You wrote a skill. The description is clear. You ask for exactly the thing it does, and Claude reaches for something else.
Before you rewrite the description a fourth time, check whether Claude ever saw the whole thing. Two separate limits trim skill metadata before the model reads it, and both are silent.
The two limits are not the same limit
Claude Code loads a listing of your skills — names plus descriptions — into context at the start of a turn. That listing is how Claude knows what exists. Two independent caps apply to it:
A per-entry cap. Each skill's combined description + when_to_use text is capped at 1,536 characters. Past that, the tail is cut. This applies regardless of how much room the listing has left.
