Agent Skills MCP

Transform Agent Skills into MCP tools with team-shareable configuration

An MCP server that makes Agent Skills available to any MCP-compatible agent through a declarative, package.json-based configuration.

Why This Exists

Agent Skills are powerful context engineering tools:

• Break down long system prompts into reusable, parameterized components
• Follow an open standard for portability across agents
• More powerful than prompts alone when bundled with tools and workflows

But current implementations have pain points:

• ❌ Filesystem-based discovery: Each agent uses different directories (.claude/skills, etc.)
• ❌ No configuration control: All skills always loaded, no filtering or organization
• ❌ Unclear security model: Dynamic tool calling and scripts are significant threats without proper sandboxing
• ❌ No team sharing: Hard to share skill configurations across teams

The MCP Gateway Solution:

MCP has already solved these problems for tools. By providing an MCP server as a "gateway" for Agent Skills:

• ✅ Address all pain points client-independently through a standardized interface
• ✅ Declarative configuration via package.json that teams can version and share
• ✅ Clear security model: server doesn't execute code, agents remain in control
• ✅ Skills + MCP tooling = powerful combination understood by all agents

What It Does

This project provides:

1. CLI for installing and managing Agent Skills from multiple sources (GitHub, local, tarball URLs)
2. MCP Server that exposes installed skills as MCP tools to any compatible agent
3. Core library for parsing, validating, and working with Agent Skills

Quick Start

1. Install

npm install -g @codemcp/agentskills

Or with pnpm:

pnpm add -g @codemcp/agentskills

2. Configure Skills

Add skills to your project's package.json:

{
  "agentskills": {
    "git-workflow": "github:anthropics/agent-skills/skills/git-workflow",
    "local-skill": "file:./my-skills/custom-skill",
    "shared-skill": "git+https://github.com/org/skills.git#v1.0.0"
  }
}

3. Install Skills

agentskills install

This downloads skills to .agentskills/skills/ directory.

4. Configure MCP Client

Point your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cline, Continue, etc.) to the server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "agentskills": {
      "command": "agentskills-mcp",
      "cwd": "/path/to/your/project"
    }
  }
}

5. Use Skills

Your agent can now:

• Call the use_skill tool to execute skill instructions
• Browse available skills via skill:// resources

How It Works

package.json (config) → agentskills install → .agentskills/skills/
                                                        ↓
Agent ← MCP Protocol ← agentskills-mcp (server) ← skill registry

1. Configuration: Declare skills in package.json like npm dependencies
2. Installation: CLI downloads skills from GitHub, local paths, or URLs using npm's Pacote
3. Server: MCP server reads installed skills and exposes them as tools
4. Execution: Agent calls use_skill tool, receiving skill instructions in context

Features

• 🔌 MCP Protocol Support - Works with Claude Desktop, Cline, Continue, and other MCP clients
• 📦 Package Manager Integration - Declare skills in package.json, version control your configuration
• 🚀 Multiple Sources - Install from GitHub repos, local paths, or tarball URLs
• ✅ Validation - Built-in parsing and validation for Agent Skills format
• 🔍 Discovery - Skills automatically exposed via MCP resources and tools
• 🔒 Security - Server only serves skill content; agents control execution
• 🧩 Modular - Three separate packages for different use cases

Configuration

Skills are declared in the agentskills field of package.json:

{
  "agentskills": {
    "skill-name": "source-specifier"
  }
}

Source Specifiers

| Source Type | Example | Description | | ---------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | GitHub shorthand | github:user/repo/path/to/skill | Direct GitHub path | | Git URL | git+https://github.com/org/repo.git#v1.0.0 | Full git URL with version tag | | Local path | file:./skills/custom-skill | Relative or absolute local path | | Tarball URL | https://example.com/skill.tgz | Remote tarball |

Example Team Configuration

{
  "name": "my-project",
  "agentskills": {
    "git-workflow": "github:anthropics/agent-skills/skills/git-workflow",
    "code-review": "github:anthropics/agent-skills/skills/code-review",
    "custom-api-docs": "file:./team-skills/api-documentation",
    "shared-workflow": "git+https://github.com/myorg/skills.git#v2.1.0"
  }
}

Commit this to your repo, and your entire team uses the same skills configuration.

CLI Commands

Install all configured skills

agentskills install

Add a new skill

agentskills add my-skill github:user/repo/path/to/skill

List configured skills

agentskills list

Validate a skill file

agentskills validate path/to/SKILL.md

Creating Skills

A skill is a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: example-skill
description: Does something useful
arguments:
  - name: target
    description: What to do it to
    required: true
---

# Example Skill

This is the skill body with instructions for the agent.

Use arguments like this: $ARGUMENTS or $1 (first argument).

See the Agent Skills standard for full specification.

Use Cases

When to use Agent Skills MCP:

• Context Engineering - Break down complex system prompts into modular, reusable pieces
• Team Collaboration - Share skill configurations across your team via version control
• Multi-Agent Workflows - Use the same skills across different MCP-compatible agents
• Security Control - Centralized skill management without giving agents filesystem access
• Skill Libraries - Build and share libraries of domain-specific skills (DevOps, testing, documentation, etc.)

Project Structure

This is a monorepo containing three packages:

• @codemcp/agentskills-core - Core parsing, validation, and installation logic
• @codemcp/agentskills-cli - Command-line interface for skill management
• @codemcp/agentskills-mcp-server - MCP protocol server implementation

Development

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build all packages
pnpm build

# Run tests (302 tests)
pnpm test

# Run linting and formatting
pnpm run lint:all
pnpm run format:check:all

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.

Pull requests for bug fixes, new features, or documentation improvements are appreciated.

License

MIT, Oliver Jägle

Links

• Agent Skills Standard - Official specification
• Model Context Protocol - Learn about MCP
• npm Package - Published packages
• Anthropic Agent Skills - Original skill collection