install-skills

Interactively install skills.sh agent skills from a .skills.yaml manifest. Pick skills from a checkbox list, choose the target agent, and each one is installed with npx skills add <repo> --skill <skill> --agent <ids> -y.

npx @kreas/install-skills

How it works

1. Looks for .skills.yaml in the current directory (or a source you pass with --manifest).
2. Shows an interactive picker — space to toggle, enter to confirm.
3. Runs npx skills add https://github.com/<repo> --skill <skill> --agent <ids> -y for each selected skill — fully non-interactive, so the skills CLI never prompts for agents or confirmation.

The manifest

Create a .skills.yaml in your project:

agents: [claude-code]                 # default install target (optional)
skills:
  - name: find-skills
    description: Discover and install agent skills on demand
    repo: vercel-labs/skills          # GitHub owner/repo
    skill: find-skills                 # the --skill value
  - name: brainstorming
    description: Turn ideas into designs before any code
    repo: obra/superpowers
    skill: brainstorming
    agents: [claude-code, cursor]      # per-skill override (optional)

Four fields per entry: name, description, repo (owner/repo), skill. The GitHub install URL (github.com/<repo>) and the view link (skills.sh/<repo>/<skill>) are derived for you. See example.skills.yaml.

Target agents

agents decides which agent the skill installs into (the picker the skills CLI would otherwise show). It's a list of agent ids, or '*' for all agents.

By default, every interactive run asks which agent(s) to install to. The picker is searchable: the popular agents are listed first (with the auto-detected agent pre-selected at the top), and you can type to filter the full set of supported agents. Space toggles, enter confirms; the list scrolls in a fixed window rather than running off-screen. Skip the prompt by setting the target explicitly or answering yes-to-all:

install-skills                   # asks; detected agent pre-checked
install-skills --print-agent     # just print the detected agent, e.g. "claude-code (via AI_AGENT)"
install-skills --agent cursor    # set explicitly, no prompt
install-skills --all-agents      # every supported agent, no prompt
install-skills --all -y          # all skills, detected agent, no prompts

Resolution order (highest first):

1. --agent <ids> / --all-agents, or your answer to the agent prompt
2. (non-interactive / -y) a skill's own agents, then top-level agents
3. the auto-detected agent (from AI_AGENT / CLAUDECODE / …)
4. claude-code

Detection is conservative — if it can't tell, it pre-selects nothing and the default stays claude-code.

Common ids: claude-code, cursor, codex, gemini-cli, github-copilot, amp, cline, zed, windsurf, universal (and many more — * for all). The full list (src/agents.js) is a snapshot of the agents the skills CLI supports; refresh it with npm run refresh-agents.

Manifest sources

--manifest (-f) accepts any of:

| Form | Example | |------|---------| | Local path (default ./.skills.yaml) | -f ./config/.skills.yaml | | gh: shorthand | -f gh:kreas/skills | | gh: with path + ref | -f gh:kreas/skills/manifests/team.yaml@v2 | | Raw or blob GitHub URL | -f https://github.com/kreas/skills/blob/main/.skills.yaml | | Any https URL | -f https://example.com/.skills.yaml |

gh:owner/repo defaults to .skills.yaml on the default branch; GitHub blob/ URLs are rewritten to raw.githubusercontent.com automatically.

Options

-f, --manifest <path|url>  Manifest source (default ./.skills.yaml)
-a, --all                  Select every skill (required when non-interactive / CI)
    --agent <ids>          Install target agent(s), comma-separated; skips the agent prompt
    --all-agents           Install to every supported agent (skills --agent '*')
    --print-agent          Print the detected agent and exit
-y, --yes                  Skip the agent + confirmation prompts (use detected agent)
    --dry-run              Print the install commands without running them
-h, --help                 Show help
-v, --version              Show version

Develop

npm install
npm test                       # node:test unit tests (no network, no TTY)
node bin/cli.js --dry-run      # exercise against ./example.skills.yaml
node bin/cli.js -f example.skills.yaml --all --dry-run

The pure logic lives in src/ and is unit-tested; bin/cli.js is the thin interactive shell around it:

• manifest.js — parse/validate the YAML, derive links
• source.js — resolve a local path / URL / gh: shorthand to manifest text
• install.js — build and run the skills add command
• agent.js — detect the current agent; order agents for the picker
• agents.js — snapshot of supported agents (regenerate with npm run refresh-agents)
• popular.js — curated agents shown first in the picker