{"version":"2.1.287","anchor":"skill-tool-withheld-skill-message","canonical_anchor":"skill-tool-withheld-skill-message","heading":"Skills can be withheld and reported as switched off for the session","tier":"notice","area":"Skills","url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.287\/e\/skill-tool-withheld-skill-message","release_url":"https:\/\/changelogs.core-directive.com\/v\/2.1.287","markdown":"### Skills can be withheld and reported as switched off for the session\n\nA skill can now be withheld for a session, and Claude is told it is switched off rather than that it failed to download\n\n**Unclear.** What causes a skill to be marked as withheld is not known.\n\n**What**\n\nSkills are packaged instructions Claude can load and use. A skill can now be marked `withheld`, which Claude Code treats as switched off for the current session.\n\n- A listed skill with `withheld` set to true and no command is treated as switched off. The message Claude gets reads \"Skill ... is switched off for this session.\"\n\n- Placeholders for withheld skills are taken out of the normal skill list and kept separately.\n\n- When Claude tries to use a synced skill (one fetched from elsewhere) and the download result is flagged `withheld`, the reply is built from the skill's name and ends with \"Proceed without it.\" Other failed downloads still get the old \"could not be downloaded\" message.\n\nBefore this release, a failed skill download always produced the \"could not be downloaded\" message.\n\n**Why**\n\nA skill that is deliberately turned off for a session no longer looks like a download failure. Claude is told plainly that the skill is unavailable and to carry on without it.\n\n- Area: Skills\n- Tier: You'll notice\n- Useful: 3\/5\n- Signal: 3\/5"}