What it does
Gives the model an up-to-date reference for the Claude API and the Anthropic SDK — syntax, configuration and best practices across 8 languages. It helps you build, debug and optimise apps (prompt caching, thinking, tool use, batch, files, citations, memory) and migrate code between Claude model versions. Apps built with this skill get prompt caching turned on by default.
How to set it up
The skill is already built into Claude Code (invoked as /claude-api). To install it separately from the repo:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install claude-api@anthropic-agent-skills
When to use it
- You are writing an integration with the Claude API /
@anthropic-ai/sdk, or the code importsanthropic. - You are adding an SDK feature (caching, thinking, tool use, batch, files) and want the right syntax for the current version.
- You are migrating an app to a newer Claude model.
Example
Trigger: "add prompt caching to this Anthropic SDK call" — the skill pulls the current caching approach and rewrites the request against today's syntax instead of working from memory. It does not fire for other vendors' SDKs (openai and the like).