The best Claude Code skills in 2026, in my view, are obra/superpowers for the development workflow, skill-creator and the document skills from anthropics/skills, Vercel's Agent Skills for React and Next.js, three UI design skills, and dev-browser for driving a real browser. Below are 10 picks with install commands, stars, licenses and who each one suits, followed by how I vet a skill. Spoiler: stars tell you what is popular, not what is good.
TL;DR
- Development workflow: obra/superpowers (313,001 stars, November 2026, MIT).
- Documents: docx, pdf, xlsx from anthropics/skills. I run all three.
- UI design: frontend-design, UI/UX Pro Max, unslop.
- Stars count clicks. They say nothing about whether a skill is well built or safe.
- Read the SKILL.md and the scripts before installing, and try a new skill on a copy of your repo first.
The list at a glance
Data from the GitHub API on 6 November 2026. For skills inside anthropics/skills, the star count belongs to the whole repository, not the individual skill.
| Skill | Repository | Stars (November 2026) | License | Last push |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| superpowers | obra/superpowers | 313,001 | MIT | 2026-11-03 |
| skill-creator | anthropics/skills | 187,751 | own LICENSE in the skill folder | 2026-10-28 |
| Vercel Agent Skills | vercel-labs/agent-skills | 33,598 | MIT per README | 2026-10-28 |
| docx | anthropics/skills | 187,751 | source-available | 2026-10-28 |
| anthropics/skills | 187,751 | source-available | 2026-10-28 | |
| xlsx | anthropics/skills | 187,751 | source-available | 2026-10-28 |
| frontend-design | anthropics/skills | 187,751 | Apache 2.0 | 2026-10-28 |
| UI/UX Pro Max | nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill | 145,698 | MIT | 2026-11-05 |
| unslop | heydamir/unslop | 9,759 | CC BY 4.0 | 2026-11-01 |
| dev-browser | SawyerHood/dev-browser | 6,720 | MIT | 2026-11-03 |
Development workflow
1. obra/superpowers
The repository describes itself as "An agentic skills framework & software development methodology that works." It is a set of skills that walk the agent through a full cycle: brainstorming before any code, writing-plans, executing-plans, test-driven-development, systematic-debugging, requesting-code-review, using-git-worktrees, subagent-driven-development, verification-before-completion and finishing-a-development-branch. There is also writing-skills for authoring your own.
/plugin install superpowers@claude-plugins-official
Or register the author's marketplace with /plugin marketplace add obra/superpowers-marketplace and run /plugin install superpowers@superpowers-marketplace.
Who it is for: developers who want the agent to ask what they actually want and write a plan before it touches code.
2. skill-creator (anthropics/skills)
Anthropic's skill for creating new skills. The same repository has a template/ folder with a SKILL.md template and a spec/ folder with the format specification. I wrote up the rules separately in how to write a good SKILL.md.
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
Who it is for: anyone with a repeated instruction they want to turn into a skill.
3. vercel-labs/agent-skills
"Vercel's official collection of agent skills". It includes react-best-practices, composition-patterns, react-view-transitions, react-native-guidelines, web-design-guidelines, writing-guidelines, vercel-optimize and deploy-to-vercel. The GitHub API returns no license; the README says MIT.
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills
Who it is for: teams on React, Next.js and Vercel.
Documents
The next three come from anthropics/skills. The README describes them as the skills that power Claude's document creation and editing under the hood. They are source-available, not open source. You install them from the same marketplace as skill-creator, and I have all three in my own setup.
4. docx
Creating and editing Word documents. Who it is for: reports, contracts, memos, anything someone will open in Word.
5. pdf
Working with PDF files. Who it is for: people who receive documents as PDFs and need to get something out of them or rework them.
6. xlsx
Creating and editing spreadsheets. Who it is for: summaries, reports, any data that ends up in Excel. The repo also has pptx for slide decks.
Design and UI
7. frontend-design (anthropics/skills)
Its description: "Guidance for distinctive, intentional visual design when building new UI or reshaping an existing one." The file is about 9.4 KB and includes a list of common tells of AI-generated design and a two pass process: plan first, then code. Apache 2.0. Full breakdown: what is inside the frontend-design SKILL.md.
Who it is for: anyone whose Claude-built interfaces all look like the same template.
8. UI/UX Pro Max
A searchable design knowledge base with BM25 search: 192 palettes, 74 font pairings, 119 UX guidelines, 25 chart types and 22 stacks. It needs Python 3. I audited the runtime scripts and they import only the standard library.
/plugin marketplace add nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill
/plugin install ui-ux-pro-max@ui-ux-pro-max-skill
There is a paid Premium version; the base one is open source. My test and audit: UI/UX Pro Max: install, review and is it safe.
Who it is for: people building an MVP without a designer who need a palette, fonts and an accessibility checklist.
9. unslop
"A Claude skill that turns vibecoded, AI-looking UI into a designed interface". It audits the screen and proposes a direction first, then fixes it pass by pass. The README installs it by copying the skill folder into ~/.claude/skills/. Snapshotting a live site or making a video needs Playwright with Chromium, and video also needs ffmpeg. The CC BY 4.0 license requires credit to the author.
Who it is for: anyone with a working interface that looks generated.
Browser and testing
10. dev-browser
"A Claude Skill to give your agent the ability to use a web browser". The agent controls Chrome with short JavaScript scripts, and the browser stays open between calls. The binary ships with Bun and Puppeteer.
npm install -g dev-browser
dev-browser install-skill --claude
The second command installs the skill to ~/.claude/skills/dev-browser/SKILL.md. Who it is for: developers who want the agent to check its own change in a real browser. anthropics/skills also includes webapp-testing, which I have not tested.
Top skills directories
If you want to keep looking, these lists collect skills in one place (stars as of November 2026):
| Directory | Stars | Last push |
|---|---|---|
| ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills | 78,859 | 2026-09-18 |
| travisvn/awesome-claude-skills | 15,713 | 2026-04-28 |
| BehiSecc/awesome-claude-skills | 10,350 | 2026-11-02 |
| davepoon/buildwithclaude | 3,727 | 2026-11-05 |
Buildwithclaude is a hub that also collects agents, commands, hooks and plugins. Watch the dates: a list last updated in April may not know about anything released since. A directory is a place to start, not a security certificate.
How I choose a skill
Stars are popularity, not quality. Superpowers has more of them than Anthropic's own repository, which tells you about interest and nothing about whether it fits your project. I keep 26 skills, my own and installed ones, and check five things before adding another:
- Source. Anthropic, the vendor of the tool in question, or an author whose code I can review.
- Last push. A repository untouched for many months may lag behind changes in Claude Code.
- License. MIT and Apache 2.0 are simple. CC BY 4.0 needs attribution. Source-available is not open source.
- Readable scripts. If I cannot read them in reasonable time, I do not install.
- A test on a copy of the repo. A new skill runs first on a copy, never on the project I am working in.
One extra tip if you prompt in a language other than English: I rewrote the description of my installed UI/UX Pro Max in Polish so it triggers on my Polish prompts. A skill with an English description may simply not fire.
Security
Anthropic's documentation is direct: "Use Skills only from trusted sources: those you created yourself or obtained from Anthropic." and "External sources are risky." It also says: "Audit thoroughly: Review all files bundled in the Skill."
Snyk's ToxicSkills report (February 2026) scanned 3,984 skills from ClawHub and skills.sh. 1,467 (36.82%) had at least one security issue and 534 (13.4%) had at least one critical issue. Researchers confirmed 76 malicious payloads, including credential theft and backdoors.
What I look at in the skills on this list:
- dev-browser: the README notes that script isolation via
node:vm"is not a security boundary". Do not give it blanket permission in a project you do not trust. - superpowers: the optional visual companion in brainstorming loads a logo from the authors' site by default, along with the version number. Set
SUPERPOWERS_DISABLE_TELEMETRYto turn it off. - UI/UX Pro Max: in my audit, the runtime scripts imported no networking modules.
The general rule does not change: read the SKILL.md and the scripts before you install. This list deliberately leaves out offensive security and pentesting skills.
FAQ
Which Claude Code skill should I install first?
If you write code, obra/superpowers gives you a whole workflow: brainstorming, planning, TDD and code review. If you produce documents, the docx, pdf and xlsx skills from anthropics/skills. If you want to build your own skills, start with skill-creator.
Do more GitHub stars mean a better skill?
No. Stars measure popularity, not quality or safety. Check the source, the last push date and the license, and read the scripts before installing.
Where can I find a Claude skills list?
Start with the official anthropics/skills repository, then the curated lists: ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills, travisvn/awesome-claude-skills, BehiSecc/awesome-claude-skills and the davepoon/buildwithclaude hub. A list is a starting point, not a security guarantee.
Are the skills in anthropics/skills open source?
Many are, under Apache 2.0, frontend-design for example. The document skills docx, pdf, pptx and xlsx are source-available, not open source, according to the repository README.
Are Claude Code skills safe?
It depends on the source. Anthropic recommends using skills only from trusted sources: ones you created yourself or obtained from Anthropic. Snyk's ToxicSkills report found at least one security issue in 36.82% of 3,984 scanned skills and confirmed 76 malicious payloads.
Below the article there is a free pack of two UX skills: Laws of UX and a design system template. Related reading: Claude skills explained: what they are and how to install them, the complete guide to Claude skills for UI/UX design, and how to write a good SKILL.md.