@mohankumarelec/skills

v1.5.11

Published

15 days ago

The open agent skills ecosystem

skills

The CLI for the open agent skills ecosystem.

Supports OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and 67 more.

Install a Skill

npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills

Use a Skill Without Installing

Generate a prompt for one skill, or start a supported coding agent interactively:

npx skills use vercel-labs/agent-skills@web-design-guidelines | claude
npx skills use vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill web-design-guidelines --agent claude-code

skills use resolves sources the same way as skills add, writes the selected skill files to a temporary directory, and prints only the generated prompt to stdout unless --agent is provided. With --agent, it starts one supported agent interactively with the generated prompt.

Source Formats

# GitHub shorthand (owner/repo)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Full GitHub URL
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Direct path to a skill in a repo
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/web-design-guidelines

# GitLab URL
npx skills add https://gitlab.com/org/repo

# Any git URL
npx skills add [email protected]:vercel-labs/agent-skills.git

# Local path
npx skills add ./my-local-skills

Options

| Option | Description | | ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | -g, --global | Install to user directory instead of project | | -a, --agent <agents...> | Target specific agents (e.g., claude-code, codex). See Supported Agents | | -s, --skill <skills...> | Install specific skills by name (use '*' for all skills) | | -l, --list | List available skills without installing | | --copy | Copy files instead of symlinking to agent directories | | -y, --yes | Skip all confirmation prompts | | --all | Install all skills to all agents without prompts |

Examples

# List skills in a repository
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --list

# Install specific skills
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill frontend-design --skill skill-creator

# Install a skill with spaces in the name (must be quoted)
npx skills add owner/repo --skill "Convex Best Practices"

# Install to specific agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills -a claude-code -a opencode

# Non-interactive installation (CI/CD friendly)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill frontend-design -g -a claude-code -y

# Install all skills from a repo to all agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --all

# Install all skills to specific agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill '*' -a claude-code

# Install specific skills to all agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --agent '*' --skill frontend-design

Installation Scope

| Scope | Flag | Location | Use Case | | ----------- | --------- | ------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | Project | (default) | ./<agent>/skills/ | Committed with your project, shared with team | | Global | -g | ~/<agent>/skills/ | Available across all projects |

Installation Methods

When installing interactively, you can choose:

| Method | Description | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Symlink (Recommended) | Creates symlinks from each agent to a canonical copy. Single source of truth, easy updates. | | Copy | Creates independent copies for each agent. Use when symlinks aren't supported. |

Other Commands

| Command | Description | | ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | npx skills use <source> | Use one skill without installing | | npx skills list | List installed skills (alias: ls) | | npx skills find [query] | Search for skills interactively or by keyword | | npx skills remove [skills] | Remove installed skills from agents | | npx skills update [skills] | Update installed skills to latest versions | | npx skills init [name] | Create a new SKILL.md template |

`skills list`

List all installed skills. Similar to npm ls.

# List all installed skills (project and global)
npx skills list

# List only global skills
npx skills ls -g

# Filter by specific agents
npx skills ls -a claude-code -a cursor

`skills find`

Search for skills interactively or by keyword.

# Interactive search (fzf-style)
npx skills find

# Search by keyword
npx skills find typescript

`skills update`

# Update all skills (interactive scope prompt)
npx skills update

# Update a single skill by name
npx skills update my-skill

# Update multiple specific skills
npx skills update frontend-design web-design-guidelines

# Update only global or project skills
npx skills update -g
npx skills update -p

# Non-interactive (auto-detects scope: project if in a project, else global)
npx skills update -y

| Option | Description | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | -g, --global | Only update global skills | | -p, --project | Only update project skills | | -y, --yes | Skip scope prompt (auto-detect: project if in a project dir, else global) | | [skills...] | Update specific skills by name instead of all |

`skills init`

# Create SKILL.md in current directory
npx skills init

# Create a new skill in a subdirectory
npx skills init my-skill

`skills remove`

Remove installed skills from agents.

# Remove interactively (select from installed skills)
npx skills remove

# Remove specific skill by name
npx skills remove web-design-guidelines

# Remove multiple skills
npx skills remove frontend-design web-design-guidelines

# Remove from global scope
npx skills remove --global web-design-guidelines

# Remove from specific agents only
npx skills remove --agent claude-code cursor my-skill

# Remove all installed skills without confirmation
npx skills remove --all

# Remove all skills from a specific agent
npx skills remove --skill '*' -a cursor

# Remove a specific skill from all agents
npx skills remove my-skill --agent '*'

# Use 'rm' alias
npx skills rm my-skill

| Option | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | -g, --global | Remove from global scope (~/) instead of project | | -a, --agent | Remove from specific agents (use '*' for all) | | -s, --skill | Specify skills to remove (use '*' for all) | | -y, --yes | Skip confirmation prompts | | --all | Shorthand for --skill '*' --agent '*' -y |

Programmatic Usage

In addition to the CLI, this package exports a programmatic API for managing skills from Node.js applications, CI pipelines, and other tools.

npm install skills

Quick Start

import {
  parseSource,
  getOwnerRepo,
  tryBlobInstall,
  installBlobSkillForAgent,
  addSkillToLocalLock,
} from 'skills';

// Parse a source string (same formats as the CLI)
const parsed = parseSource('vercel-labs/agent-skills');
const ownerRepo = getOwnerRepo(parsed)!;

// Fetch skills via the GitHub blob fast path (no git clone needed)
const result = await tryBlobInstall(ownerRepo, {
  skillFilter: 'web-design-guidelines',
});

if (result) {
  for (const skill of result.skills) {
    // Install to the cursor agent directory
    await installBlobSkillForAgent(skill, 'cursor', {
      mode: 'copy',
    });

    // Record in the project lock file
    await addSkillToLocalLock(skill.name, {
      source: ownerRepo,
      sourceType: parsed.type,
      skillPath: skill.repoPath,
      computedHash: skill.snapshotHash,
    });
  }
}

API Overview

The library organizes exports into several areas:

Source Parsing

Parse the same source formats accepted by the CLI — GitHub shorthand, URLs, GitLab, local paths, and well-known endpoints.

import { parseSource, getOwnerRepo, parseOwnerRepo } from 'skills';

parseSource('vercel-labs/agent-skills');
// → { type: 'github', url: 'https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills.git' }

parseSource('https://gitlab.com/org/repo/-/tree/main/skills/my-skill');
// → { type: 'gitlab', url: '...', ref: 'main', subpath: 'skills/my-skill' }

getOwnerRepo(parseSource('vercel-labs/agent-skills'));
// → 'vercel-labs/agent-skills'

Lock Files

Read and write both project-scoped (skills-lock.json) and global (~/.agents/.skill-lock.json) lock files.

import { readLocalLock, readSkillLock } from 'skills';

// Project lock
const projectLock = await readLocalLock();
// → { version: 1, skills: { 'find-skills': { source: '...', computedHash: '...' } } }

// Global lock
const globalLock = await readSkillLock();

Skill Discovery

Discover SKILL.md files on disk or from a GitHub repo tree.

import {
  discoverSkills,
  fetchRepoTree,
  findSkillMdPaths,
  getSkillFolderHashFromTree,
} from 'skills';

// On-disk discovery
const skills = await discoverSkills('/path/to/cloned/repo');

// Remote discovery via GitHub Trees API (single API call)
const tree = await fetchRepoTree('vercel-labs/agent-skills');
if (tree) {
  const paths = findSkillMdPaths(tree);
  // → ['skills/web-design-guidelines/SKILL.md', ...]

  const hash = getSkillFolderHashFromTree(tree, 'skills/web-design-guidelines/SKILL.md');
  // → 'abc123...' (tree SHA, changes when any file in the folder changes)
}

Installation

Install skills to agent directories, check installation status, and list installed skills.

import { installBlobSkillForAgent, listInstalledSkills, isSkillInstalled } from 'skills';

const installed = await listInstalledSkills({ global: false });
const exists = await isSkillInstalled('web-design-guidelines', 'cursor');

Agent Registry

Access the full registry of supported agents with their paths and detection logic.

import { agents, getAgentConfig, detectInstalledAgents } from 'skills';

const cursorConfig = getAgentConfig('cursor');
// → { name: 'cursor', displayName: 'Cursor', skillsDir: '.agents/skills/', ... }

const installed = await detectInstalledAgents();
// → ['cursor', 'claude-code', ...]

Search

Search the skills.sh directory programmatically.

import { searchSkillsAPI } from 'skills';

const results = await searchSkillsAPI('typescript');
// → [{ name: 'TypeScript Best Practices', slug: '...', source: '...', installs: 42 }, ...]

Frontmatter Parsing

Parse SKILL.md YAML frontmatter.

import { parseFrontmatter } from 'skills';

const { data, content } = parseFrontmatter(rawMarkdown);
// data → { name: 'my-skill', description: '...' }
// content → '# My Skill\n...'

Notes

Side effects: Lock file functions perform filesystem I/O. Blob and tree functions make HTTP requests to GitHub APIs and skills.sh. Installation functions create directories, write files, and create symlinks.
getGitHubToken() falls back to gh auth token via subprocess when environment variables (GITHUB_TOKEN, GH_TOKEN) are not set. Set one of these environment variables for fully silent programmatic usage.
Telemetry: The library exports fetchAuditData for checking skill security data but does not send CLI telemetry when used programmatically. The track() function is intentionally not exported.

What are Agent Skills?

Agent skills are reusable instruction sets that extend your coding agent's capabilities. They're defined in SKILL.md files with YAML frontmatter containing a name and description.

Skills let agents perform specialized tasks like:

Generating release notes from git history
Creating PRs following your team's conventions
Integrating with external tools (Linear, Notion, etc.)

Discover skills at skills.sh

Supported Agents

Skills can be installed to any of these agents:

| Agent | --agent | Project Path | Global Path | |-------|-----------|--------------|-------------| | AiderDesk | aider-desk | .aider-desk/skills/ | ~/.aider-desk/skills/ | | Amp, Replit, Universal | amp, replit, universal | .agents/skills/ | ~/.config/agents/skills/ | | Antigravity | antigravity | .agents/skills/ | ~/.gemini/antigravity/skills/ | | Antigravity CLI | antigravity-cli | .agents/skills/ | ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/skills/ | | AstrBot | astrbot | data/skills/ | ~/.astrbot/data/skills/ | | Autohand Code CLI | autohand-code | .autohand/skills/ | ~/.autohand/skills/ | | Augment | augment | .augment/skills/ | ~/.augment/skills/ | | IBM Bob | bob | .bob/skills/ | ~/.bob/skills/ | | Claude Code | claude-code | .claude/skills/ | ~/.claude/skills/ | | OpenClaw | openclaw | skills/ | ~/.openclaw/skills/ | | Cline, Dexto, Kimi Code CLI, Loaf, Warp, Zed | cline, dexto, kimi-code-cli, loaf, warp, zed | .agents/skills/ | ~/.agents/skills/ | | CodeArts Agent | codearts-agent | .codeartsdoer/skills/ | ~/.codeartsdoer/skills/ | | CodeBuddy | codebuddy | .codebuddy/skills/ | ~/.codebuddy/skills/ | | Codemaker | codemaker | .codemaker/skills/ | ~/.codemaker/skills/ | | Code Studio | codestudio | .codestudio/skills/ | ~/.codestudio/skills/ | | Codex | codex | .agents/skills/ | ~/.codex/skills/ | | Command Code | command-code | .commandcode/skills/ | ~/.commandcode/skills/ | | Continue | continue | .continue/skills/ | ~/.continue/skills/ | | Cortex Code | cortex | .cortex/skills/ | ~/.snowflake/cortex/skills/ | | Crush | crush | .crush/skills/ | ~/.config/crush/skills/ | | Cursor | cursor | .agents/skills/ | ~/.cursor/skills/ | | Deep Agents | deepagents | .agents/skills/ | ~/.deepagents/agent/skills/ | | Devin for Terminal | devin | .devin/skills/ | ~/.config/devin/skills/ | | Droid | droid | .factory/skills/ | ~/.factory/skills/ | | Firebender | firebender | .agents/skills/ | ~/.firebender/skills/ | | ForgeCode | forgecode | .forge/skills/ | ~/.forge/skills/ | | Gemini CLI | gemini-cli | .agents/skills/ | ~/.gemini/skills/ | | GitHub Copilot | github-copilot | .agents/skills/ | ~/.copilot/skills/ | | Goose | goose | .goose/skills/ | ~/.config/goose/skills/ | | Hermes Agent | hermes-agent | .hermes/skills/ | ~/.hermes/skills/ | | inference.sh | inference-sh | .inferencesh/skills/ | ~/.inferencesh/skills/ | | Jazz | jazz | .jazz/skills/ | ~/.jazz/skills/ | | Junie | junie | .junie/skills/ | ~/.junie/skills/ | | iFlow CLI | iflow-cli | .iflow/skills/ | ~/.iflow/skills/ | | Kilo Code | kilo | .kilocode/skills/ | ~/.kilocode/skills/ | | Kiro CLI | kiro-cli | .kiro/skills/ | ~/.kiro/skills/ | | Kode | kode | .kode/skills/ | ~/.kode/skills/ | | Lingma | lingma | .lingma/skills/ | ~/.lingma/skills/ | | MCPJam | mcpjam | .mcpjam/skills/ | ~/.mcpjam/skills/ | | Mistral Vibe | mistral-vibe | .vibe/skills/ | ~/.vibe/skills/ | | Moxby | moxby | .moxby/skills/ | ~/.moxby/skills/ | | Mux | mux | .mux/skills/ | ~/.mux/skills/ | | OpenCode | opencode | .agents/skills/ | ~/.config/opencode/skills/ | | OpenHands | openhands | .openhands/skills/ | ~/.openhands/skills/ | | Ona | ona | .ona/skills/ | ~/.ona/skills/ | | Pi | pi | .pi/skills/ | ~/.pi/agent/skills/ | | Qoder | qoder | .qoder/skills/ | ~/.qoder/skills/ | | Qoder CN | qoder-cn | .qoder/skills/ | ~/.qoder-cn/skills/ | | Qwen Code | qwen-code | .qwen/skills/ | ~/.qwen/skills/ | | Reasonix | reasonix | .reasonix/skills/ | ~/.reasonix/skills/ | | Rovo Dev | rovodev | .rovodev/skills/ | ~/.rovodev/skills/ | | Roo Code | roo | .roo/skills/ | ~/.roo/skills/ | | Tabnine CLI | tabnine-cli | .tabnine/agent/skills/ | ~/.tabnine/agent/skills/ | | Terramind | terramind | .terramind/skills/ | ~/.terramind/skills/ | | Tinycloud | tinycloud | .tinycloud/skills/ | ~/.tinycloud/skills/ | | Trae | trae | .trae/skills/ | ~/.trae/skills/ | | Trae CN | trae-cn | .trae/skills/ | ~/.trae-cn/skills/ | | Windsurf | windsurf | .windsurf/skills/ | ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/ | | Zencoder, Zenflow | zencoder, zenflow | .zencoder/skills/ | ~/.zencoder/skills/ | | Neovate | neovate | .neovate/skills/ | ~/.neovate/skills/ | | Pochi | pochi | .pochi/skills/ | ~/.pochi/skills/ | | PromptScript | promptscript | .agents/skills/ | N/A (project-only) | | AdaL | adal | .adal/skills/ | ~/.adal/skills/ |

[!NOTE] Kiro CLI users: The default agent automatically loads skills from .kiro/skills/ and ~/.kiro/skills/ — no configuration needed. If you use a custom agent, add skills to its resources in .kiro/agents/<agent>.json:
{
  "resources": ["skill://.kiro/skills/**/SKILL.md"]
}

The CLI automatically detects which coding agents you have installed. If none are detected, you'll be prompted to select which agents to install to.

Creating Skills

Skills are directories containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent to follow when this skill is activated.

## When to Use

Describe the scenarios where this skill should be used.

## Steps

1. First, do this
2. Then, do that

Required Fields

name: Unique identifier (lowercase, hyphens allowed)
description: Brief explanation of what the skill does

Optional Fields

metadata.internal: Set to true to hide the skill from normal discovery. Internal skills are only visible and installable when INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS=1 is set. Useful for work-in-progress skills or skills meant only for internal tooling.

---
name: my-internal-skill
description: An internal skill not shown by default
metadata:
  internal: true
---

Skill Discovery

The CLI searches for skills in these locations within a repository. Each skill container directory is walked one level deep for the common flat layout (skills/<name>/SKILL.md) and one extra level deep for catalog layouts (skills/<category>/<name>/SKILL.md). A SKILL.md discovered at the shallower level shadows anything nested below it. Use --full-depth to also discover SKILL.md files outside these container directories (e.g. under examples/ or tests/).

Root directory (if it contains SKILL.md)
skills/
skills/.curated/
skills/.experimental/
skills/.system/
.aider-desk/skills/
.agents/skills/
data/skills/
.autohand/skills/
.augment/skills/
.bob/skills/
.claude/skills/
.codeartsdoer/skills/
.codebuddy/skills/
.codemaker/skills/
.codestudio/skills/
.commandcode/skills/
.continue/skills/
.cortex/skills/
.crush/skills/
.devin/skills/
.factory/skills/
.forge/skills/
.goose/skills/
.hermes/skills/
.inferencesh/skills/
.jazz/skills/
.junie/skills/
.iflow/skills/
.kilocode/skills/
.kiro/skills/
.kode/skills/
.lingma/skills/
.mcpjam/skills/
.vibe/skills/
.moxby/skills/
.mux/skills/
.openhands/skills/
.ona/skills/
.pi/skills/
.qoder/skills/
.qwen/skills/
.reasonix/skills/
.rovodev/skills/
.roo/skills/
.tabnine/agent/skills/
.terramind/skills/
.tinycloud/skills/
.trae/skills/
.windsurf/skills/
.zencoder/skills/
.neovate/skills/
.pochi/skills/
.adal/skills/

Plugin Manifest Discovery

If .claude-plugin/marketplace.json or .claude-plugin/plugin.json exists, skills declared in those files are also discovered:

// .claude-plugin/marketplace.json
{
  "metadata": { "pluginRoot": "./plugins" },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "my-plugin",
      "source": "my-plugin",
      "skills": ["./skills/review", "./skills/test"]
    }
  ]
}

This enables compatibility with the Claude Code plugin marketplace ecosystem. Skill paths declared in a manifest are searched at their declared depth and are not subject to the depth-2 catalog walk described above.

If no skills are found in standard locations, a recursive search is performed.

Compatibility

Skills are generally compatible across agents since they follow a shared Agent Skills specification. However, some features may be agent-specific:

| Feature | OpenCode | OpenHands | Claude Code | Cline | CodeBuddy | Codex | Command Code | Kiro CLI | Cursor | Antigravity | Roo Code | Github Copilot | Amp | OpenClaw | Neovate | Pi | Qoder | Zencoder | | --------------- | -------- | --------- | ----------- | ----- | --------- | ----- | ------------ | -------- | ------ | ----------- | -------- | -------------- | --- | -------- | ------- | --- | ----- | -------- | | Basic skills | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | allowed-tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | context: fork | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | | Hooks | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |

Troubleshooting

"No skills found"

Ensure the repository contains valid SKILL.md files with both name and description in the frontmatter.

Skill not loading in agent

Verify the skill was installed to the correct path
Check the agent's documentation for skill loading requirements
Ensure the SKILL.md frontmatter is valid YAML

Permission errors

Ensure you have write access to the target directory.

Environment Variables

| Variable | Description | | ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS | Set to 1 or true to show and install skills marked as internal: true | | DISABLE_TELEMETRY | Set to disable anonymous usage telemetry | | DO_NOT_TRACK | Alternative way to disable telemetry |

# Install internal skills
INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS=1 npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --list

Telemetry

This CLI collects anonymous usage data to help improve the tool. No personal information is collected.

Telemetry is automatically disabled in CI environments.

License

MIT

Published

Vulnerabilities

Links

Maintainers

Keywords

Readme

skills

Install a Skill

Use a Skill Without Installing

Source Formats

Options

Examples

Installation Scope

Installation Methods

Other Commands

skills list

skills find

skills update

skills init

skills remove

Programmatic Usage

Quick Start

API Overview

Source Parsing

Lock Files

Skill Discovery

Installation

Agent Registry

Search

Frontmatter Parsing

Notes

What are Agent Skills?

Supported Agents

Creating Skills

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Skill Discovery

Plugin Manifest Discovery

Compatibility

Troubleshooting

"No skills found"

Skill not loading in agent

Permission errors

Environment Variables

Telemetry

Related Links

License

`skills list`

`skills find`

`skills update`

`skills init`

`skills remove`