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Hands-on AI Playbook

Installing Skills on Claude

Claude supports Agent Skills natively everywhere: Claude on the web, the Claude desktop app, and Claude Code. There are two ways to add them, and both are managed from Customize in the left sidebar.

Before you start: click Customize. If you see a Plugins tab, you can install plugins (paid plans). If you only see Skills, use the ZIP upload — it works on every plan, including Free.

Section titled “Install a plugin (recommended on paid plans)”

A plugin bundles a set of skills so you install them once. Customize → Plugins → + → Add marketplace → Add from a repository, paste the marketplace address (for the Hands-on AI plugin: jamesgray-ai/handsonai-plugins), click Sync, then Install on the plugin card.

Skills from a plugin work in Claude on the web and in the desktop app. Sub-agents (like the framework-agent orchestrator) run when they are packaged in an installed plugin, on the web and on desktop.

→ Use plugins in Claude (official Anthropic docs)

Upload a skill ZIP (every plan)

Section titled “Upload a skill ZIP (every plan)”

Customize → Skills → + → Create skill → Upload a skill, then choose the .zip — don’t unzip it first. Turn the skill on in the list. Requires Code execution to be on under Settings → Capabilities. Uploaded skills appear everywhere you use Claude on your account. Uploading a ZIP is how you add a pre-built skill, such as the ones on GitHub Releases. When you ask Claude to build a skill, it creates the skill and saves it to your account for you.

→ Use skills in Claude (official Anthropic docs)

→ Step-by-step for the framework skills, with screenshots: Install the Hands-on AI Plugin — Claude

Claude Code

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Install a plugin from a marketplace, or drop skill folders into .claude/skills/:

Terminal window
/plugin marketplace add <owner>/<repo>
/plugin install <plugin>@<marketplace>

→ Skills in Claude Code (official Anthropic docs)

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