Choosing a licence for a Claude skill you publish or sell
A skill is plain text anyone can copy, so the licence is about permission, not protection. How we think about open and commercial terms for skills.
Anything Claude can read, a person can copy. That is true of every skill, and it is worth being honest about before choosing terms. A licence does not lock a skill; it says what someone is allowed to do with it. This is general context, not legal advice.
Free skills
If you want a skill used widely, a permissive licence removes friction. Choose one people recognise, and put the LICENSE file in the skill folder.
Paid skills
Commercial terms usually allow use and modification inside the buyer's organisation and forbid resale or republishing. What actually holds a paid skill's value is not the licence but what comes with it: updates as Claude changes, support, and tested behaviour. That is also what buyers pay for, covered in what buyers pay for in a skill.
Someone else's code inside
If a skill includes code from an open-source project, that project's licence applies to it. Keep their notice, ship their licence, and credit them where people will see it. Recommending a separate tool rather than bundling it avoids the question entirely, which is how we handle ui-ux-pro-max.
Questions
Can a licence stop people copying my skill?
No. A skill is plain text Claude reads. A licence states what people may do; it does not technically prevent anything.
What licence suits a free skill?
A permissive open-source licence such as MIT is common and easy for others to adopt. Choose based on what you want others to be allowed to do.
What if my skill includes someone else's open-source code?
Their licence applies to their part and usually requires keeping their copyright notice. Ship their licence with it and credit them visibly.