By: Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist
If you’ve been exploring Claude more in depth lately, you might have noticed two features that sound remarkably similar: Projects and Skills. They’re not the same thing—and understanding the difference can transform the way you use Claude.
Put simply: use a Project to keep everything related to a subject in one place and use a Skill to make sure Claude always knows how you want things done.
A Project is best understood as a dedicated file folder or storage system organized around a specific subject. Everything lives in one place—your uploaded documents, your instructions and your entire chat history related to that topic. Claude always has that context ready to go, so you’re never starting from scratch. For example, imagine you’re leading a campus-wide migration to a new Learning Management System. You could create a Project and load it with your migration timeline, training documentation, stakeholder communications and technical specs. Every conversation you have within that Project builds on what came before, like a running log your team can reference and refine throughout the rollout.
A Skill, on the other hand, is a portable, reusable procedure that works everywhere—inside Projects, in regular chats, across your entire workflow. To create a Skill, simply write your instructions in a plain text document and upload it to Claude under Settings > Capabilities > Skills (no coding required). Not sure where to start? Toggle on the Skill Creator under Example Skills to help you build your first one. For example, you could create a Skill that teaches Claude to always format your communications using your department’s specific tone, ticket structure or approval language. Once built, that Skill activates automatically whenever it’s relevant.
Put simply: use a Project to keep everything related to a subject in one place and use a Skill to make sure Claude always knows how you want things done. Two features, one more powerful AI experience.
