How to Share Claude Skills With Your Team Using GitHub
You build a Claude skill. It writes your sales emails in your voice, or builds your landing pages, or audits your email list. You hand it to your VA so she can run it too. A few weeks later, her output and yours don't match. You updated your copy. She's still running the old one. Now there are two versions of the same skill and no clear way to tell which one is current.
I ran into this with my own team. Here is how I fixed it, with the exact steps so you can copy it.
Why this is worth your time
Building good skills is the most useful thing you can learn to do with Claude right now. One solid skill can run a repeatable task in your business. A few chained together can run a whole workflow. Your newsletter. Your launches. Your client onboarding. Your podcast show notes.
A skill only helps if everyone is using the current version. The moment a second person runs your skills, you need one place that holds the right copy. That is the problem this solves.
Why the easy options don't work
Most people try the obvious fixes first. None of them hold up once a team is involved.
- Send the skill as a file. Once two people edit it, you have two versions and no way to combine them.
- Drop it in a shared Google Drive or Dropbox folder. There is no version history, and Claude does not install skills from there.
- Keep it in a notes app like Obsidian. Fine for one person. It is not built for a team editing the same files at the same time.
What you need is one shared folder that records every change and lets Claude install everything in it at once. That is a GitHub repository set up as a skills marketplace.
What this actually is, in plain words
Two terms, defined simply.
A repository, or repo, is a folder that lives online and keeps a full history of every change. A marketplace is a way to package a folder of skills so Claude can install all of them with one command.
You set this up once. Your team installs it once. After that, when you change a skill and push it to the repo, everyone gets the new version. GitHub also keeps every past version, so if someone breaks or deletes a skill, you restore the previous one in a couple of clicks.
When you'd want to do this
Not everyone needs this. If you are solo and you are the only person who touches your skills, skip it. This earns its place the moment a second person is involved.
You have a VA, contractor, or small team running your skills
Anyone besides you who runs your skills needs the current version. One shared library guarantees that instead of leaving it to chance.
You keep re-sending files every time you change something
If your update process is export the skill, message it to your team, and hope they replace the old one, this removes that whole step. You push once. Everyone updates.
You want a safety net for your most valuable skills
Your best skills are business assets. Version history turns a bad edit into a two-click undo.
You want to share skills without paying for extra Claude seats
This one surprises people, so it gets its own section below.
The part that saves you money
A lot of people assume that to share skills across a team, everyone has to be on a paid Claude Team plan. That is not true. And a Team seat adds up fast once you multiply it across a few people.
Claude Team plans give you real things. Shared billing, admin controls, and team management. If you need those, they are worth it. But if the only reason you were looking at Team seats was to get everyone on the same skills, you can skip that cost.
Here is the math. A private GitHub repo is free. Everyone on your team keeps their own Claude plan, like Pro or Max, which they need anyway to use Claude. The free repo handles the sharing. So instead of paying per seat to centralize skills, you centralize them for free and each person brings their own Claude.
This is not a way to avoid paying for Claude. Every person still needs their own Claude plan with Claude Code or Cowork, like Pro or Max, to run the skills. GitHub does not give anyone access to Claude. It only shares the skill files. What you skip is paying for Team seats just to distribute those files.
What you need before you start
Five things. Get these ready and the setup takes about 20 minutes the first time.
- A free GitHub account. Sign up at github.com if you don't have one.
- The GitHub Desktop app. Free, and it is the buttons-only version of GitHub. Download it at desktop.github.com.
- Your skills, each as its own folder with a file named
SKILL.mdinside it. - Your own Claude plan with Claude Code or Cowork, like Pro or Max. Each team member needs their own.
- About 20 minutes for the first setup. After that, updates take seconds.
How the folder needs to be set up
A skills marketplace is just a folder with a specific shape. Two small setup files tell Claude what is inside. Here is the exact structure. Names in this example are placeholders you will replace with your own.
skills/
├── .claude-plugin/
│ └── marketplace.json
└── plugins/
└── my-skills/
├── .claude-plugin/
│ └── plugin.json
└── skills/
├── friday-email/
│ └── SKILL.md
└── sales-page/
└── SKILL.md
Two setup files do the work. The first is marketplace.json. It sits in the top-level .claude-plugin folder and tells Claude this repo is a marketplace and what plugin lives inside it. Here is exactly what goes in it.
{
"name": "my-team",
"owner": { "name": "Your Name" },
"plugins": [
{
"name": "my-skills",
"source": "./plugins/my-skills",
"description": "Our shared team skills."
}
]
}
The second file is plugin.json. It sits in the .claude-plugin folder inside your plugin and names the bundle of skills. Here is exactly what goes in it.
{
"name": "my-skills",
"version": "0.1.0",
"description": "Our shared team skills."
}
Three names matter, and you will reuse them later when you install. The marketplace name is the top name in marketplace.json (here, my-team). The plugin name is the name in plugin.json (here, my-skills). Your skills each live in their own folder under plugins/my-skills/skills/, and each one must contain a SKILL.md.
Folders that start with a dot, like .claude-plugin, are awkward to create by hand. Finder on a Mac will not let you name a folder that way through the normal menu.
So don't build it by hand. Open Claude inside an empty folder and tell it: "Set up a skills marketplace folder named my-team, with a plugin named my-skills, and put my skill folders inside it." Claude creates the structure and both setup files for you. Then you drag that folder into your repo. The rest of this guide assumes you have the folder ready, however you built it.
The setup, step by step
Step 1: Install GitHub Desktop and sign in
- Go to desktop.github.com and download GitHub Desktop. Install it like any other app.
- Open the app. It asks you to sign in. Sign in with your GitHub account.
- A browser window may open to confirm. Click the green authorize button, then return to the app.
Step 2: Create the repo
- In GitHub Desktop, click File, then New Repository.
- In the Name field, type
skills. - Leave Description blank. For Local Path, pick a spot you will remember, like your Documents folder.
- Leave Git Ignore and License set to None.
- Click Create Repository. You now have an empty
skillsfolder on your computer that GitHub Desktop is tracking.
Step 3: Add your marketplace files and skills
- In GitHub Desktop, click Repository, then Show in Finder (on Windows, Show in Explorer). This opens your empty
skillsfolder. - Copy in the marketplace folder you built in the section above, so your
skillsfolder matches the structure shown earlier: a.claude-pluginfolder withmarketplace.json, and apluginsfolder holding your plugin and its skills. - Switch back to GitHub Desktop. You will see every file listed on the left as a change.
Step 4: Commit and publish as private
- At the bottom-left of GitHub Desktop, in the Summary box, type
Initial skills library. - Click Commit to main.
- At the top, click Publish repository.
- In the dialog, make sure Keep this code private is checked. This is your business IP, so private is the only right choice.
- Click Publish Repository. Your skills now live on GitHub, visible only to you.
Step 5: Install it in Claude
This is the only typing, and you are pasting two commands. Run them in Claude (Claude Code or Cowork).
First, point Claude at your repo. Replace your-username with your GitHub username. The repo name is skills.
/plugin marketplace add your-username/skills
Then install your skills. The pattern is always your plugin name, an @ sign, then your marketplace name. From the example files above, that is my-skills and my-team.
/plugin install my-skills@my-team
Every skill in the repo is now installed for you. To use one, call it by name like any other skill.
Step 6: Add your team
This is how your VA, copywriter, or anyone else gets the skills.
- Go to github.com and open your
skillsrepo. - Click Settings, then Collaborators in the left menu.
- Click Add people and enter their GitHub username or email.
- They get an email invite and accept it.
- They install GitHub Desktop, sign in, and click File, then Clone Repository, then pick
skills. This pulls a copy onto their computer. - They run the same two commands from Step 5. Now you all share one set of skills.
Step 7: Turn on auto-update
Worth knowing, because it trips people up: your own private marketplaces do not auto-update by default. You turn it on once, per person.
- In Claude, run
/pluginto open the plugin manager. - Go to the Marketplaces tab.
- Select your marketplace from the list.
- Choose Enable auto-update.
After that, when you push a change, Claude refreshes it the next time it starts and updates the skill for that person. Anyone who wants the newest version right away can refresh on demand with this command.
/plugin marketplace update my-team
The day-to-day: updating a skill
Setup is a one-time thing. This is what you do from then on, and it takes under a minute.
- Open Claude inside your
skillsfolder and tell it what to change. For example, make the Friday email subject lines shorter. - Open GitHub Desktop. You will see the changed file listed on the left.
- In the Summary box, type a short note like
Shorter Friday subject lines. - Click Commit to main, then click Push origin at the top.
Your team gets the new version automatically. One person updates. Everyone runs the same current copy.
When you make a real change, open plugin.json and raise the version number, for example from 0.1.0 to 0.2.0. It is a simple way to track what changed over time.
When someone breaks a skill, roll it back
A new contractor deletes a skill that was working. With a shared folder, you are stuck. With GitHub, you undo it.
- In GitHub Desktop, click the History tab at the top-left.
- Find the change that caused the problem.
- Right-click it and choose Revert Changes in Commit.
- Click Push origin.
Everyone is back on the good version. This is the safety net you set the whole thing up for.
Don't let the word GitHub stop you
GitHub has a developer reputation, so a lot of creators assume it is not for them. Look at what you are actually doing here. You are keeping one shared folder of skills, and that folder records every version and lets you undo mistakes.
The GitHub Desktop app keeps the technical parts behind buttons, so you never touch code. Once it is running, you stop thinking about it. Your team stays on the same version, and your best skills do not quietly fall out of date.
If you are building skills to run your business, this is the piece that turns them from a personal tool into something your whole team can use.
Not sure where to start automating your business?
Take the free Creator's MBA scorecard. In a few minutes you will see which part of your business is ready to systemize first, so you build the right skills before you share them.
Take the Free Scorecard →Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Each person needs their own Claude plan that includes Claude Code or Cowork, like Pro or Max. The GitHub repo only shares and syncs the skill files. It does not give anyone access to Claude itself.
No, as long as you make the repository private. A private repo is hidden from the public. Only the people you invite as collaborators can see it or install it. Keep it private, because your skills are business intellectual property.
No. You use the free GitHub Desktop app, which is all buttons. You create the repo, add your skills, and click publish. The only typing is two short commands you paste into Claude.
After you turn on auto-update for the marketplace, yes. When you push a change to the repo, each person gets the new version the next time Claude starts. Anyone who wants it sooner can refresh with one command.
A private GitHub repo is free. If the only reason you were considering paid Team seats was to share skills, you can skip that cost. Everyone keeps their own plan and shares one free skill library.
