Pestel

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Pestel skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Pestel is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Security category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: Security · Sub-category: forensics · Last updated: 2026-06-17

type:scanner

Use when scanning an external macro environment with PESTEL/PESTLE (and its variant family STEEPLE, STEEPLED, PESTLIED, STEEP, DESTEP, LoNGPESTLE): political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal forces; evidence quality and recency; geography/jurisdiction and local/national/global level; time horizon; uncertainty; weak signals; impact/probability scoring; factor interactions; bias checks; opportunity/threat implications; assumptions; action conversion; and monitoring triggers. Covers external-environment scanning before strategy choices, market-entry reviews, strategic planning, product/service context, policy-aware planning, and risk/opportunity surfacing. Do NOT use for internal capability diagnosis (use swot-tows or a capability method), industry profit-pressure diagnosis (use porters-five-forces), value-curve redesign (use blue-ocean-strategy), integrated strategy cascades (use playing-to-win), product positioning (use positioning), or quantified option comparison (use expected-value).

Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›

About this skill (catalog notes)

Pestel includes explicit scope boundaries (an explicit 'when not to use' or 'out of scope' section); pricing or quota commentary; 5 code blocks for direct copy-paste. At roughly 5,431 words the SKILL.md is on the longer end of the catalog distribution.

Source: www.skills.sh/jacob-balslev/skills
License: CC-BY-4.0
Original author: jacob-balslev
Indexed lastmod: 2026-06-17
Catalog position: Security · forensics
Indexed related skills: 10

How Pestel fits the catalog

Pestel sits in the Security category under the forensics sub-topic in the ClaudSkills catalog. There are 10 related skills indexed alongside it; comparing a few before installing usually reveals which fits your workflow best.

Is Pestel safe to install?

A free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10 found no risk patterns in Pestel’s SKILL.md — no data-exfiltration, prompt-injection, or unexpected-execution signatures. The full security scan is below.

Installing & verifying

Installing Pestel writes its SKILL.md to ~/.claude/skills/pestel/SKILL.md; Claude Code discovers it automatically on the next session — no restart flag needed. It declares no allowed-tools restriction, so it inherits your session’s existing tool access rather than narrowing it. To confirm it loaded, ask Claude to list its available skills — pestel should appear by name.

What Pestel needs to run

External services: The SKILL.md references pricing, quota, or rate limits — it likely calls a paid or rate-limited API. Check the source before wiring it into unattended automation.
Scope discipline: Declares explicit “when not to use” boundaries — safer than average to hand to an autonomous agent, which is less likely to over-apply it.
Worked code: 5 copy-paste code blocks in the body.
Depth: ~5,431 words, substantial — top of the catalog distribution.

When to reach for it

There are 10 related skills in Security — a two-minute scan of the alternatives usually confirms whether Pestel is the right pick.

These notes are auto-generated from features detected in the SKILL.md file and from this catalog's structure — they aren't part of the source repository.

What this skill does

Pestel is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the forensics sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/pestel/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

When to invoke it: Use when scanning an external macro environment with PESTEL/PESTLE (and its variant family STEEPLE, STEEPLED, PESTLIED, STEEP, DESTEP, LoNGPESTLE): political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal forces; evidence quality and recency; geography/jurisdiction and local/national/global level; time horizon; uncertainty; weak signals; impact/probability scoring; factor interactions; bias checks; opportunity/threat implications; assumptions; action conversion; and monitoring triggers. Covers external-environment scanning before strategy choices, market-entry reviews, strategic planning, product/service context, policy-aware planning, and risk/opportunity surfacing.

Who uses this skill

The Pestel Claude Code skill is built for security engineers, penetration testers, DevSecOps practitioners, and development teams hardening codebases and infrastructure. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 187,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/pestel
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/pestel/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/pestel/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/pestel/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/pestel/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\pestel\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Pestel Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/pestel/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Pestel skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Pestel skill?

Use Pestel when your Claude Code task falls under the Security category — specifically in the forensics area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Pestel" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/security/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Pestel skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Pestel is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Security category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/jacob-balslev/skills/blob/HEAD/skills/reasoning-strategy/pestel/SKILL.md
License: CC-BY-4.0
Author: jacob-balslev
Website: https://www.skills.sh/jacob-balslev/skills/

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

jacob-balslev. (2026). Pestel [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/pestel/

BibTeX

@misc{pestel-2026,
  author    = {jacob-balslev},
  title     = {Pestel [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/pestel/}
}

Embed this skill

Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →

Badge

[![ClaudSkills](https://claudskills.com/badge/pestel.svg)](https://claudskills.com/skills/pestel/?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=skill_badge)

Security scan

Grade A · scanned 2026-08-18 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.

No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›

✓ Prompt injection
✓ Data exfiltration
✓ Supply chain
✓ Reverse shell
✓ Credentials
✓ Execution
✓ Filesystem
✓ Persistence
✓ Obfuscation
✓ Network

Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):

[![Security: A](https://img.shields.io/badge/Security-A-2e7d32)](https://claudskills.com/skills/pestel/#security)

More Security skills

Browse all Security skills in the ClaudSkills registry, or explore these other picks from the same category:

Browse all Security skills → Top 100 skills

Part of ClaudSkills — the open registry for Claude Skills & Claude Code Skills. · What's New · Install guide · About · llms.txt

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