@hasna/skills

Skills library for AI coding agents — discover, pin, and run reusable capabilities through the Skills CLI and MCP server for Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, and more.

Install The CLI

bun install -g @hasna/skills

Requires Bun 1.0+.

Quick Start

# Browse skills interactively
skills

# Hosted setup is the recommended interactive path
skills setup --mode hosted
skills auth login

# Local-only setup stays available and does not require an account
skills setup --mode local

# Optionally pin a skill preference in this project
skills pin image

# Register the Skills MCP server with every supported agent
skills setup agents

# See what a skill needs
skills info image

# Premium skills run through the configured hosted API
skills run image "a cat sitting on a windowsill"

# Free/local skills can still use your own provider keys when documented
skills requires brand-style-guide
OPENAI_API_KEY=... skills run brand-style-guide ./brand-notes.md

Remote-Only Premium Skills

Premium skills are hosted SaaS runs. The CLI and MCP server submit them to the configured hosted API, create local run metadata, and then expose status and artifact commands. They do not fall back to bundled local execution when auth is missing or the platform is unavailable.

Use SKILLS_API_KEY or skills auth login for premium hosted execution:

skills setup --mode hosted
skills auth login
skills run image "editorial product photo on a white sweep"
skills runs status <run-id>
skills exports download <run-id>

skills auth login uses browser/device-code auth by default. Email code login is still available with skills auth login --email [email protected].

SKILLS_API_KEY is the hosted account credential. It is not a provider credential. Provider keys such as OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, or GEMINI_API_KEY remain supported only for free/local OSS skills whose requirements explicitly document local provider use.

CLI Commands

| Command | Alias | Description | |---------|-------|-------------| | skills | | Interactive TUI to browse, search, and pin skills | | skills pin <name> | | Pin one or more skills in .skills/project.json; no source is copied | | skills pin --category "Development Tools" | | Pin all skills in a category | | skills unpin <name> | | Remove a project pin | | skills pins list | | List pinned skills | | skills setup --mode hosted | | Configure hosted mode with a compatible API origin | | skills setup --mode local | | Configure local-only mode without hosted credentials | | skills setup agents | | Register the Skills MCP server with all supported agents | | skills list | ls | List available skills (filter with -c, --pinned, -t, --brief) | | skills search <query> | s | Search by name, description, or tags | | skills info <name> | | Show metadata, env vars, and system dependencies | | skills show <name> | | Show bundled or portable skill details | | skills docs <name> | | Show documentation (SKILL.md > README.md > CLAUDE.md) | | skills requires <name> | | Show env vars, system deps, and npm dependencies | | skills run <name> [args] | | Execute a skill directly | | skills runs status <run-id> | | Poll a remote skill run | | skills exports download <run-id> | | Download completed remote artifacts | | skills update | | Refresh project pin metadata | | skills diff <name> | | Compare pin metadata against the bundled registry | | skills init | | Generate .env.example and update .gitignore for pinned skills | | skills categories | | List all categories with skill counts | | skills tags | | List all unique tags with occurrence counts | | skills doctor | | Check env vars, system deps, and pinned skill health | | skills test [name] | | Test skill readiness (env, system, npm deps) | | skills outdated | | Compare pinned vs registry versions | | skills auth login | | Sign in to the hosted API with browser/device-code auth or email code | | skills billing status | | Show hosted account plan and balance | | skills billing checkout | | Create a hosted subscription checkout session | | skills billing portal | | Create a hosted customer portal session | | skills credits buy <amount> | | Create a hosted credit-pack checkout session | | skills setup-info | | Version, pinned skills, agent configs, paths | | skills export | | Export pinned skills as JSON | | skills import <file> | | Pin skills from a JSON export | | skills config set <key> <value> | | Set default agent, scope, or output format | | skills new <name> | scaffold | Scaffold a portable skill under ~/.hasna/skills/<name> | | skills port <path> | add | Import an existing skill folder into the portable standard | | skills create <name> | | Scaffold a new custom skill directory | | skills sync --to claude | | Disabled by design; use skills mcp --register <agent|all> | | skills sync --from claude | | Disabled by design; agent skill folders are not used | | skills validate <name> | | Check a skill's directory structure | | skills schedule add <skill> <cron> | | Set up recurring skill execution | | skills schedule list | | List all schedules (enabled/disabled/last run) | | skills storage status | | Show local state paths and optional repo-native storage readiness | | skills storage sync-plan | | Plan .skills Postgres/S3 snapshot sync without network access | | skills mcp | | Start MCP server on stdio | | skills mcp --register claude | | Register the Skills MCP server in an agent config (also codex, gemini, opencode, all) | | skills self-update | | Update this package to the latest version | | skills completion <shell> | | Generate shell completions (bash, zsh, fish) |

Common Options

• --json — Output as JSON (pipeable)
• --brief — One-line format
• --limit <n> — Cap human rows where supported; use --limit all or --limit 0 for every row
• --cursor <n> — Continue human-output pagination from a numeric offset
• --remote — Read browse/search data from SKILLS_API_URL or config apiUrl
• --dry-run — Preview without applying changes
• --verbose — Debug logging globally; richer human discovery rows where supported
• --no-color — Disable ANSI colors
• -o, --overwrite — Refresh existing pin metadata

Compact Output Defaults

Agent-facing discovery commands are compact by default. skills list --all, skills search <query> --all, skills tags, skills runs list, and skills schedule list cap human output and print a next-page command when more rows are available.

Use explicit disclosure controls when you need more:

skills list --all --limit 50
skills list --all --cursor 50 --limit 50
skills list --all --limit all
skills list --all --verbose
skills show image
skills search pdf --json

CLI --json output remains the machine-readable full result for browse/search commands. Human output is optimized for terminals and agent context.

JSON Output Contracts

Commands that support --json write exactly one JSON value to stdout and keep human diagnostics off stdout. Error cases set a non-zero exit code and return an object with an error field where the command shape is not already an array.

Stable command shapes:

• Browse: list, search, categories, tags return arrays.
• Skill details: info, docs, requires, validate, diff, test, doctor, auth, whoami, and outdated return command-specific objects or arrays documented by their field names.
• Project state: pin, unpin, update, init, import, create, new, scaffold, port, add, and sync return result objects/arrays; --dry-run --json returns { "dryRun": true, "actions": [...] } where applicable.
• Runtime: run --json <skill> ... returns { "skill", "args", "exitCode", "stdout", "stderr", "error", "run" }. Premium remote runs include { "contractVersion": 1, "remote": true, "remoteRun", "pricing", "run", "nextActions" } and return immediately with status commands such as skills runs status <run-id> and skills exports download <run-id>.
• Config and schedules: config * --json and schedule * --json return machine-readable status objects.
• Storage: storage status --json returns local .skills paths and optional repo-native remote readiness; storage sync-plan --json returns a no-network snapshot plan.
• MCP registration: mcp --register <agent> --json returns { "registered": number, "results": [...] }.

Remote Registry Mode

Local bundled skills remain the default for discovery. To point browse/search commands at a compatible hosted registry, set an API base URL:

export SKILLS_API_URL=https://skills.md/api/v1
# or persist it:
skills config set apiUrl https://skills.md/api/v1

skills list --remote --json
skills search transcribe --remote --json
skills categories --remote
skills tags --remote --json

If the URL is an origin such as https://skills.md, the CLI requests /api/v1/skills. If it already ends in /api or /api/v1, the CLI appends /skills.

Authenticated remote listing and hosted premium execution use SKILLS_API_KEY or the credential saved by skills auth login.

For the reusable upstream contract, see docs/architecture/reusable-skills-engine.md.

Portable Skills

Portable skills live directly under ~/.hasna/skills/<name>/ and follow the standard documented in docs/skill-standard.md.

skills new my-skill
skills validate my-skill
skills run my-skill --help
skills show my-skill

skills port ./existing-skill

The scaffold includes SKILL.md, skill.json, AGENTS.md, package.json, tsconfig.json, and src/index.ts. AGENTS.md is written for coding agents: after skills new my-skill, an agent can open that file, implement the skill, update the manifest, run tests, and verify with skills validate.

MCP Server

skills mcp    # stdio transport (use with Claude/Codex MCP config)

HTTP mode

Long-lived Streamable HTTP transport (default port 8836, bind 127.0.0.1 only):

skills-mcp --http
# or
MCP_HTTP=1 skills-mcp

# override port
skills-mcp --http --port 8836
MCP_HTTP_PORT=8836 skills-mcp --http

Endpoints: GET /health → {"status":"ok","name":"skills"}, MCP at /mcp. Uses stateless StreamableHTTPServerTransport (shared process, many clients). skills-mcp without flags still uses stdio (unchanged).

The MCP server exposes 20+ tools including list_skills, search_skills, scaffold_skill, port_skill, pin_skill, unpin_skill, pin_category, list_pinned_skills, get_skill_info, get_skill_docs, get_requirements, run_skill, get_run_status, schedule_skill, detect_project_skills, validate_skill, and more.

MCP discovery and status tools use compact paged envelopes by default: list_skills and search_skills return skills plus total, offset, limit, and nextOffset; list_schedules returns the same metadata with a schedules array. run_skill returns stdout/stderr previews and compact run summaries unless the caller passes detail: true. Use get_skill_info, get_skill_docs, or detail: true for full records only when needed.

Register with an Agent

skills mcp --register claude    # Auto-register with Claude Code
skills mcp --register all       # Register with all supported agents

Hosted Account

skills setup --mode hosted
skills auth login
skills billing status

Hosted account, billing, and credit management use the configured hosted API. The public package only stores local configuration and CLI credentials; Stripe, customer records, and hosted execution remain platform concerns.

Storage Boundary

Open Skills is local-first. Project runtime state stays in .skills/; global config and auth stay under ~/.hasna/skills/.

Optional repo-native sync can be configured without a hosted SaaS account:

HASNA_SKILLS_STORAGE_MODE=hybrid # local | remote | hybrid
HASNA_SKILLS_DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
HASNA_SKILLS_S3_BUCKET=skills-artifacts
HASNA_SKILLS_S3_PREFIX=opensource/prod/skills

skills storage status
skills storage sync-plan --schema-sql

Wrappers and deployment tooling can import the storage-only surface without pulling in CLI/runtime helpers:

import { getStorageStatus, resolveStorageConfig } from "@hasna/skills/storage";

Plain SKILLS_DATABASE_URL, SKILLS_STORAGE_MODE, and SKILLS_S3_BUCKET fallbacks are accepted for local development. Hosted wrappers must keep their private SaaS DATABASE_URL, tenant tables, billing state, workers, and artifact buckets separate; if they expose open-core storage, they should map explicit wrapper envs into HASNA_SKILLS_* rather than passing the private SaaS database implicitly.

Project Structure

src/
├── cli/index.tsx           # Commander.js CLI + Ink TUI
├── mcp/index.ts            # MCP server (stdio) with ~20 tools
├── lib/
│   ├── registry.ts          # 202+ entries, search, categories, tags
│   ├── installer.ts         # Project pins and disabled source-copy paths
│   ├── project-state.ts     # .skills/project.json preferences
│   ├── run-state.ts         # .skills/runs and .skills/exports metadata
│   ├── skillinfo.ts         # Docs, requirements, env/system detection
│   ├── scheduler.ts         # Cron-based skill execution
│   ├── config.ts            # Global + project config loading
│   └── utils.ts             # normalizeSkillName()
├── index.ts                 # Library re-exports (npm package entry)
└── *.test.ts                # Test files

skills/                      # 202+ public skill contracts and local OSS skills
├── _common/                 # Shared utilities
└── */                       # Local skills include src/; hosted skills are metadata-only

Project Runtime State

Skills are discovered from the remote registry or bundled OSS registry. Project folders and agent-native skill folders are never used as skill libraries.

.skills/ is runtime/output state only:

.skills/
├── project.json              # optional pins/preferences, no secrets
├── runs/YYYY-MM-DD/<run-id>/  # run.json, artifacts.json, events.ndjson, logs/
├── exports/<skill>/<run-id>/  # files produced by a run
└── tmp/

Auth stays global in ~/.hasna/skills/auth.json. Registry and doc caches belong in ~/.cache/skills or the remote API, not inside project .skills.

Development

bun install
bun run build              # Build CLI, MCP, library, and types
bun run dev                # Run CLI in dev mode (no build needed)
bun test                   # Run all tests
bun run typecheck          # TypeScript type checking

Adding a New Skill

1. Create skills/{name}/ with src/index.ts, package.json, tsconfig.json, SKILL.md
2. Add an entry to the SKILLS array in src/lib/registry.ts
3. Run skills validate <name> --json to check package metadata, portable manifests, bin entries, docs, and SKILL.md frontmatter
4. Run bun test to verify registry-wide validation passes

Premium hosted skills should add public contracts, pricing, docs, and tests without adding private provider routing, hosted worker code, or secrets to the OSS package.

Portable skill directories are auto-discovered from ~/.hasna/skills/<name>/. Legacy custom skill directories are still discovered from ~/.hasna/skills/custom/. Project .skills/ is reserved for runtime state and outputs.

Data Directory

Global configuration is stored in ~/.hasna/skills/. Auth is stored in ~/.hasna/skills/auth.json. Project runtime data is stored in .skills/runs, .skills/exports, .skills/tmp, and optional .skills/project.json.

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE