agent-skills

Reusable, tool-agnostic AI agent skills you can install with a single npx command.

Each skill is a plain SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter. The CLI just copies the skills you pick into a skills directory (default ~/.agents/skills), where your coding agent can pick them up.

Included skills

| Skill | Purpose | |-------|---------| | smalltalksucks | Work quietly and keep the final response compact. | | orwell-writing | Write clear, direct prose with plain words and useful detail. |

The skills are plain Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. They work with any coding agent that can read skill or instruction files.

Quick start

No install needed — run it straight from npm with npx:

# List available skills
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills list

# Install a single skill
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills install smalltalksucks

# Install another
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills install orwell-writing

# Install everything
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills install all

By default skills are copied into ~/.agents/skills.

Commands

agent-skills list                 List available skills with descriptions
agent-skills install <skill>      Install one skill
agent-skills install all          Install all bundled skills
agent-skills help                 Show usage and examples

Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --target <path> | Install into <path> instead of ~/.agents/skills. | | --force | Overwrite an existing installed skill folder. | | --dry-run | Show what would be installed without writing anything. |

Examples

# Install into a project-local skills directory
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills install orwell-writing --target ./.agents/skills

# Preview an "install all" without touching the filesystem
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills install all --dry-run

# Re-install and overwrite an existing copy
npx @robertdevore/agent-skills install smalltalksucks --force

Without --force, an existing skill folder is never overwritten — the CLI prints a skipped ... (already exists; use --force to overwrite) message and leaves your copy intact.

Using skills with your agent

These skills are plain Markdown, so they work with most coding agents. A few patterns:

• Claude / Claude Code — point your agent at ~/.agents/skills (or a project .agents/skills) and reference a skill by name, e.g. "follow the smalltalksucks skill". You can also copy a SKILL.md into your project and add it to CLAUDE.md.
• Codex-style agents — include the relevant SKILL.md contents in your system/instructions file, or reference the installed path so the agent reads it at session start.
• Cursor — drop a skill into your project (e.g. .agents/skills/orwell-writing/SKILL.md) and reference it from your rules, or paste its body into a project rule.

This package does not claim exclusive compatibility with any agent — the skills are just Markdown instructions. Use them wherever your agent reads context.

Local development

node bin/agent-skills.js help
node bin/agent-skills.js list
npm test       # run the CLI test suite
npm run check  # syntax-check the CLI and list skills

Publish to npm

The package is ready for its first public release. Before publishing, confirm the package name is available on npm, then run:

npm login
npm publish --access public

The package is scoped, so --access public is required for the first release. publishConfig.access is already set for later releases.

License

MIT © Robert DeVore