Best Claude skills for AI engineering
AI engineering skills help you build with models: prompt design, evals, fine-tuning, RAG, agent architecture and skill authoring itself. Hugging Face, Google and Orchestra Research publish large packs, and meta-skills help you write better skills.
606 ai engineering skills · ranked live · November 2026
The top 10. Ranked by the Alyn Score.
- 1#1
Anthropic
Skills
Anthropic
MCP Builder
Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use when building MCP servers to…
Pack192k3.8MScore 93 - 2#2
Anthropic
Skills
Anthropic
Skill Creator
Create new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance. Use when users want to create a skill from scratch, edit, or optimize an existing skill, run evals to…
Pack192k3.8MScore 93 - 3#3

Matt Pocock
Domain Modeling
Build and sharpen a project's domain model. Use when discussing codebase terminology, writing or editing a GLOSSARY.md, or recording or editing an ADR.
Pack321k33MScore 92 - 4#4
Jesse Vincent
Superpowers
Jesse Vincent
Subagent Driven Development
Use when executing implementation plans with independent tasks in the current session
Pack316k3.9MScore 92 - 5#5
Anthropic
Skills
Anthropic
Claude API
Reference for the Claude API / Anthropic SDK — model ids, pricing, params, streaming, tool use, MCP, agents, caching, token counting, model migration. TRIGGER — read BEFORE opening the…
Pack192k3.8MScore 91 - 6#6

affaan-m
Agent Architecture Audit
Full-stack diagnostic for agent and LLM applications. Audits the 12-layer agent stack for wrapper regression, memory pollution, tool discipline failures, hidden repair loops, and rendering…
Pack301k1.7MScore 89 - 7#7

affaan-m
Agentic Os
Build persistent multi-agent operating systems on Claude Code. Covers kernel architecture, specialist agents, slash commands, file-based memory, scheduled automation, and state management…
Pack301k1.7MScore 89 - 8#8

affaan-m
AI Regression Testing
Regression testing strategies for AI-assisted development. Sandbox-mode API testing without database dependencies, automated bug-check workflows, and patterns to catch AI blind spots where…
Pack301k1.7MScore 89 - 9#9

JuliusBrussee
Caveman Setup
Wire a repository through the Caveman Cloud gateway so every LLM request is measured, with no behavior change. Use for "set up caveman" or adding LLM spend observability.
Pack119k4.8MScore 88 - 10#10
Corey Haines
Marketingskills
Corey Haines
Marketing Psychology
When the user wants to apply psychology to marketing, or asks why buyers behave or value things as they do, or whether a persuasion tactic is honest: biases, mental models, anchoring…
Pack60k6.3MScore 86
What makes a great ai engineering skill.
Eval steps so changes are measured, not vibed.
Current library versions and APIs.
Cost and context awareness for long-running agents.
All 606 ai engineering skills.

thinking-jobs-to-be-done
Deciding what to build or why adoption fails. Recover the progress users hire a solution for under a circumstance, then rank by outcome and competing workarounds.

thinking-kepner-tregoe
Use when a selective defect needs IS/IS-NOT difference analysis or a consequential option choice needs must/want weighting and adverse-consequence comparison.

thinking-model-combination
When one mental model leaves a material blind spot on a multi-domain or high-stakes problem, sequence complementary models with named roles and a conflict rule.

thinking-opportunity-cost
Before committing scarce time, people, or money, name the best forgone use of those resources and the value delta of the chosen path versus that alternative.

thinking-pre-mortem
Before committing to a plan or launch, assume it already failed and reason backward through concrete causes — convert failure paths into mitigations, gates, and stop checks.

thinking-probabilistic
Use when forecasting, estimating, or sizing risk — anchor on base rates, give ranges, update prior→likelihood→posterior on evidence, and factor unmeasured quantities into order-of-magnitude…

thinking-red-team
For authorized security review of code, auth, or APIs you control, model the attacker, map the attack surface, and report only findings with a reproducible exploit path and verified…

thinking-scientific-method
When a symptom has several plausible causes, rank falsifiable hypotheses and run the cheapest discriminating observation first; prefer least-assumptive survivors only after evidence fit.

thinking-systems
When behavior is emergent across components—fixes elsewhere break, loops/delays dominate—map boundary, stocks/flows, feedback, archetypes, then rank leverage.

thinking-thought-experiment
When a real test is too rare, large, or irreversible, run a controlled counterfactual: isolate one variable, fix conditions, trace the mechanistic chain, and bound what the result implies.

thinking-triz
When two design requirements seem mutually exclusive, name the contradiction, separate conflicting states, then invent a concrete no-compromise resolution.

thinking-bounded-rationality
Use when search or investigation could run forever. Set an explicit good-enough threshold first, then stop at the first option that clears it.

thinking-circle-of-competence
Use when a specific claim may lack grounding. Check evidence boundary, size wrongness cost, then answer, fetch, or abstain — never confabulate.

thinking-cynefin
When the right response mode is unclear, classify the cause-effect domain first; decompose disorder.

thinking-first-principles
When a constraint is treated as fixed, separate physics from convention, keep only independently supported primitives, and rebuild the simplest solution that satisfies real constraints.

thinking-lindy-effect
Use when longevity of a non-perishable option matters. Treat survival duration as a remaining-life prior, then check domain drift before favoring the proven.

thinking-map-territory
When a claim, doc, test, metric, or assumption conflicts with observed behavior, stop theorizing from the map and verify the live code or data; let territory overrule.

thinking-margin-of-safety
When provisioning, setting a limit, or committing an estimate under uncertainty, size a buffer to residual error and the cost of breach—not to the optimistic edge.

thinking-ooda
Use under time pressure when the situation is still changing and you must act before certainty — cycle Observe→Orient→Decide→Act on ~70% confidence, then re-observe.

thinking-reversibility
Before heavy deliberation, classify the decision as cheap or costly to undo; decide two-way doors fast and stage one-way doors to preserve options.

thinking-second-order
When a change has effects past the immediate fix—incentives, scale, feedback—trace consequence chains with timing and probability before committing.

thinking-socratic
When a request is vague, assumption-laden, or "obvious," ask the few load-bearing questions that expose hidden requirements before building or committing.

thinking-steel-manning
Before rejecting a proposal or reflexively agreeing, build the strongest faithful opposing case, state agreement conditions, then update or reaffirm.

thinking-theory-of-constraints
When throughput or latency is pipeline-limited, identify the single binding constraint and exploit, subordinate, elevate, then recheck—ignore non-constraints.

thinking-via-negativa
Use when the reflex is to add a feature, layer, or process. Prefer removing harmful or nonessential elements first, with an irreversibility guard before deletion.
BagelHole
DevOps Security Agent Skills
llm-cost-optimization
Reduce LLM API and infrastructure costs through model selection, prompt caching, batching, caching, quantization, and self-hosting strategies. Track spend by team and model, set budgets…
benchflow-ai
Skillsbench
modal-gpu
Run Python code on cloud GPUs using Modal serverless platform. Use when you need A100/T4/A10G GPU access for training ML models. Covers Modal app setup, GPU selection, data downloading…
BagelHole
DevOps Security Agent Skills
model-registry-governance
Establish model registry standards, governance controls, metadata schemas, approvals, and lifecycle policies for enterprise AI deployments.
yushui2022
MathModel Skill
paper-micro-unit-generator
按修复队列重写反复不通过的论文章节,或按明确要求生成旧版与演练草稿脚手架。当章节连续审计失败需要局部重写、或用户明确要求快速草稿而非正式论文时使用。
BagelHole
DevOps Security Agent Skills
rag-observability-evals
Monitor and evaluate RAG systems with retrieval quality metrics, groundedness checks, hallucination detection, and continuous regression testing.
chubbyguan
Chubbyskills
douyin-transcribe
抖音视频 → 下载 → 转录 → 存为 Markdown 的完整工作流。 支持短链接和完整链接;优先无 cookie 直采,被风控时回退 yt-dlp + 浏览器 cookie(无需登录)。
yushui2022
MathModel Skill
paper-workflow-orchestrator
编排完整的数学建模工作流,从赛题与附件出发依次完成输入预检、题意分析、模型路线、数据与图表、代码与真实运行、证据门禁、正式写作与 Word/PDF 检查。当用户要做完整篇数学建模论文、需要从零跑通或从中断处续跑整个流程时使用。
yushui2022
MathModel Skill
problem-doc-model-selector
解析赛题 PDF 或 Word 或题面文本,抽取每一问的任务、数据条件与约束,并复核公式、图片与分问标题的提取完整性。当用户提供赛题文档、需要先明确题意与分问、或题面提取结果待人工复核时使用。
yushui2022
MathModel Skill
quality-assurance-auditor
审计建模证据链与论文质量,检查指标与声明是否绑定、图表是否可读取并对应真实运行、结论是否有证据支撑,产出可追踪的审计报告。当运行证据需要放行判定、章节或全文需要质量复核、或用户要求验收与查漏洞时使用。
chubbyguan
Chubbyskills
weibo-transcribe
微博视频 → 下载 → 转录 → 存为 Markdown。 支持 weibo.com 和 m.weibo.cn 链接,无需登录。
chubbyguan
Chubbyskills
xiaohongshu-ingest
小红书笔记采集 → 统一 frontmatter Markdown → 爆款拆解 + 衍生选题。 支持笔记链接和 xhslink 短链;爆款拆解按「人群×场景×痛点×情绪×钩子」生成可复用选题。
AI engineering skills, explained.
Also searched as: llm skills, prompt engineering skill, fine-tuning skills, skill creator, hugging face skills.
What are the best Claude skills for AI engineering?
Right now the top-ranked ai engineering skills on Alyn are MCP Builder (Anthropic), Skill Creator (Anthropic), Domain Modeling (Matt Pocock). Rankings combine GitHub stars, installs, freshness and depth, and update live.
How do I create my own skill?
Write a folder with a SKILL.md file: YAML frontmatter with name and description, then instructions. See Alyn's guide on creating skills.
Do self-written skills help?
The SkillsBench study found curated skills raised pass rates by 16.2 points on average, while skills the model wrote for itself gave no benefit on average. Quality matters.
How do I install a ai engineering skill?
Run npx skills add owner/repo in your project, or copy the folder with SKILL.md into ~/.claude/skills. Every skill on this page has a ready-to-copy command.
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AI engineering skills for your agent