Command reference ยท Claude Code
/reload-skills
Rescans skill and command directories so skills changed during the session become available without a restart.
Rescans the skill and command directories so that skills added, changed, or removed on disk during the running session become available without restarting the session. After running, the command reports how many skills are available in total and how many were added or removed since the last scan.
Automatic detection of changes during the session only covers the text of the respective SKILL.md. If a skill folder belongs to a plugin, changes to its hooks/, .mcp.json, agents/, or output-styles/ only take effect after a /reload-plugins, because loaded MCP tools and the prompt cache can also be affected.
Introduced in version 2.1.152. Useful right after creating or editing a custom skill in .claude/skills/, to test the change immediately in the running session instead of ending and restarting the session.
โ WHEN TO USE IT?
Make a new custom skill available during the running session
Add a skill to .claude/skills/ and then run /reload-skills instead of restarting the session.
Check whether a skill change was correctly detected
After editing a SKILL.md, call /reload-skills and check the message about added or removed skills.
โ WHEN NOT TO?
An entire plugin (not just loose skills/commands) was changed
/reload-skills scans skill and command directories; it doesn't detect changes to hooks/, .mcp.json, agents/, or output-styles/ of a plugin skill folder.
Better: Use /reload-plugins to reload the entire plugin (confirm with --force if needed for changes to loaded MCP tools).
A completely new top-level skills directory was created
A directory that didn't exist at session start is not yet watched by Claude Code โ /reload-skills only rescans directories already known.
Better: Restart Claude Code completely so the new directory is detected.
SOURCES
- Claude Code docs (official) โ code.claude.com