Free collection

Claude Skills & MCP Guide

Instruction sets that teach Claude your way of working, and servers that connect it to your tools. Picked by a developer, all free, all sourced.

Install

Add them to Claude Code in three steps

The short version: a skill teaches Claude how to do a job, an MCP server decides what it can access.

Add the official marketplace: in Claude Code, type /plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills.

Install a bundle: /plugin install document-skills@anthropic-agent-skills for the document skills, /plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skills for the rest.

Use it: just say “use the PDF skill to extract the form fields from this file”. Most of the time Claude picks the right skill even if you don’t name it.

Official Anthropic skills

The building blocks behind every job.

17 skills Anthropic publishes on GitHub for documents, design, development and writing. Each card shows its category and source.

DOCX (Word)

Docs

Creates, reads and edits Word documents; works with headings, tables of contents and templates.

GitHub / official Anthropic

XLSX (Excel)

Docs

Builds spreadsheets, writes formulas, cleans and restructures messy data.

GitHub / official Anthropic

PPTX (PowerPoint)

Docs

Builds presentations and reads or edits existing decks.

GitHub / official Anthropic

PDF

Docs

Reads, merges and splits PDFs, fills forms, extracts text and tables.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Frontend Design

Design

Distinctive, intentional interface design that doesn’t look like a stock template.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Canvas Design

Design

Static visuals such as posters, exported as PNG and PDF.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Algorithmic Art

Design

Parametric, generative art with p5.js.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Theme Factory

Design

Applies 10 ready-made color and font themes to slides, docs and pages.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Slack GIF Creator

Design

Animated GIFs sized and timed for Slack.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Brand Guidelines

Writing

Applies Anthropic’s brand colors and fonts; a good template for your own brand skill.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Internal Comms

Writing

Writes status reports, team newsletters and other internal updates in your company’s format.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Doc Co-authoring

Writing

Co-writes technical specs, proposals and decision docs step by step.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Web Artifacts Builder

Developer

Builds multi-component, stateful artifacts with React, Tailwind and shadcn/ui.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Webapp Testing

Developer

Tests a local web app with Playwright and collects screenshots and logs.

GitHub / official Anthropic

MCP Builder

Developer

Guides you through writing your own MCP server to connect outside services to Claude.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Skill Creator

Developer

Creates new skills, tests them and improves them by measuring performance.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Claude API

Developer

A reference for models, tools and settings when building with the Claude API and SDKs.

GitHub / official Anthropic

Note: the DOCX, XLSX, PPTX and PDF skills are source-available but not open-source licensed; most of the others are Apache 2.0.

MCP servers

Connect Claude to your tools.

Official servers that are useful for developers. Only install from sources you trust; a server can reach as much as the permissions you give it.

GitHub MCP Server

GitHub

Read repos, manage issues and PRs, automate workflows. Hosted version: api.githubcopilot.com/mcp/

github/github-mcp-server

Playwright MCP

Browser

Drives a browser through the page’s accessibility tree instead of screenshots. claude mcp add playwright npx @playwright/mcp@latest

microsoft/playwright-mcp

Filesystem

Reference

Reads and writes files only in the folders you allow.

modelcontextprotocol/servers

Git

Reference

Reads, searches and edits a Git repository.

modelcontextprotocol/servers

Fetch

Reference

Fetches a web page and turns it into text the model can read.

modelcontextprotocol/servers

Memory

Reference

Persistent memory built on a knowledge graph.

modelcontextprotocol/servers

Sequential Thinking

Reference

Solves problems step by step, revising earlier thoughts along the way.

modelcontextprotocol/servers

Time

Reference

Current time and time zone conversions.

modelcontextprotocol/servers

Superpowers

Community

Plan, write tests, don’t move on without a review. Install guide and free PDF.

Read the post

Frequently asked questions

What is a Claude skill?

A folder of instructions, templates and helper files that explains how to do a job. When Claude sees that your request fits a skill, it loads and uses it on its own.

Is it free?

Yes. Every skill and server on this page is free. Most skills in the Anthropic repo are Apache 2.0; the document skills are source-available but not open-source licensed.

What’s the difference between a skill and MCP?

A skill provides the “how to” knowledge; MCP connects Claude to tools such as GitHub, a browser or your file system. They work best together.

Can I build my own skill?

Yes. Skill Creator helps you build and test a new skill, and the template folder in the repo is a good starting point.

Is installing an MCP server safe?

A server can reach as much as the permissions you grant. Pick official servers or ones whose code you can review, and limit file access to the folders you need.

Checked against the GitHub repositories on November 14, 2026.

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