[DOCS] Contradiction regarding Slash Command/Skill availability in Headless Mode vs GitHub Actions

Documentation Type

Missing documentation (feature not documented)

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/headless https://code.claude.com/docs/en/github-actions

Section/Topic

The "Create a commit" section in the Headless documentation. The "Using skills" section in the GitHub Actions documentation.

Current Documentation

In Headless Mode (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/headless):

"User-invoked skills like /commit ... are only available in interactive mode. In -p mode, describe the task you want to accomplish instead."

In GitHub Actions (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/github-actions):

code
Yaml
download
content_copy
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jobs:
review:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:

• uses: anthropics/claude-code-action@v1

with:
anthropic_api_key: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
prompt: "/review"
claude_args: "--max-turns 5"

What's Wrong or Missing?

The documentation creates a direct contradiction regarding the capabilities of the CLI when running non-interactively.

The Headless documentation explicitly states that user-invoked skills (slash commands) are only available in interactive mode and implies they will not work with the -p flag. However, the GitHub Actions documentation—which relies on the SDK/CLI running in a headless CI environment—explicitly demonstrates using a skill (prompt: "/review") as a valid configuration.

Users attempting to build automation scripts are unclear if they can use custom skills (e.g., /custom-skill) via claude -p or if they must use natural language descriptions.

Suggested Improvement

The documentation needs to align with the actual technical capability of the CLI v2.0+.

If Slash Commands work in Headless Mode: Remove the note in https://code.claude.com/docs/en/headless claiming they are only available in interactive mode.

If Slash Commands DO NOT work in Headless Mode: The GitHub Actions documentation example at https://code.claude.com/docs/en/github-actions is invalid and will likely fail. Update the example to use natural language (e.g., prompt: "Review the code changes in this PR") instead of /review.

Impact

High - Prevents users from using a feature

Additional Context

This ambiguity affects users trying to standardize workflows between local interactive development and CI/CD pipelines. If skills defined in SKILL.md cannot be invoked in CI, users need to know to write natural language prompts instead.