Best Claude Skills in 2026: 18 Top Picks by Category

The best Claude skills in 2026 are the curated collections (everything-claude-code, awesome-claude-skills), the workflow skills (planning-with-files, claude-mem), and the specialist packs from credible authors (Trail of Bits for security, Anton Babenko for Terraform, kepano for Obsidian). We index 1,272 published Claude skills and have scored 1,227 of them on security, utility, and maintenance. This is the shortlist: 18 picks across 8 categories, each with a one-line reason and its real GitHub star count.

Most directories hand you a raw list of thousands of repos sorted by stars. The problem with that: the highest-starred entries in the Claude-skill ecosystem are often general LLM apps and SDKs that got tagged as skills, not actual skills you can drop into Claude Code. We filtered those out. Every pick below is a genuine skill or skill collection you can install and use.

TL;DR: the 8 best Claude skills at a glance

Skill	Best for	GitHub stars	Score /100
everything-claude-code	A complete starting config	219,624	100
ui-ux-pro-max-skill	Design and UI generation	94,955	100
claude-mem	Persistent memory	83,683	97
awesome-claude-skills	Browsing the whole ecosystem	65,506	88
obsidian-skills	Notes and knowledge work	36,474	97
marketingskills	Marketing, SEO, copywriting	34,531	91
claude-scientific-skills	Research and science	29,025	91
planning-with-files	Long-task planning	23,749	97

What is a Claude skill?

A Claude skill is a packaged set of instructions, helper files, and sometimes scripts that teaches Claude (usually Claude Code) how to do a specific job well: write Terraform, generate slides, run a security recon pass, plan a long task. Skills load on demand, so you can keep dozens installed without bloating every prompt. They are the open, file-based cousin of MCP servers and GPT Actions. For the difference between the three, see our MCP vs Claude Skills vs GPT Actions comparison.

Best all-in-one skill collections (start here)

If you are new to skills, install a curated collection first. You get dozens of battle-tested skills in one place instead of hunting for each one.

everything-claude-code (219,624 stars, score 100, editor's pick): a complete Claude Code configuration set, agents, skills, hooks, commands, rules, and MCP wiring in one repo. The single best place to start.
awesome-claude-skills (65,506 stars, score 88): the most-followed curated index of skills, resources, and tools for customizing Claude workflows. Great for discovery. Its security sub-score is lower than the others here because it is a link list, not installable code.
antigravity-awesome-skills (41,368 stars, score 97): 800+ agentic skills that also work in Antigravity and Cursor, so the same packs follow you across tools.
claude-skills by jeffallan (10,121 stars, score 91): 66 specialized skills aimed squarely at full-stack developers. Smaller and more opinionated than the mega-collections.

Best Claude skills for coding workflow

planning-with-files (23,749 stars, score 97): a Manus-style persistent-markdown planning skill. It keeps the plan in files so Claude does not lose the thread on long, multi-step tasks. Our highest-scoring pure workflow skill.
claude-mem (83,683 stars, score 97): captures what Claude does across a coding session and compresses it into reusable memory, so context survives between runs.
Claudeception (2,364 stars, score 88): autonomous skill extraction. Claude Code writes new skills for itself as it works, getting more capable over time. The most experimental pick on this list.

Best Claude skills for design and front-end

ui-ux-pro-max-skill (94,955 stars, score 100, editor's pick): design intelligence for building professional UI across platforms. One of only two perfect-100 skills on this list.
frontend-slides (22,489 stars, score 88): generate polished web-based slide decks using Claude's front-end skills. A fast way to turn notes into a presentation.

Best Claude skills for notes and knowledge work

obsidian-skills (36,474 stars, score 97): official agent skills for Obsidian from kepano, Obsidian's own CEO. Teaches Claude Markdown, Bases, JSON Canvas, and the Obsidian CLI. Credible source, high score.
axton-obsidian-visual-skills (3,038 stars, score 88): generate Canvas, Excalidraw, and Mermaid diagrams from plain text inside Obsidian.

Best Claude skills for marketing and SEO

marketingskills (34,531 stars, score 91): CRO, copywriting, SEO, analytics, and growth-engineering skills, from marketer Corey Haines. The most complete marketing pack in our index.
claude-seo (9,464 stars, score 91): a universal SEO-analysis skill that audits any website or business type. Pair it with the marketing pack above.

Best Claude skills for research and science

claude-scientific-skills (29,025 stars, score 91): a ready-to-use set of scientific skills for Claude, the strongest research-focused pack we index.
refly (7,388 stars, score 91): an open-source skills builder. Define your own skills by workflow and run them on Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex. The pick for teams that want to build, not just install.

Best Claude skills for security and DevOps

Trail of Bits skills (5,807 stars, score 88): security-research, vulnerability-detection, and audit skills from Trail of Bits, one of the most respected security firms. Fewer stars than the giants above, but the source is gold.
terraform-skill (2,043 stars, score 91): the Claude Agent Skill for Terraform and OpenTofu, from Anton Babenko, the author behind the most-used Terraform modules. Testing, modules, CI/CD, and production patterns.
Claude-OSINT (1,791 stars, score 91): paired recon skills with 90+ modules and read-only credential validators for defensive OSINT work.

How we scored these Claude skills

Every tool in our index gets a 0-100 overall score built from four sub-scores: security (is the code safe to run, any red flags), utility (how useful and broadly applicable), maintenance (is it actively maintained), and uniqueness. We also scan skills for malware, prompt-injection, and credential-theft patterns before publishing. GitHub star counts are pulled from each repo and refreshed periodically. For this roundup we then applied two human filters: we excluded entries that are general LLM apps or SDKs mislabeled as skills, and we favored skills from credible, named authors and organizations. You can read more about our security methodology in our MCP and skill security checklist.

Frequently asked questions

How many Claude skills are there in 2026?

Our index tracks 1,272 published Claude skills, of which 1,227 are scored. The ecosystem is growing fast: new skills for logo animation, diagram generation, data visualization, and document workflows are appearing on GitHub almost daily.

What is the single best Claude skill to install first?

everything-claude-code is the best starting point. It bundles agents, skills, hooks, and commands in one battle-tested configuration, so you get a working setup in minutes instead of assembling it piece by piece.

Are Claude skills free?

Almost all of them are. The skills on this list are open-source repositories you can install at no cost. You only pay for the Claude usage that runs them.

Do Claude skills work with other agents?

Many do. Several picks here (antigravity-awesome-skills, refly, claude-scientific-skills) are explicitly cross-compatible with Cursor, Codex, Antigravity, and Gemini CLI, because the skill format is largely portable.

Browse the full index

This is a curated shortlist. To filter all 1,272 ranked Claude skills by category, score, and security rating, browse the full Claude Skills directory, or explore every ecosystem on the browse page. New to the space? Start with our complete guide to the AI agent tool stack.