Skills
A Skill is a reusable playbook that teaches Claude how you work, so it produces the same high quality output every time you ask. This page explains what Skills are, why they are quietly becoming one of the most useful tools a CFO can own, and how to use the best free ones. It is also home to the skills I build and test for finance teams.
What a Skill actually is
A Skill is a small folder of instructions that Claude loads only when it is relevant to the task at hand. At its center is a single file called SKILL.md that describes what the skill does and when to use it, sitting alongside any templates, scripts, or examples the task needs.
The clever part is how it loads. Claude reads only the short description first, and opens the full instructions just when a request calls for them. Anthropic calls this progressive disclosure. The practical result is that you can keep dozens of skills available at once without slowing anything down or cluttering the conversation.
So instead of re-explaining your board reporting format or your variance commentary style every single time, you capture it once as a Skill, and Claude follows it consistently from then on. Think of it as standard operating procedures that also do the work.
Name and description
Always visible to Claude. A short summary, around 100 words, that helps it decide when the skill applies.
Instructions in SKILL.md
The full playbook. Loaded only when a task triggers the skill, so it costs nothing the rest of the time.
Resources
Optional templates, scripts, and data files the skill opens on demand to finish the job.
--- name: board-deck-builder description: Builds a monthly board deck in our house format and tone. --- # Board Deck Builder Instructions Claude follows whenever this skill is triggered...
Why this matters for a CFO
Finance work rewards consistency, accuracy, and repeatability. That is exactly what a Skill is built to deliver.
Consistency you can trust
Encode your reporting standards once and get the same board deck, the same close checklist, and the same commentary structure every time, with no drift.
Speed at month end
Turn a multi hour task like building the flash report or rolling forward a schedule into a few minutes of review rather than a full afternoon of work.
Your standards, not generic ones
A skill carries your formatting, your definitions, and your tone, so the output looks like it came from your team rather than a default template.
Institutional memory
The way your finance function works stops living only in your head. A skill is living documentation that captures the process and runs it on demand.
Auditable and repeatable
Because the steps are written down, anyone on the team can run the same process and arrive at the same result, which matters when accuracy is the point.
Compounding leverage
Every skill you write is reusable across future periods, future hires, and future clients. The library you build today keeps paying off.
A curated skill library
Everything below is free. The Anthropic skills link to their official source on GitHub, where you can read exactly what they do. The cards marked Savvy AI CFO are mine, and I add them here as I build and test them.
Document creation
The core deliverables a finance team produces constantly. These four power Claude's own document features.
Build and edit Excel workbooks with live formulas rather than hardcoded values, proper formatting, and financial model color coding.
View on GitHubCreate and edit PowerPoint presentations with deliberate design rules, ready for board meetings and investor updates.
View on GitHubProduce polished Word documents with tables, headers and footers, tracked changes, and a table of contents.
View on GitHubRead, create, merge, split, and OCR PDFs, and fill or extract form fields, the format most financial paperwork lives in.
View on GitHubBuilding and branding
Skills for making skills and for keeping everything you publish on brand and visually sharp.
Create, refine, and benchmark your own skills, with built in evaluation testing so you know each one actually works.
View on GitHubApply a consistent set of brand colors and typography across slides, docs, and pages. A model for encoding your own brand.
View on GitHubProduce distinctive, production grade interfaces that avoid the generic look, useful for a polished public facing site.
View on GitHubBuild richer interactive web pieces with React and Tailwind, for calculators and tools that go beyond a single static file.
View on GitHubDesign magazine quality visuals as PNG or PDF, for report covers, one pagers, and shareable graphics.
View on GitHubApply ten ready made color and font themes to any deliverable when you want a coordinated look fast.
View on GitHubAutomation and data
Skills for connecting tools, pulling data, and standardizing the communication around your numbers.
Build connectors that let Claude reach external systems and APIs, the bridge to live data from your accounting or billing stack.
View on GitHubA reference for building applications on the Claude API, for when a tool needs to run on its own behind your product.
View on GitHubA structured way to draft documents collaboratively, asking the right questions first, ideal for memos and investor letters.
View on GitHubTemplates for internal updates such as progress reports and newsletters, handy for keeping leadership aligned on finance.
View on GitHubAutomate checks on a local web app, useful for verifying the calculators and tools you ship on this site behave correctly.
View on GitHubFrom Savvy AI CFO
Skills I am building for finance teams. Each one will be downloadable here once it is tested and ready.
Turns a month of numbers into a board ready deck in a consistent house format, narrative and all.
Download coming soonDrafts clear budget versus actual commentary in a repeatable structure, so the story behind the variances is always told the same way.
Download coming soonScaffolds a driver based operating model in Excel with formulas, assumptions, and color coding done to standard.
Download coming soonHow to use a skill
Once you have a skill, whether it is one of mine or one from Anthropic, here is how it gets into the Claude product you use.
In Claude.ai
Go to Settings, open Capabilities, find Skills, then add a new skill and upload its ZIP file.
In Claude Code
Add Anthropic's whole library as a plugin marketplace, then install the set you want.
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
Via the Claude API
Use Anthropic's prebuilt skills or upload your own through the Skills API for tools that run on their own.
How to publish a skill here
This is the workflow for taking a skill from idea to a download on this page that anyone can use.
Create the skill folder
Make a folder named for the skill, for example board-deck-builder. Inside it, add a SKILL.md file. The name in its frontmatter must be lowercase and use only letters, numbers, and hyphens.
Write the instructions
In SKILL.md, write a clear name and description, then the step by step instructions Claude should follow. Add optional references, scripts, and assets folders for any templates or data the skill needs.
Test it before sharing
Run it on real tasks and refine the wording until the output is reliable. The skill-creator skill can help by scoring the skill against sample prompts so you are not guessing.
Package it as a ZIP
Compress the skill folder into a ZIP. The important detail is that the ZIP must contain the folder itself at its root, not just the loose files inside it, otherwise the upload will be rejected.
Host the file and add a card
Drop the ZIP into the site folder, point a download button on this page at it, and switch the card from Coming soon to a live download. From here on it is a normal file you are hosting for visitors.
Others download and load it
A visitor downloads the ZIP and uploads it into their own Claude using the steps above. Custom skills stay private to each account, so nobody sees yours unless you hand them the file.
Want a skill built for your finance team?
If there is a recurring finance task you would like to turn into a reliable, repeatable skill, I would be glad to help design one.
Get in touch