SKILL.md file that gets loaded into Claude Code’s context before a session starts. Each skill contains focused instructions, patterns, and constraints for a particular type of work — writing tests, setting up CI/CD, building auth systems, or designing UI components. Loading a skill is like handing Claude a specialist’s playbook before it touches your code.
CCC ships with 450+ skills. Because loading all of them at once would consume roughly 10,000 tokens before a session even begins, CCC uses a tiered loading system to keep your context lean by default.
Skill tiers
Essential (~37 skills)
Core workflow skills plus all 11 CCC domain routers. Installed by default. Covers the most common tasks without bloating your context window.
Recommended (~100 skills)
Everything in essential, plus high-value skills for code review, testing, agents, and common patterns. For developers who want broader coverage.
Domain (11 routers)
Just the 11 CCC domain router skills. Each router dispatches to specialist sub-skills on demand.
Full (450+)
Every skill in the
skills/ directory. Not recommended for most users — use essential or recommended to preserve context budget.essential. You get all 11 CCC domain routers plus the core workflow skills — roughly 37 skills total — which saves approximately 10,000 tokens compared to loading everything.
Managing skills
From the CLI
Useccc --skills to open the skill management interface:
1
Open skill manager
2
Choose an action
The skill manager gives you four options: list installed skills, install new ones, remove ones you do not need, and switch your active tier.
3
Install by tier
From inside Claude Code
While a session is running, use the in-session skill browser:How CCC recommends skills automatically
You do not need to choose a skill manually for every task. Before each dispatch, the Intelligence Layer’s skill recommender scores every available skill against your current task and tech stack:Loading a specific skill manually
To load a skill yourself before dispatching a task, pass it as a system prompt addition or reference it by name in the CCC dispatch flow. From inside Claude Code you can invoke any skill directly:Skill categories
CCC skills span every major area of software development. Here is a sample of what is available:Core workflow
Core workflow
spec-interviewer, evals-before-specs, writing-plans, executing-plans, systematic-debugging, investigate, confidence-check, four-question-validation, strategic-compact, session-startupToken optimization
Token optimization
context-mode — 98% context reduction via SQLite + FTS5 tool output sandboxing. caveman — strips markdown and prose for ~75% output token savings. context-budget — visual context window gauge. cache-monitor — session cost and cache efficiency analysis.Ship and review
Ship and review
ship, review, gstack, codex, design-review, plan-eng-review, plan-ceo-review, retro, document-release, qa, qa-onlyAI and agent patterns
AI and agent patterns
subagent-driven-development, dispatching-parallel-agents, multi-agent-swarm, spawn-manager, task-commander, claude-peers-bible, overnight-runner, delegation-templatesInfrastructure and deploy
Infrastructure and deploy
setup-deploy, land-and-deploy, using-git-worktrees, github, gh-issues, fleet, status-updatesWhat happens when a skill loads
When a skill is selected for a dispatch — either by recommendation or manually — CCC prepends the contents of that skill’sSKILL.md into the system prompt. Claude Code receives focused, task-specific instructions from the start of the session rather than trying to infer best practices on its own.
Individual skills inside CCC domains are still accessible by their original names. If you know the name of a specific sub-skill, you can load it directly without going through the domain router.