The best Claude skills, by what they make
A short list of the best Claude skills for documents, frontend design, video, slides, images and dev work: what each makes, who it suits, how to install it.
- For
- Claude Code users choosing which skills to install
- Written for
- Claude Code
- Time
- 8 min read · updated Nov 10, 2026
The short answer
The best Claude skills to start with are Anthropic’s own: pdf, docx, xlsx and pptx for office files, frontend-design for UI, and skill-creator for writing your own. Add Superpowers or Vercel’s skills for development work, HyperFrames for video made with code, and a skill that ships a finished look when you need a deck, a social card or a landing page that comes out the same way every time.
Most lists of the best Claude skills are long, and many entries are prompt collections with a SKILL.md header. This one is short and sorted by what you want to make. For each pick we read its SKILL.md or README on 11 November 2026 and wrote down what it produces, who it is for and the install command its authors give. Lookbk’s own skills appear where they fit; they are marked as ours.
How we picked the best Claude skills
- It makes something. A file, a page, a video or a change to your code, not just advice.
- Its source is readable. Every pick is a public repository or a skill page you can read before installing.
- Its authors say how to install it. The commands below are copied from their READMEs or docs.
- One per job. Where two skills do the same thing, we name the one with the clearer scope.
Documents and office files
Anthropic publishes the four skills that handle files in Claude in its skills repository (opens in a new tab). Its README says they are the document skills that power Claude’s file creation, open-sourced under Apache 2.0 as a reference for complex skills. They install together as the document-skills plugin.
The README also says these skills are already available to paid plans in Claude.ai, so you only need to install them for Claude Code or the API. It labels the repository’s skills as for demonstration and education and says to test them before relying on them for critical work.
Frontend and web design
frontend-design is in Anthropic’s example-skills plugin as well as its own plugin in the official marketplace, so you need only one of the two. The frontend-design skill covers what it tells Claude. It picks a new direction for each brief, so two runs can look different. A skill that ships a template trades that freedom for a result you can see before you build. More of those are in design skills for Claude Code.
Video and motion
Claude doesn’t generate video from pixels. Video skills have it write HTML, CSS and animation code, then render that to an MP4 in a browser. Can Claude make videos? explains the limits.
- HyperFrames skills (HeyGen). HyperFrames is an open-source framework (Apache-2.0) that turns HTML, CSS, media and seekable animations into MP4s. Its repository ships 9 skills that teach an agent to plan, write, lint, preview and render a video. For Claude Code, its README gives
claude plugin marketplace add heygen-com/hyperframesthenclaude plugin install hyperframes@hyperframes. It is also listed in Anthropic’s official marketplace ashyperframes. For a walkthrough, see the HyperFrames tutorial. slack-gif-creator(Anthropic). Animated GIFs sized and checked for Slack, in theexample-skillsplugin.- Kinetic Title Drop (Lookbk, free). A six-second, three-line kinetic type MP4 for openers and announcements, built on HyperFrames.
- Pixel Quest Promo (Lookbk, free). A 20-second 8-bit promo in which a pixel hero plays through three stages, one for each of your features.
- Launch Film: Porcelain (Lookbk, Pro). A 60–90 second launch film made from your site and real screen captures.
More options, compared side by side: launch videos with AI agents and motion design skills for Claude Code.
Slides
Pick by where the deck will be shown. If it must be an editable PowerPoint that follows your company template, use Anthropic’s pptx. If you want a deck with a set look that also plays in the browser, use a skill that ships one:
- Swiss Grid Deck (Lookbk, free). An eight-column grid and one accent color. Turns your notes into a browser deck, a PDF and an editable PowerPoint with speaker notes.
- Glass Keynote Deck (Lookbk, Pro). Frosted panels, glowing charts and a roadmap timeline that animate in the browser, plus PDF and PowerPoint.
Images and graphics
Best Claude Code skills for development work
If you install one thing from this section, make it skill-creator: the best Claude Code skills for your team are often the ones you write from a procedure you keep pasting into chat. How to create a Claude skill walks through it.
Lookbk’s free skills in this list
How to install a Claude skill
Add the marketplace once, then install by plugin@marketplace. Skills from a plugin run as /plugin-name:skill-name.
Copy one skill’s folder into ~/.claude/skills for every project, or into .claude/skills in a repository to share it with your team.
Replace <skill> with the last part of the skill page’s address. Free skills need no account. See Install a skill in Claude Code.
How to judge a skill before you install it
A skill is instructions your agent follows and often scripts it runs, so treat it like software. Claude Code’s docs warn that a skill can grant itself broad tool access through allowed-tools, and that a project skill’s allowed-tools applies even in a folder you’ve never trusted. Before you add one, check:
The full list, with commands to search a skill folder, is in Safety checks before running a skill. For what makes a description trigger, see Write a description that makes a skill trigger.
Common questions
- What are the best Claude skills to install first?
- Anthropic’s document skills (
pdf,docx,xlsx,pptx) if you work with office files,frontend-designif you build UI, andskill-creatorso you can turn your own procedures into skills. - What is the difference between Claude skills and Claude Code skills?
- The format is the same
SKILL.mdfolder. Anthropic’s README says its example skills are already available on paid Claude.ai plans; in Claude Code you install them yourself, as a plugin or a folder in~/.claude/skills. - Are Anthropic’s skills free?
- The repository is public. Its README says many of the skills, including the four document skills, are open source under Apache 2.0. Check each skill’s
LICENSE.txt. - Do I need a plugin to use a skill?
- No. A folder in
~/.claude/skillsworks on its own. A plugin is a way to install several skills, hooks or servers at once; see the best Claude Code plugins. - Can a Claude skill make videos?
- Yes, if it renders code to video. HyperFrames and Lookbk’s video skills have the agent write HTML and animation code and render an MP4 in a browser. Claude itself doesn’t generate video frames.
Sources
What this guide says about other companies’ tools comes from their own documentation, checked on Nov 10, 2026.
- anthropics/skills README (opens in a new tab)
- anthropics/skills: plugin marketplace (marketplace.json) (opens in a new tab)
- anthropics/skills: skills folder (opens in a new tab)
- anthropics/claude-plugins-official: marketplace.json (opens in a new tab)
- Claude Code: extend Claude with skills (opens in a new tab)
- obra/superpowers README (opens in a new tab)
- vercel-labs/agent-skills README (opens in a new tab)
- heygen-com/hyperframes README (opens in a new tab)
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