My 5 Favorite Claude Skills

Claude Skills have completely changed how I build apps. Instead of repeating the same instructions or hoping Claude remembers best practices, skills give it persistent context that makes every interaction better.

Here are the 5 skills I actually use and recommend.

Are you new to agent skills? I made a video How to Create Claude Code Agent Skills in 2026.

1. Building Native UI

By the Expo team

This is one of my favorites because it gives Claude deep context on how to create modern, polished native UI. It covers liquid glass, the latest Expo Router APIs, Expo Symbols, controls, animations, and overall best practices that agents miss all the time.

If you're building with Expo and want your app to feel truly native on iOS 26, this skill makes a massive difference.

npx skills add https://github.com/expo/skills --skill building-native-ui

2. Explain Code

Local skill (Anthropic example)

This is actually a local skill, and funny enough it's the example that Anthropic provides when you're getting started with skills. But I find it genuinely useful for understanding what's going on in my code. It forces Claude to include an analogy, an ASCII diagram, a step-by-step walkthrough, and a common gotcha with every explanation.

To set it up, create the skill directory and write the SKILL.md file:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/explain-code

Then create ~/.claude/skills/explain-code/SKILL.md:

---
name: explain-code
description: Explains code with visual diagrams and analogies. Use when explaining how code works, teaching about a codebase, or when the user asks "how does this work?"
---