Start with anthropics/skills (the reference repo), add obra/superpowers if you write code or coreyhaines31/marketingskills if you market, and use wshobson/agents if your engineering team wants many narrow plugins. Do not sort by stars: the most-starred repo here is a development method, not a skills library, and the second is a large harness where 300 skills compete for Claude’s attention.
This guide sorts the 12 repos worth knowing by what they actually contain. Every star count, licence, last-push date and folder count below came from the GitHub API on 2 November 2026. Where a number is the repo’s own claim rather than something we counted, it says so.
What is a Claude Code skills repo?
A Claude Code skills repo is a GitHub repository that holds one or more skill folders, each with a SKILL.md file, plus optional scripts and reference files. Claude Code reads each skill’s name and description at startup and loads the full instructions only when your request matches. Some repos are skill libraries, some are plugin marketplaces, and some are lists of links.
That third distinction matters more than anything else in this article. GitHub repos in this space fall into four shapes:
| Repo shape | What you get | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Skill library | Folders you install directly | anthropics/skills, coreyhaines31/marketingskills |
| Plugin marketplace | Bundles of skills, commands, agents and MCP config, installed with /plugin | anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins, wshobson/agents |
| Methodology framework | A set of skills designed to work together as one workflow | obra/superpowers |
| Awesome list | A curated index pointing to other repos | travisvn/awesome-claude-skills, hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code |
An awesome list with 78,000 stars gives you zero installable skills on its own. A library with 15 folders might give you a complete working method. Know which shape you are looking at before you clone anything.
If the format is new to you, read what Claude Code skills are and how they load first. It explains progressive disclosure, which is why a repo with too many overlapping skills can make results worse.
Takeaway: check the repo shape before the star count.
How we checked these repos
Each repo below was checked on 2 November 2026 with two calls: api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO for stars, licence and pushed_at, and the contents API for the number of top-level folders in the skills or plugins directory. That folder count is what the table calls “skill count”. It is a rough measure. A folder can hold one skill or a plugin with ten.
We asked five questions of every repo:
- Is every file readable before install? Skills can ship scripts that run on your machine. Public source is the minimum.
- When was it last pushed? Claude Code changes often. A repo idle for six months may describe features that moved.
- What licence covers it? Several popular repos report no licence through the API. That affects whether you can fork or ship them inside a client project.
- Does it do something a prompt cannot? Scripts, rubrics, templates and reference files count. Rewritten prompts do not.
- Is the install path documented? One command or a short sequence.
What we did not do: we did not run timed benchmarks or controlled output tests across these repos. No one has published a fair head-to-head test of skill libraries that we could find. Treat the “best for” column as a fit judgment based on contents, not a measured result.
We also searched Reddit and Quora for practitioner threads. The search surfaced mostly blog roundups (Analytics Vidhya, DEV Community and others) rather than Reddit discussion. One recurring point from those roundups is worth repeating: a repo with 100,000 stars can still be a bloated kitchen sink. We agree, and the table shows why.
The best GitHub repos for Claude Code skills at a glance
Data checked via the GitHub API on 2 November 2026. “None” under licence means the API reported no recognised licence file at the repo root. “Folders” counts top-level directories in the skills or plugins folder.
| Repo | Stars | Licence | Last push | Skill or plugin count | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| obra/superpowers | 310,623 | MIT | 29 Oct 2026 | 15 skill folders | Developers who want a test-first, plan-first workflow |
| affaan-m/ECC (formerly everything-claude-code) | 294,788 | MIT | 30 Oct 2026 | 314 skill folders | Power users who want one large harness |
| anthropics/skills | 186,355 | Mixed (per skill) | 28 Oct 2026 | 19 skill folders | Everyone, as the reference implementation |
| ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills | 78,518 | None reported | 18 Sep 2026 | 32 folders plus list | App integrations and automation |
| coreyhaines31/marketingskills | 57,851 | MIT | 31 Oct 2026 | 53 skill folders | Marketers, SEO and CRO |
| hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code | 57,047 | NOASSERTION | 1 Nov 2026 | List (links) | Discovering skills, hooks and commands |
| anthropics/claude-plugins-official | 45,717 | Apache-2.0 | 1 Nov 2026 | 40 plugins + 14 external | Vetted plugins with an Anthropic directory |
| wshobson/agents | 42,080 | MIT | 30 Oct 2026 | 92 plugin folders | Engineering teams wanting many narrow plugins |
| VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills | 36,722 | MIT | 30 Oct 2026 | List (claims 1,000+ skills) | Cross-tool skill discovery |
| anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins | 34,360 | Apache-2.0 | 1 Nov 2026 | 20 top-level folders (role plugins) | Non-developers by job role |
| alirezarezvani/claude-skills | 29,121 | MIT | 31 Oct 2026 | Repo claims 380+ skills | Broad business and engineering coverage |
| travisvn/awesome-claude-skills | 15,666 | None reported | 28 Apr 2026 | List (links) | A short, readable starter index |
Two things jump out. First, the top two repos by stars are not skill libraries in the plain sense. Superpowers is a method, and ECC is a whole harness. Second, three of the twelve report no standard licence, which is fine for reading and personal use but worth checking before you fork.
Best official repos: anthropics/skills, knowledge-work-plugins and claude-plugins-official
The official Anthropic repos are the safest starting point because they define how skills are supposed to look. anthropics/skills holds 19 reference skills, knowledge-work-plugins packages skills by job role, and claude-plugins-official is the Anthropic-managed plugin directory.
anthropics/skills
186,355 stars, last pushed 28 October 2026. The skills folder holds 19 directories, including docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx, skill-creator, mcp-builder, frontend-design, webapp-testing, brand-guidelines, canvas-design and doc-coauthoring.
The licence is the detail most roundups get wrong. The API reports no single licence for the repo, because licences sit inside each skill. We opened two. The skill-creator folder carries an Apache License file. The pdf folder’s LICENSE.txt starts with ”© 2025 Anthropic, PBC. All rights reserved.” So the document skills (docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx) are source-available for use, not open source for redistribution. Read the LICENSE.txt in any folder you plan to copy into a product.
Why install it anyway: skill-creator. Its folder includes agents, an eval-viewer, references and scripts, which makes it the most complete example of how to build and test your own skill. If you only take one thing from this repo, take that. Our guide to building a Claude Code skill walks through the same structure.
Best for: anyone learning the format, and anyone who needs Office document generation.
anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
34,360 stars, Apache-2.0, pushed 1 November 2026. The root holds 20 top-level folders, most of them role plugins: marketing, sales, finance, legal, data, design, engineering, customer-support, human-resources, operations, product-management, productivity, small-business, bio-research and enterprise-search, plus a partner-built folder.
This is the repo to hand a non-technical colleague. Each plugin groups skills, commands and connectors around one job, so a marketer installs “marketing” rather than hunting for twelve separate skills. The trade-off is depth. A role plugin covers the common tasks for that role; a specialist library like marketingskills goes further in one area. See Claude Code skills for non-developers for the setup without terminal assumptions.
anthropics/claude-plugins-official
45,717 stars, Apache-2.0, pushed 1 November 2026. Its plugins folder holds 40 directories and external_plugins holds 14 more. The description calls it the “Official, Anthropic-managed directory of high quality Claude Code Plugins.”
This is a directory, so the value is curation. If your security team asks “where did this plugin come from?”, pointing to the Anthropic-managed directory is an easier conversation than pointing to a random fork. Anthropic has not published its review criteria in the repo description, so treat “high quality” as their claim rather than a guarantee.
Takeaway: start with anthropics/skills for the format, knowledge-work-plugins for roles, and claude-plugins-official when provenance matters.
Best developer workflow repos: obra/superpowers and affaan-m/ECC
obra/superpowers is the most-starred repo in this space at 310,623 stars. It is a compact set of 15 skills that enforce a development method: brainstorm, plan, write tests first, then implement. ECC is the opposite approach, a 314-folder harness covering skills, memory, security and research.
obra/superpowers
MIT, pushed 29 October 2026, 15 skill folders. The repo describes itself as “An agentic skills framework & software development methodology that works.”
The appeal is restraint. Fifteen skills is small enough that you can read every one in an afternoon and understand when each fires. The skills are designed to chain, so the planning skill hands off to the test skill, which hands off to implementation. That is different from a grab-bag library where skills never reference each other.
Who it suits: developers who already like test-driven work and want Claude to stop jumping straight to code. Who it does not suit: marketers, writers, or anyone looking for document or content skills. There are none here, by design.
The 310,623 figure is the GitHub count on the check date. We have no data on how many of those stars come from active users versus bookmarks, and neither does anyone else.
affaan-m/ECC
294,788 stars, MIT, pushed 30 October 2026. This repo was widely linked as everything-claude-code; the API now returns the name affaan-m/ECC. Its skills folder holds 314 directories, and the description lists “Skills, instincts, memory, security, and research-first development for Claude Code, Codex, Opencode, Cursor and beyond.”
ECC is the kitchen sink, and that is both its strength and its risk. With 314 skill folders, you will find something for nearly any engineering task. You will also load 314 descriptions into Claude’s skill index, and overlapping descriptions mean Claude may pick a different skill than the one you expected. Install selectively: copy the folders you need rather than the whole tree.
Takeaway: pick Superpowers for a method, ECC for coverage, and do not install both wholesale in the same project.
Best marketing and business repos: marketingskills and alirezarezvani/claude-skills
coreyhaines31/marketingskills is the strongest marketing-specific library, with 53 skill folders under MIT and 57,851 stars. alirezarezvani/claude-skills is broader, spanning marketing, C-level advisory, finance, compliance and engineering, and its description claims 380+ skills.
coreyhaines31/marketingskills
57,851 stars, MIT, pushed 31 October 2026, 53 folders in /skills. The description reads “Marketing skills for Claude Code and AI agents. CRO, copywriting, SEO, analytics, and grow[th].”
What makes it useful is focus. Every skill targets a marketing job: page CRO, copywriting, email sequences, SEO audits, pricing pages, launch plans. The skills reference each other’s outputs in places, so a positioning skill can feed a copy skill. It is the library we point marketers to first, and we break it down in more detail in Claude Code skills for marketers and Claude Code skills for SEO.
What it lacks: data. A keyword or analytics skill still needs you to connect a data source or paste an export. Without one, any number it reports is a guess.
alirezarezvani/claude-skills
29,121 stars, MIT, pushed 31 October 2026. The repo description claims “380 Claude Code skills & agent skills & plugins (30+ Agents, 70+ custom commands, 380+ ski[lls]).” We did not count all 380; we counted its top-level folders instead, which include business-growth, c-level-advisor, compliance-os, engineering-team, finance, marketing-skill, product-team, project-management, ra-qm-team and research-ops. It also ships config folders for Codex, Gemini and other tools, which signals that skills are written to travel across agents.
One blog roundup we found described this repo as holding 1,200+ skills. That does not match the repo’s own description on our check date, so we use the repo’s figure.
Best for: founders and operators who want one library spanning strategy, product, compliance and marketing. The regulatory and quality-management folders (ra-qm-team, compliance-os) are rare elsewhere. Founders should also see Claude Code skills for founders.
Takeaway: marketingskills for depth in marketing, claude-skills for breadth across a business.
Best plugin marketplace for engineering teams: wshobson/agents
wshobson/agents is a multi-harness plugin marketplace with 92 plugin folders, MIT licence and 42,080 stars. Each plugin is narrow, so teams can install only the stacks they use.
Pushed 30 October 2026. The description calls it a “Multi-harness agentic plugin marketplace for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, GitHub [Copilot].”
The design choice here is granularity. Instead of one giant skills folder, you get 92 separate plugins, which means a Python team can install the Python plugins and skip the Kubernetes ones. That keeps the skill index small, which is exactly what you want for reliable triggering.
The install path uses the plugin system:
/plugin marketplace add wshobson/agents
/plugin install <plugin-name>Check the README for exact plugin names before you run the second line; they change as the repo grows.
Where it falls short: it is engineering-first. Non-developers will find little here. And with 92 plugins, the README is long; budget time to read it before installing anything.
| Need | wshobson/agents | ECC |
|---|---|---|
| Install only one stack | Yes, per plugin | Manual folder copy |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Cross-tool support | Yes, per description | Yes, per description |
| Risk of overlapping skills | Lower | Higher if installed whole |
Takeaway: if you want breadth without loading everything, a plugin marketplace beats a monolith.
Best awesome lists for finding more skills
Awesome lists do not give you skills directly. They point you to them. ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills (78,518 stars), hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code (57,047), VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills (36,722) and travisvn/awesome-claude-skills (15,666) are the four worth bookmarking.
ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills
78,518 stars, no licence reported, last pushed 18 September 2026. Unlike a pure list, this repo also contains 32 folders, many of them skills tied to app integrations. Composio sells an integration platform, so expect the skills to lean toward connecting Claude to outside apps. That is a reasonable bias to know about, not a reason to skip it.
The last push was about six weeks before our check date. That is not stale, but it is the oldest push among the big four.
hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code
57,047 stars, licence reported as NOASSERTION (a licence file exists but the API could not classify it), pushed 1 November 2026. Broader than skills: it indexes hooks, slash commands, agent orchestrators and plugins too. If you are looking for something other than a skill, start here.
VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills
36,722 stars, MIT, pushed 30 October 2026. The description claims “1000+ agent skills from official dev teams and the community.” We did not verify that count. Its value is the cross-tool angle: many listed skills work in Codex, Cursor and other agents.
travisvn/awesome-claude-skills
15,666 stars, no licence reported, last pushed 28 April 2026. That is six months before our check, the oldest push on this list. It remains a clean, readable index for beginners, but newer skills may be missing. Cross-check anything you find here against a more recently pushed list.
| List | Last push | Freshness on 2 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code | 1 Nov 2026 | Current |
| VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills | 30 Oct 2026 | Current |
| ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills | 18 Sep 2026 | About 6 weeks |
| travisvn/awesome-claude-skills | 28 Apr 2026 | About 6 months |
Takeaway: use lists to discover, then install from the source repo, never from a copy.
Which repo should you start with? Picks by role
Developers should start with obra/superpowers plus anthropics/skills. Marketers should start with coreyhaines31/marketingskills. Non-developers should start with anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins. Founders should look at alirezarezvani/claude-skills.
| You are | Install first | Add later | Skip for now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo developer | obra/superpowers | 2 to 3 wshobson/agents plugins for your stack | ECC in full |
| Engineering team lead | anthropics/claude-plugins-official | wshobson/agents | Unlicensed repos you plan to fork |
| Marketer | coreyhaines31/marketingskills | knowledge-work-plugins marketing plugin | Engineering harnesses |
| Content writer | anthropics/skills (docx, doc-coauthoring) | marketingskills copywriting skills | Large monoliths |
| Founder or operator | alirezarezvani/claude-skills (selected folders) | knowledge-work-plugins finance and legal | Everything else until you know what fires |
| Non-developer in any role | anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins | anthropics/skills | Terminal-heavy repos |
| Skill author | anthropics/skills (skill-creator) | obra/superpowers as a chaining example | Awesome lists until you ship one |
Content teams get more specific picks in Claude Code skills for content writers.
A pattern runs through this table: start with one focused repo, use it for a week, then add. People who install four libraries on day one usually cannot tell which skill produced which output, so they cannot tell what is working.
How to install skills from a GitHub repo
There are three common install paths. Use /plugin marketplace add owner/repo then /plugin install for plugin marketplaces. Use npx skills add owner/repo for plain skill libraries where the README documents it. Or copy a single skill folder into ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project).
Path 1: plugin marketplace
For anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins, anthropics/claude-plugins-official and wshobson/agents:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
/plugin install marketingPlugin names come from each repo’s README. Use the exact name it lists.
Path 2: skills CLI
For libraries such as coreyhaines31/marketingskills, many READMEs document:
npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskillsRun it only if the README says so; not every repo supports it.
Path 3: manual copy
The safest way to take one skill from a big repo:
git clone https://github.com/obra/superpowers /tmp/superpowers
cp -r /tmp/superpowers/skills/<skill-name> ~/.claude/skills/Manual copy keeps your skill index small and lets you read the SKILL.md and any scripts before they run. For a screen-by-screen version, see how to install Claude Code skills.
| Path | Best for | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| Plugin marketplace | Bundles, teams | Through /plugin |
| skills CLI | Whole libraries | Re-run the command |
| Manual copy | One skill, full control | You pull and copy again |
Takeaway: manual copy for the first skill you try from any unfamiliar repo.
How to vet a skills repo before you install it
Read the SKILL.md, open every file in scripts/, check the licence, check the last push date and check whether the description overlaps with skills you already have. Skills can run code on your machine, so treat a skill repo like any other dependency.
A five-minute checklist:
- Open scripts/. Look for network calls, file writes outside the project and anything that reads environment variables. Most skills are harmless markdown; the ones with scripts deserve a read.
- Read the description line. It decides when Claude loads the skill. A vague description (“helps with marketing”) fires on too much. A sharp one (“audit a landing page for conversion issues”) fires when it should.
- Check the licence in the skill folder, not only the repo root. anthropics/skills shows why: the root reports nothing, and individual folders differ.
- Check
pushed_at. Our oldest pick was pushed six months ago. For a list that is tolerable; for a skill that calls a fast-moving API, it is a warning. - Count what you already have. If two installed skills describe the same job, Claude has to choose. Remove one.
What a high star count does not tell you: whether the scripts are safe, whether the skills overlap, whether the method matches how you work, or whether the repo will be maintained next year. Stars measure attention on GitHub, nothing more.
Takeaway: a two-minute read of scripts/ beats any star count as a safety check.
Common mistakes when choosing Claude Code skill repos
The most common mistake is installing a large library whole. Others include trusting forks over the source, ignoring licences, treating awesome lists as installable and assuming more skills means better output.
Mistake 1: installing 300 skills on day one
ECC has 314 skill folders. alirezarezvani/claude-skills claims 380+. Installing either whole loads hundreds of descriptions. When descriptions overlap, triggering becomes less predictable. Install the five you need.
Mistake 2: installing from a fork or mirror
Popular repos attract copies. Some are innocent; some add files. Install from the canonical owner listed in this table and compare the URL before you run anything.
Mistake 3: ignoring the rename
everything-claude-code now resolves to affaan-m/ECC. GitHub redirects renamed repos, but old blog posts and copy-pasted commands may point at stale paths. Check the live repo page.
Mistake 4: treating stars as quality
Superpowers has more than ten times the stars of travisvn’s list, and both are good at different jobs. A 500-star repo with tight scripts can beat a 50,000-star one for your use case.
Mistake 5: skipping the licence on client work
If you build skills into a client deliverable, a repo with no licence file gives you no clear right to redistribute. Three repos here report none. Ask the maintainer or write your own.
Mistake 6: expecting data from a skill
A keyword research or analytics skill without a connected data source will produce plausible-looking numbers that are not real. Connect an MCP server or paste exports.
Build your own when no repo fits
If none of these repos matches your workflow, write your own skill. A useful skill can be a single SKILL.md with a sharp description and your actual process. Use anthropics/skills’ skill-creator as the template.
The repos above are general by necessity. Your agency’s brief format, your team’s code review rules or your brand’s voice are not in any of them. A 40-line SKILL.md that describes exactly how you do the job will often beat a 400-line generic one.
A minimal structure:
my-skill/
SKILL.md name, description, steps
references/ your templates, checklists, examples
scripts/ optional helpersStart by copying the structure of skill-creator, then strip it to what you need. Test by asking Claude a request that should trigger it and one that should not. If it fires on both, tighten the description.
The full walkthrough, including testing, lives in how to build a Claude Code skill.
FAQ
What is the best GitHub repo for Claude Code skills?
For most people, anthropics/skills, because it is the reference implementation and includes skill-creator. Developers should add obra/superpowers. Marketers should add coreyhaines31/marketingskills.
What is the most starred Claude Code skills repo?
On 2 November 2026, obra/superpowers had 310,623 stars, followed by affaan-m/ECC at 294,788 and anthropics/skills at 186,355, per the GitHub API.
Is anthropics/skills open source?
Partly. Licences sit inside each skill folder. skill-creator includes an Apache License file. The pdf skill’s licence begins “All rights reserved”, so the document skills are source-available rather than open source. Check each folder.
How many skills are in anthropics/skills?
The skills folder held 19 directories on our check date, including docx, pdf, pptx, xlsx, skill-creator and mcp-builder.
What is obra/superpowers?
A set of 15 skills under MIT that enforce a development method: brainstorm, plan, test first, then implement. It is a workflow framework rather than a general skills library.
What happened to everything-claude-code?
The GitHub API now returns the repo as affaan-m/ECC. It held 314 skill folders and 294,788 stars on 2 November 2026.
Are awesome-claude-skills lists worth using?
Yes, for discovery. They link to skills rather than containing many themselves. Install from the source repo each list points to.
What is the difference between ComposioHQ and travisvn awesome-claude-skills?
ComposioHQ’s list has more stars (78,518 vs 15,666), includes 32 folders of its own and leans toward app integrations. travisvn’s list is a shorter index last pushed in April 2026.
What are the best Claude Code skills for marketers on GitHub?
coreyhaines31/marketingskills, with 53 skill folders under MIT, and the marketing plugin in anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins.
How many skills does alirezarezvani/claude-skills have?
Its description claims 380+ skills, 30+ agents and 70+ commands. We did not count every skill. One blog roundup cited 1,200+, which does not match the repo’s own figure.
What is anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins?
Anthropic’s Apache-2.0 repo of role-based plugins: marketing, sales, finance, legal, data, design, HR, operations, product management and more. It suits non-developers.
What is the difference between a skill and a plugin?
A skill is one folder with a SKILL.md. A plugin bundles skills, slash commands, agents and MCP configuration, and installs through /plugin.
How do I install skills from GitHub into Claude Code?
Use /plugin marketplace add and /plugin install for plugin repos, npx skills add where a README documents it, or copy a skill folder into ~/.claude/skills.
Are Claude Code skills from GitHub safe?
Most are markdown and harmless. Skills with scripts can run code on your machine. Read scripts/ before installing and install from the canonical repo.
Do these skills work in Codex or Cursor?
Several repos say so in their descriptions, including ECC, wshobson/agents, alirezarezvani/claude-skills and VoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills. Support varies by skill.
How often should I update installed skills?
Check monthly. Most repos here were pushed within the last week of our check, so they change often. Read the diff before pulling updates that include scripts.
Can I sell skills I copied from these repos?
Only under the licence’s terms. MIT and Apache-2.0 allow commercial use with attribution conditions. Repos reporting no licence give you no clear redistribution right.
Sources and methodology
All repo data was retrieved from the GitHub REST API on 2 November 2026:
- Stars, licence,
pushed_atand description:https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPOfor each of the 12 repos - Skill and plugin folder counts: contents API on /skills, /plugins, /external_plugins or the repo root
- anthropics/skills licences: LICENSE.txt files inside skills/pdf and skills/skill-creator
- Practitioner and SERP context: web search on 2 November 2026, including roundups at analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2026/03/github-repositories-to-get-free-claude-code-skills/ and dev.to/virtualunc/10-github-repos-that-turn-claude-code-into-a-productivity-machine-4h3a
Star counts change daily. Skill counts reported as “claims” come from repo descriptions and were not independently counted. We received no payment from any repo owner listed here.
Your next step
Pick one repo from the role table, install a single skill by manual copy, and use it on a real task this week. If it fires when it should and stays quiet when it should not, add the next one. If none fit, build your own with skill-creator.
