Questions
- I have custom skills in my personal Claude account — will they move to my Bowdoin account?
- Do custom skills migrate when I join Bowdoin's Claude organization?
- How do I export or save a custom skill before I migrate?
- My skills disappeared after switching to my Bowdoin account — where did they go?
- How do I keep my Claude skills when moving to the Bowdoin workspace?
- Can I add my own skills back into my Bowdoin Claude account?
- Why is there no automatic transfer for skills?
Environment
This article applies before you migrate a personal Claude account into Bowdoin's managed Claude workspace.
- Who: Users on a personal Free, Pro, or Max account who have built or uploaded custom skills.
- What: Custom skills only. Your chats, projects, project files, and memory do migrate — skills do not.
- Not in scope: Everything else that transfers during migration. See What happens when you migrate your personal Claude account to Bowdoin in the Related Articles section.
Resolution
There is no migration path for custom skills. If you don't export them first, they are lost when your personal account closes. Do this before you start the migration.
Save your custom skills
- Sign in to your personal Claude account at
claude.ai or in the Claude Desktop app.
- Open Settings and go to the Capabilities (Skills) area, where your custom skills are listed.
- Open each custom skill you want to keep and use its download / export option to save the skill files (typically a
.zip) to your computer.
- Store the exported files somewhere you'll be able to find them after migrating, such as a Bowdoin Google Drive or OneDrive folder.
Tip: While you're here, also note anything you've published as an artifact and any public share links you've created — those also don't carry over. Save your own copies now.
Re-add skills after you migrate
Once you're working in your Bowdoin account, you can re-upload the exported skill files and rebuild the skill there.
Bowdoin policy may apply. Your Bowdoin-managed workspace may restrict which custom skills can be added. If a skill won't upload, contact the Service Desk before assuming it's a technical error.
Additional Help
If you need further assistance, you have several options:
- Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
- Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
- In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
- Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.
Additional Resources
AI-assisted content: This article was drafted with the assistance of an AI writing tool and reviewed by Bowdoin IT staff for accuracy.