Skills

Clutch ships with 25 curated skills from two trusted sources: Anthropic Skills and Superpowers. No marketplace, no subscriptions — everything is bundled and stored locally in ~/.clutch/skills/.

How Skills Work

Each skill is a SKILL.md file containing structured instructions that guide the AI through a specific workflow. When you run a skill, its instructions are injected into the model's system context, giving the AI domain-specific expertise for that task. Skills can read and write files in your active workspace and execute shell commands (with permission controls).

The Curated Catalog

All 25 skills are pre-installed on first launch. They are organized into six categories:

Workflow (Superpowers)

SkillWhat it does
BrainstormingExplores requirements and design before you start coding
Systematic DebuggingStructured debugging workflow for any "help me fix this"
Test-Driven DevelopmentTest-first development: write tests before implementation
Verification Before CompletionVerify work before claiming done — runs tests, checks output
Writing PlansPlan before coding for any multi-step task
Finishing a Development BranchGit branch completion workflow: merge, PR, or cleanup
Receiving Code ReviewRespond to code review feedback with technical rigor
Requesting Code ReviewPre-submit validation checklist before asking for review
Using Git WorktreesIsolate feature work in separate git worktrees
Writing SkillsCreate and edit custom skills for extended AI capabilities

Document (Anthropic)

SkillWhat it does
DOCXCreate, edit, and read Word documents
PDFRead, extract, and manipulate PDF files
PPTXCreate and edit PowerPoint presentations
XLSXCreate, edit, and analyze Excel spreadsheets

Writing (Anthropic)

SkillWhat it does
Internal CommsWrite status updates, memos, and newsletters
Doc CoauthoringCo-author documents with AI assistance

Design (Anthropic)

SkillWhat it does
Frontend DesignUI/UX design guidance and frontend best practices
Canvas DesignVisual design creation and layout guidance
Brand GuidelinesBrand identity and style guide creation
Theme FactoryGenerate theme artifacts and visual styles

Development (Anthropic)

SkillWhat it does
MCP BuilderBuild MCP servers for extended AI capabilities
Webapp TestingTest and audit web apps via Playwright
Web Artifacts BuilderBuild reusable web components and artifacts
Skill CreatorCreate custom skills for extended AI capabilities

Creative (Anthropic)

SkillWhat it does
Algorithmic ArtCreate generative art with p5.js

Managing Skills

Open the Skills page from the sidebar to see all installed skills. Use the Installed tab to browse what's available. Skills are bundled and pre-installed — no manual installation required.

You can also load a skill's instructions from the chat input using the /skill <name> slash command. The skill's domain-specific instructions are injected into the current conversation context.

Keeping Skills Updated

Click Check for updates on the Skills page to compare your installed skills against the latest versions on GitHub. Skills with available updates show a badge. Click Update to download the latest SKILL.md and update the skill's instructions. Updates are manual only — Clutch does not auto-check on startup to avoid unnecessary GitHub API calls.

Skill Actions

Skills support four core actions that operate within your active workspace:

ActionDescription
read_fileRead the contents of a file in the workspace
write_fileCreate or update a file in the workspace
list_dirList the contents of a directory in the workspace
run_commandExecute a shell command in the workspace directory (permission-gated)

Workspace Context

Skills operate within your active workspace — the project folder you've selected in Settings → Workspaces. This scopes file access to your project directory. Set your active workspace before running skills that need file system access.

Sources

Clutch's skills come from two curated GitHub repositories, evaluated for real-world value to Clutch end-users: