Instill 🚀

Instill orchestrates your project "Skills" and deploys them to the specific formats required by Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini, and more. Stop manually syncing coding standards, architectural rules, and prompts across different AI tools.

# Get started in 30 seconds
pnpm add -g @xblaster/instill
instill sources add https://github.com/xblaster/instill-skills
instill install dependency-sentinel git-master

📖 Table of Contents

• Why Instill?
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Remote Skill Libraries
  • Official Repository
  • Managing Sources
  • Configuration & Caching
• Troubleshooting
• Supported Targets
• Contributing & Community

🎯 Why Instill?

Traditional package managers fetch code; Instill fetches knowledge. It acts as the bridge between your library of Markdown-based skills and the fragmented configuration files of modern AI agents.

• Single Source of Truth: Define a skill once in Markdown; use it everywhere.
• Zero Friction: Interactive TUI for selecting and installing skills.
• Team Alignment: Sync remote skill libraries from GitHub across your entire organization.
• State-Aware: Automatically cleans up removed skills and handles updates.

📦 Installation

Install Instill globally via your preferred package manager:

pnpm add -g @xblaster/instill
# or
npm install -g @xblaster/instill

🚀 2-Minute Quick Start

1. Create your Library
   Create a .instill/library/ directory in your project root and drop in a Markdown file (e.g., typescript-expert.md).
2. Launch the Orchestrator

   instill init

   Alternatively, add a remote source and install skills directly:

   instill sources add https://github.com/xblaster/instill-skills
   instill install dependency-sentinel git-master

3. Sync
   Select your skills and target AI tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code) from the interactive menu. Instill handles the file placement and formatting.

🌐 Remote Skill Libraries

Instill supports fetching skills from remote GitHub repositories, allowing you to share and reuse skill libraries across teams and projects.

Official Skill Repository

The official Instill skills repository is the primary source of curated, production-ready skills maintained by the Instill team.

Repository: https://github.com/xblaster/instill-skills

Add it to your project:

instill sources add https://github.com/xblaster/instill-skills

Managing Remote Sources

Add, remove, and view remote skill repositories using the dedicated command:

instill sources

This opens an interactive menu. You can also use non-interactive commands:

• Add Remote Source:

  instill sources add <url> [name]

• Remove Remote Source:

  instill sources remove <name>

• List Remote Sources:

  instill sources list

Installing Skills Directly

You can install skills directly without the interactive menu:

instill install <skill-name1> [skill-name2...]

If no target environments have been configured yet, you will be prompted to select them.

Example Remote Repository Structure

A typical remote skill library on GitHub should have this structure:

your-instill-skills/
├── skills/
│   ├── typescript-best-practices.md
│   ├── react-patterns.md
│   └── security-audit.md
├── README.md
└── LICENSE

Configuration

Remote sources are stored in .instill/state.json. You can configure multiple sources, and Instill will search them in order.

{
  "sources": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/xblaster/instill-skills",
      "type": "github",
      "name": "official"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/your-org/internal-standards",
      "type": "github",
      "name": "org-standards"
    }
  ]
}

Caching & Performance

Remote skills are automatically cached locally in .instill/.cache/ for faster access and offline availability. Cache files expire after 7 days by default.

# Clear all cached skills
instill cache-clear

# Clear cache for a specific skill
instill cache-clear -s skill-name

Skill Resolution Order

When loading a skill, Instill searches in this order:

1. Local Library (.instill/library/) - Always takes precedence
2. Cache (if valid)
3. Remote Sources (in configured order)

To load a skill from a specific remote source explicitly, use the syntax: skillName@sourceName.

❓ Troubleshooting Remote Skills

1. Verify the repository URL is correct using instill sources.
2. Ensure the skill exists in the /skills/ directory of the remote repository.
3. Check internet connectivity.
4. The skill may be named differently - use instill init to see available skills.

1. Check your internet connection.
2. Verify the GitHub repository is accessible.
3. Check for service outages on GitHub's status page. (Note: Cached versions of skills will be used automatically as a fallback)

This means the system is using a cached version of the skill because the remote source is unreachable.

1. Check your internet connection and source URL accessibility.
2. Cache expires after 7 days - run instill cache-clear to refresh when connectivity is restored.

Run the clear command to force a refresh on the next init:

instill cache-clear

Simply create the skill file locally in .instill/library/[skill-name].md. Local skills always take precedence over remote versions.

🛠️ Supported Targets

Instill automatically maps your skills to the following environments:

| Target | Location | Documentation | |--------|----------|---------------| | Claude Code | .claude/skills/, .claude/commands/ | Installation Guide | | Gemini | .gemini/skills/ | Installation Guide | | Cursor | .cursor/skills/, .cursor/rules/ | Installation Guide | | VS Code | .vscode/tasks.json | Installation Guide | | Antigravity | .agent/skills/ | Installation Guide | | Codex | .agents/skills/, AGENTS.md | Installation Guide | | Cross-Platform | .agent/skills/ | Guide |

📚 Master IDE Integration Guide - Comprehensive guide covering all IDEs

🤝 Contributing & Community

We are building the standard for AI context management and we need your help!

• Found a Bug? Open an issue.
• Have a Skill? Contribute to the official skills repo.
• Dev Setup:

  pnpm install
  pnpm tsc
  node dist/index.js init

📜 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.