How to install a Claude Code skill from GitHub

I published an Estonia public sources skill for Claude Code on GitHub. Someone messaged me on LinkedIn saying they wanted to use it but got stuck. Two problems. The installation steps weren't obvious. And once installed, Claude kept asking for permission to visit every URL the skill referenced.

Both are fixable in about two minutes. Here's how.

Installing in Claude Code Desktop

Open Claude Desktop and go to the Customize panel on the left sidebar. Click Skills, then hit the + button next to "Personal plugins."

In the dialog that opens, paste the GitHub repo path. For my Estonia public sources skill, that's taivop/marketplace. Click Sync.

You'll see the available plugins from that marketplace. Click Install on the one you want.

Once installed, the button changes to Manage and you get a confirmation banner.

That's it. Start a new conversation and the skill is available.

Installing in Claude Code CLI

Two commands:

claude plugin marketplace add taivop/marketplace
claude plugin install estonia-public-sources@marketplace

The first registers the marketplace. The second installs a specific plugin from it. Restart your session after installing.

"Why does it keep asking me to approve things?"

The estonia-public-sources skill tells Claude where to find information: which URLs to fetch, which APIs to call, which pages to scrape. But Claude Code operates on a permission model. The first time it tries to fetch a URL or run a command, it asks you.

This isn't a bug. The skill gives Claude the knowledge of what to do; the permission system gives you control over what it actually does. Think of the skill as a map and the approvals as border checkpoints.

In practice, you'll see prompts like "Allow WebFetch to access riigiteataja.ee?" the first time. You can approve once, or use the "Allow always" option so it doesn't ask again for that domain.

If you're in the CLI and want fewer interruptions, you can pre-approve domains in your settings. But the first-time approval flow is by design. Claude shouldn't be hitting arbitrary URLs without your knowledge, even if a skill says to.