---
name: Invoke Skill
slug: invoke-skill
category: AI Engineering
description: Invoke Skill describes how to call a packaged set of instructions that a user or project has set up for a specific task, including selecting the exact skill name, passing optional arguments, and following the loaded instructions instead of default behavior.
github: "https://github.com/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts/tree/main/system-prompts/tool-description-invoke-skill.md"
language: JavaScript
stars: 12300
forks: 2028
install: "npx degit https://github.com/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts/tree/main/system-prompts ~/.claude/skills/system-prompts"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/system-prompts
source_path: system-prompts/tool-description-invoke-skill.md
collection_size: 4
category_size: 2451
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts"
added: 2026-08-14T07:13:27.657Z
last_synced: 2026-08-14T07:13:27.657Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/invoke-skill"
---

# Invoke Skill

Invoke Skill describes how to call a packaged set of instructions that a user or project has set up for a specific task, including selecting the exact skill name, passing optional arguments, and following the loaded instructions instead of default behavior.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts/tree/main/system-prompts ~/.claude/skills/system-prompts
```

## README

<!--
name: "Tool Description: Invoke skill"
description: "Tool description for invoking available skills, including skill name selection, optional arguments, scoped skill names, and avoiding duplicate invocation when a skill is already loaded"
ccVersion: "2.1.218"
variables:
  - "SKILL_TAG_NAME"
-->
Invoke a skill.

A skill is a packaged set of instructions the user or project has set up for a particular kind of task (deploy steps, a review checklist, a repo-specific workflow). Available skills appear in a system-reminder listing with one-line descriptions. When the task at hand is one a listed skill covers, call this tool first — the skill's instructions load into the turn for you to follow in place of your default approach; some skills instead run in a subagent and return the finished result. A skill that runs in the background returns only the agent's name — its result arrives later as a task notification, so don't wait on it or invoke it again in the meantime. Users may also ask for one by name (`/<name>`, or "slash command"); that's a request to invoke it.

- `skill`: exact name from the listing, no leading slash. Plugin skills use `plugin:skill`. Directory-scoped skills are listed with a path prefix (`apps/web:deploy`); when both scoped and unscoped variants of a name exist, pick the one whose directory contains the files you're working on (most specific wins; unscoped otherwise).
- `args`: optional arguments to pass through.

Only names from the listing (or that the user typed explicitly) are valid. Built-in CLI commands (`/help`, `/clear`, …) aren't skills. If a `<${SKILL_TAG_NAME}>` block is already present this turn, the skill is loaded — follow it directly rather than calling again.