Why do my Claude skills disappear after I clear my conversation?

Skills in a Claude.ai Project persist across conversations within that Project; they are not stored in the conversation itself. If skills disappeared after clearing a conversation, check that you are still in the same Project. If you were in a conversation outside a Project, any temporary instructions you added are gone.

Can I recover a deleted skill file in Claude Code?

If the file was committed to version control, restore it from there. If not, you will need to recreate it. This is why keeping the approved skill text in fenbs or another persistent location is useful -- you can recreate the file quickly from the stored text.

Why does the slash command not autocomplete in Claude Code?

Type / and wait a moment for the command list to appear. If nothing shows, the .claude/commands/ folder may be empty, in the wrong location, or Claude Code may need to be restarted to pick up new files. Check that the folder exists in the current working directory.

Do skills from different Projects conflict with each other?

No. Each Project's skills are scoped to that Project. Conversations in Project A only see Project A's skills. There is no cross-Project skill conflict unless you are using a global Claude Code configuration that applies to all projects.

Claude Skills Not Showing Up: Check Scope and Setup

How to diagnose missing Claude skills by checking the app, account, install scope and skill files, with fenbs preserving your intended instructions when the skill setup changes.

July 16, 2026Updated October 21, 20265 min read

When Claude skills are not showing up, the most common causes are a scope mismatch (the skill is in a different project than the one you are using), an app mismatch (the skill was set up in Claude.ai but you are in Claude Code, or vice versa), or a file location issue (the command file is not in the folder Claude Code is looking in). fenbs preserves your intended skill instructions in Skills and prompts so that even when the skill setup changes, the approved text is still accessible to any connected assistant.

Skills not appearing is a setup issue, not a sign that the feature is unavailable. Work through the checks below in order. The first check resolves the problem in most cases.

Check 1: are you in the right project or folder?

In Claude.ai, skills belong to a specific Project. If you are in a conversation outside a Project, or in a different Project from the one where the skill was created, the skill will not appear. Open the Project where you set up the skill, start a new conversation within it, and check whether the skill is listed.

In Claude Code, skills are stored as slash command files in the .claude/commands/ folder of the project directory. If you opened Claude Code from a different folder, it is looking in a different location. Type / in the Claude Code input: if no commands appear, the current working directory either does not have a .claude/commands/ folder or that folder is empty.

Check 2: which app are you using?

Skills set up in Claude.ai Projects do not appear in Claude Code, and vice versa. They are different apps with different skill storage systems. If you set up a skill in one app and are looking for it in the other, you will need to add it to the second app separately. See claude skills files for how the file-based approach works in Claude Code.

If you need the same skill available in multiple apps, keep the approved text in fenbs Skills and prompts and copy it into each app's skill settings. That way you maintain one source of truth and copy from it rather than maintaining independent versions that can drift apart.

Check 3: review the install scope

In Claude Code, skill files can be installed at different scopes. A skill file in the global Claude Code configuration applies to all projects. A skill file in a specific project's .claude/commands/ folder applies only to that project. Check both locations if a skill you expected to be global is not appearing.

For Claude.ai, the equivalent scope question is whether the skill is in a Project you share with teammates or a personal conversation. A shared Project skill is visible to everyone who has access to that Project. A skill added to a personal Project is only visible to you.

How fenbs helps

Keep a backup of your skill instructions in fenbs

Store the approved text for each skill in fenbs Skills and prompts. When a skill setup changes -- a Project is recreated, a command file is deleted or a plugin overwrites it -- the fenbs entry is unaffected. A connected assistant reads your skills from fenbs at the start of each session regardless of what happened to the local skill files. Connect Claude or Claude Code at /integrations.

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Check 4: inspect the skill file itself

In Claude Code, open the .claude/commands/ folder and check that the skill file exists, has the correct filename, and contains valid text. An empty file or a file with a syntax error will not produce a usable slash command. The filename (without the extension) becomes the command name you type after /.

Check the file extension: Claude Code expects Markdown files (.md). A file saved as .txt or without an extension will not appear as a command. Rename it to .md if needed. After making any file change, type / again to see if the command now appears.

Check 5: account access and skill permissions

Some Claude features, including Project skills, are available on specific plans. If the skill setup option is not visible in your Claude.ai interface, check your plan on the Claude.ai settings page. Plan details change over time, so check Anthropic's current plan information rather than relying on a summary.

For team Projects, check that your account has the right role to view and use the skills in that Project. A member without edit access to a Project can still use the skills in it, but may not be able to add or modify them.

How to do this with fenbs

Create a free account and add your current project.
Save each skill's approved instruction text in fenbs Skills and prompts with the skill name and a note on which app and scope it belongs in.
Connect Claude or Claude Code to fenbs over MCP from /integrations. At the start of each session, the connected assistant can read skills from fenbs even if the local skill files are unavailable.
After resolving the missing skill issue, update the fenbs record with the correct file path or Project name so the setup is documented for next time.
If you reorganize your Claude Projects or Claude Code repositories, check the fenbs record and update the scope notes to match.

When the skill is showing but not working

If the skill appears in the list but does not produce the expected results, the issue is in the instruction text rather than the setup. Activate the skill and ask Claude to summarize what instructions it received. Compare that summary to the skill text you intended. If they differ, the file may have been changed or the skill may be an old version. See how to create a Claude skill for guidance on writing skills that produce consistent results.