{"version":"2.1.284","anchor":"propose-skills-refuses-to-overwrite-a-skill-whose-skillmd-w","canonical_anchor":"propose-skills-refuses-to-overwrite-a-skill-whose-skillmd-w","heading":"Claude must read your skill before proposing one with the same name","tier":"notice","area":"Elsewhere","url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.284\/e\/propose-skills-refuses-to-overwrite-a-skill-whose-skillmd-w","release_url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.284","markdown":"### Claude must read your skill before proposing one with the same name\n\nA proposed new skill that shares a name with one of your own skills is refused unless Claude has read that skill's SKILL.md in full\n\n**Unclear.** Whether the skill-proposing tool itself is only available to some accounts is not stated.\n\n**What**\n\nA skill is a named set of instructions Claude can call on, stored in a `SKILL.md` file. Claude can propose new skills or improvements to existing ones. The rule that Claude must read a skill before replacing it used to cover only improvements aimed at a named skill.\n\nIt now also covers new proposals that share a name with one of your own skills, or with a skill whose owner is unknown. Such a proposal is refused unless Claude has read that skill's `SKILL.md` in full and the file has not changed since. Names count as the same even with a leading slash, an `anthropic-skills:` or `claude-ai:` prefix, or small differences in characters and hyphens.\n\nThe check also runs again at the moment the proposal is made. If a lookup fails, the proposal is no longer let through.\n\n**Why**\n\nClaude can no longer quietly overwrite one of your existing skills by proposing a \"new\" one with the same name, since saving it would replace the old `SKILL.md` entirely.\n\n- Area: Elsewhere\n- Tier: You'll notice\n- Useful: 2\/5\n- Signal: 2\/5"}