Give a contractor your team's AI prompts without a Business plan
Quick answer
Claude's and ChatGPT's skill sharing reaches only members of your Team, Enterprise, or Business workspace, and a contractor on a personal plan isn't one. Send the files for a short job, buy a seat if they should be staff, or invite them to a skill server their own AI connects to and remove them when the work ends.
Free plan: no credit card, 1 published page, 10,000 page views a month, and a small Convika bar at the bottom.
On this page
A freelancer starts on Monday. Your team writes client reports, proposals, and landing page copy with Claude or ChatGPT, using instructions it took months to get right. The freelancer pays for their own Claude Pro or ChatGPT account. You want their AI to follow your instructions from day one, and you want that to stop the day the contract ends.
Anthropic's help pages quoted here were read on November 4, 2026. OpenAI's docs at learn.chatgpt.com and developers.openai.com were read the same day. OpenAI's help center refused automated reads, so its lines come from the pages as search engines show them.
Why your workspace's sharing doesn't reach them
Both apps share skills inside one company plan:
- Claude: Share and Publish to org are on Team and Enterprise. Anthropic: shared access "is removed automatically if they leave the organization". A contractor on their own Pro account was never in it.
- ChatGPT: the web Skills tab and its Share button are on Business, Enterprise, Healthcare, and Edu, and Share reaches people and groups in that workspace.
A skill here means a SKILL.md file: the instructions, plus a line that tells the AI when to use them. The prompts you keep in a doc become one in a few minutes (how to turn a how-to doc into a skill).
Three ways, compared
| Send the files | Give them a seat | Invite them to a skill server | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | Nothing | A Team or Business seat a month | The server's plan, if any |
| Their AI account | Their own | A second one, yours | Their own |
| When you fix a prompt | Send it again; they upload again | They get it in your workspace | Their next chat reads it |
| When the contract ends | Their copy stays with them | Remove the seat | Remove them; their AI stops reaching your skills |
| ChatGPT Plus | Add it in the desktop app, or paste into a Project | Not their account | Not on OpenAI's list: check Plugins, + |
Send the files for a 2-week job. Give them a seat when they work like staff, inside one app, and you pay for their AI anyway. Invite them to a server when they keep their own account, you work with several contractors, or the instructions change during the job.
Hand a contractor your skills in 5 steps
- Pick only the skills their work needs. Everyone who can use a skill can read it, so leave out skills with client prices, API keys, or other people's work.
- Put those skills on a remote MCP server, apart from the staff-only ones.
- Send the invite to their own email. No company account needed.
- They connect their AI once. Claude: Customize → Connectors, + Add, Add custom connector, then the link. Anthropic says this works on Free (one connector), Pro, Max, Ultra, Team, and Enterprise. ChatGPT: Plugins, +, Add custom MCP server, which OpenAI's help lists for Pro (read and fetch only), Business, and Enterprise. It doesn't list Plus.
- Remove them on the last day. Write the date in the contract, and remove them that day.
Fluxenic's AI Skill Pod does steps 2 to 5 for teams: a contractor joins from the same invite link as your staff, with any email address, uses your skills from their own Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or OpenCode, and loses access when you remove them. Fluxenic is the company that runs Convika. AI Skill Pod has a free plan for a small team and a free trial of its paid plans with no card; its prices are in the guide to sharing instructions with a team.
What a contractor can still see and keep
Be honest with yourself before you invite anyone:
- They can read every skill they can use. An AI follows instructions by reading them, and AI Skill Pod's guide says so plainly: "Anyone whose AI can use a skill can ask to see its instructions."
- Removal stops future use, not copies. AI Skill Pod: "Removing someone stops future access; it can't recall what they already copied."
- The skill isn't private know-how once shared. Put what must stay secret in the contract, not in the skill.
So treat a shared skill as you'd treat a shared doc: share what you'd hand them anyway, and only for the job.
A checklist for day 1
- Which skills does this person need, and are they apart from the staff-only ones?
- Which AI do they use, and on which plan? OpenAI's list of plans for custom MCP servers doesn't name ChatGPT Plus, so a Plus user checks for Add custom MCP server first.
- Who answers when they want a skill changed?
- What date does access end?
Frequently asked questions
How can I share a Claude skill with a contractor who uses their own Pro account?
Claude's Share and Publish to org reach only members of your Team or Enterprise organization. For a contractor on their own Pro account, send the skill's ZIP to upload under Customize → Skills, or invite them to a remote MCP server holding the skill, which Pro takes as a custom connector.
Do I have to buy a contractor a ChatGPT Business seat?
Only if you want them inside your workspace. A seat is a second account they switch to. If they're on ChatGPT Pro, a custom MCP server reaches them on their own account. On Plus, which OpenAI's list doesn't name, they check under Plugins, +, and otherwise add your skill in the ChatGPT desktop app or paste it into a Project.
How do I stop a contractor using our prompts after the project?
With copies you can't: the files stay on their computer. With a seat, remove the seat. With a skill server, remove them and their AI stops reaching your skills, though what they already copied stays with them.
Can a contractor see the text of our prompts?
Yes. Anyone whose AI can use a skill can ask it to show the instructions. Share only what you'd give them as a document.
Sources
- Claude Help Center: Using skills in Claude (Share and Publish on Team and Enterprise; read November 4, 2026)
- Claude Help Center: Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP (plans and steps; read November 4, 2026)
- OpenAI for developers: Connect and test your plugin (the Add custom MCP server steps; read November 4, 2026)
- OpenAI Help: Connecting custom MCP servers in ChatGPT (the plans, as search results showed it, November 4, 2026)
Next step
How to share an HTML file as a link that opens on any phone
Email and Google Drive open HTML on a phone without scripts. Compare 5 hosts (Netlify Drop, Tiiny Host, Pagelive, GitHub Pages, Convika) and follow 4 steps.
Related articles
- Share the same ChatGPT and Claude instructions with your whole team, contractors includedClaude and ChatGPT share skills only inside Team, Business, and Enterprise plans. What works on Pro and personal plans, and how to keep one copy for everyone.
- Turn your team's how-to doc into an AI skill everyone can useA how-to doc becomes a skill with two lines on top: a name and when to use it. The format, a worked example, and how to get it to your team's AI.
- Make every teammate's AI write in your brand voice, in Claude and ChatGPTFive people asking five AIs for copy get five voices. Write the voice guide from your best copy, make it a skill, and give everyone's AI the same one.
- Use the same AI skill in Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor (and Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode)One SKILL.md works in every tool that reads the Agent Skills format. Where each tool looks for it, why copies drift, and how one MCP link keeps them the same.
- How to password protect an HTML page without code, on your own domainJavaScript passwords sit in the page code. Put an HTML page from ChatGPT or Claude behind a server-checked password on your own domain.