Claude Code Marketing Skill: What install-skill Actually Adds

If you have seen the Marta install command, you have seen it run two things: claude mcp add marta and then install-skill. The Claude Code marketing skill is that second half. It does not add new buttons or new generation power; the MCP server already carries every tool that spends credits. What the skill adds is judgment: a set of instructions Claude Code loads that turns a box of tools into a colleague who knows what to make, in what order, grounded in your real brand. Installing Marta without the skill gives you a working toolbox. Installing the skill turns that toolbox into a marketing agent that opens a campaign the way a good freelancer would.

What is the Claude Code marketing skill?

A skill in Claude Code is a package of instructions and context that Claude Code reads when a task matches. It is not code that runs and it is not a model; it is a written brief that tells the assistant how to use a set of tools well. The Marta skill is a marketing brief: how to research a brand before making anything, how to hold one art direction across nine grid tiles so the feed reads as one feed, how to write captions in the brand's actual voice, and when to stop and confirm a cost before spending.

Without the skill, the raw tools are still there and still callable. But you would be the one deciding the sequence: research first, then art directions, then the grid, then hero shots, then reels, then captions, then a preview. With the skill installed, Claude Code already knows that sequence, because the skill wrote it down. That is the whole difference, and it is a large one.

Toolbox versus colleague: why the skill matters on top of the MCP tools

The clearest way to hold the two halves apart is the toolbox-versus-colleague framing from our overview of whether Claude Code has a marketing tool.

The MCP server is the toolbox. It exposes the tools that do the work:

• research your site and your real Instagram so the work is grounded in your actual brand
• build a cohesive Instagram grid from one art direction
• generate product-faithful hero shots
• animate stills and produce short reels and UGC-style video
• write captions in your brand voice
• estimate a cost before anything runs, and preview posts in a mock feed

Any tool can be called on its own. That is genuinely useful, and if you only want one hero shot you can ask for exactly that. But a bare toolbox has no opinion. It will not tell you that a grid needs a single art direction to look like one feed, or that captions should be written after the images so they match what is actually on screen, or that it is worth reading your existing posts before inventing a voice from scratch.

The skill is the colleague. It carries the opinions. It is the reason a plain request like "make me an Instagram campaign for this product" produces a researched, sequenced, on-brand result instead of nine unrelated squares. The tools supply the hands; the skill supplies the taste and the order of operations.

The MCP server is the hands. The skill is the taste and the order of operations. You need both, and one command installs both.

Why not just call the MCP tools directly?

You can, and for a single asset you often should. The skill earns its place the moment the task is a whole campaign rather than one image, because a campaign is mostly decisions, not clicks.

Consider what the skill quietly handles so you do not have to spell it out every time:

• Grounding. It reads your brand first, so hero shots stay product-faithful and captions stay on-voice, rather than pulling a generic look out of nowhere.
• Sequence. It runs research, then art direction, then grid, then heroes, then video, then captions, then preview, because that order is what keeps a feed coherent.
• Cohesion. It holds one art direction across all nine grid tiles, which is the entire trick behind a grid that reads as one feed instead of nine tiles.
• Cost discipline. It estimates and confirms before it spends, so nothing large runs without your say. A real small campaign came to $2.95 and a real big one to $15.76; the skill is why you see that number before it is charged, not after.

None of that is magic and none of it is hidden. It is a written brief you could read. But having it installed means you do not have to hold the whole marketing workflow in your head to get a good campaign out of one sentence.

How the skill makes Marta eligible in skills rankings

There is a practical, discovery reason the skill exists as its own installable half. Skill directories and the "best Claude Code skills" lists that the ecosystem is starting to publish index skills, not raw MCP servers. A marketing skill that installs cleanly, declares what it does, and behaves well is eligible to be listed and ranked in those places; a bare set of tools with no skill wrapper is not the thing those lists point at.

So install-skill is doing double duty. For you, it hands Claude Code the playbook. For Marta, it is what makes the marketing capability show up as a skill people can find and compare, in the same directories where technical users already look for what to add to Claude Code. The half of the command that looks like a footnote is actually how the tool gets discovered.

Does the skill cost anything or change pricing?

No. Installing the skill is free and it does not change how generation is priced. The skill is instructions; it never spends on its own. Credits are only ever consumed by the generation tools when you run them, one credit equals one cent, and you get free credits to start. The skill's cost discipline actually protects your balance, because it is the part that estimates and asks before anything large runs. If you want the full tool-by-tool picture of what runs on credits, the docs lay out every tool and what it does.

How do I install it?

One command installs both halves at once. The claude mcp add part registers the toolbox; the install-skill part adds the playbook.

claude mcp add marta -- npx -y heymarta-mcp && npx -y heymarta-mcp install-skill

After that, open Claude Code and describe your product, from a URL, a codebase, or a plain description, and ask for a campaign. The skill takes it from there: it researches, proposes art directions, and builds the grid, heroes, reels, and captions in order, pausing to confirm cost before it spends. If you want the fuller answer to whether this exists at all and how the whole thing hangs together, our post on whether Claude Code has a marketing tool walks through the complete picture.

Start with the skill on

The short version: the MCP server is what Marta can do, and the skill is how Marta knows to do it well. You want both, which is why the install command ships both. There is nothing to configure after the two lines run and no separate account step to unlock the skill; it is on the moment you install it.

Meet Marta with a real product and a real ask. You get 450 free credits to start, which is enough to see a full grid, a few hero shots, and captions before you spend anything of your own. Sign up, run the command, and ask for your first campaign.