reads from the same ~/.claude/skills/ directory as Claude Code. Install once, use in both surfaces.

Once you know where skills are stored, you might want to browse the best skills available. See our guide to the best Claude Code skills in 2026 for tested recommendations, or learn how to install skills from GitHub.