AEO Skills

Portable Agent Skills by AEOkit for evidence-backed answer-engine optimization. The same SKILL.md workflows run in ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Claude Code, or AEO Agent.

Audit the evidence: Open the numbered research claim and source ledger.

Included skills

| Skill | Job | |---|---| | aeo-audit | Read-only crawlability, entity, extraction, schema-parity, and evidence audit | | aeo-improve | Diagnose one buyer question, propose or implement a small patch, and verify it honestly | | aeo-observe | Run stable buyer prompts and report mentions, citations, uncertainty, and raw evidence |

The skills use the open Agent Skills folder format. They remain useful without AEO Agent; when AEOkit tools are installed, the instructions use them for deterministic checks and reproducible observations.

Zero to cited

SEO competes to rank a page. AEO competes to make useful evidence available to an AI-generated answer. A new, original source can potentially appear in an answer as soon as a live answer engine discovers it and finds it relevant; it does not necessarily need months of ranking history first. Inclusion is never guaranteed, so this repository provides a reproducible workflow rather than a promise of instant visibility.

Use the three skills together to follow a source from publication to its first observed citation:

aeo-audit -> aeo-improve -> publish -> aeo-observe
                                      |
                                      v
                 crawler visit -> mention -> citation

• aeo-audit checks whether the source is accessible, extractable, and supported by verifiable evidence.
• aeo-improve makes the smallest authorized change for a specific buyer question and verifies the local result.
• aeo-observe repeats stable prompts and records what answer engines actually mention and cite.

AEOkit is the system of record for auditable answers, citations, mentions, and crawler activity. AEO Agent is the conversational interface for exploring that evidence. These skills make the workflow portable across supported agents.

Install skill folders

List the catalog:

npx aeokit-skills@latest list

Install one skill into the current repository:

npx aeokit-skills@latest add aeo-improve --to agents
npx aeokit-skills@latest add aeo-improve --to claude
npx aeokit-skills@latest add aeo-improve --to agent

The shared agents target works with Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Gemini CLI. The aliases codex, cursor, copilot, and gemini resolve to that same location.

Install all skills for your user account:

npx aeokit-skills@latest add --all --to agents --scope user
npx aeokit-skills@latest add --all --to claude --scope user
npx aeokit-skills@latest add --all --to agent --scope user

Existing directories are never replaced unless --force is explicit. Use --dry-run to inspect destinations first.

Locations

| Host | Project | User | |---|---|---| | Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI | .agents/skills/<name>/ | ~/.agents/skills/<name>/ | | Claude Code | .claude/skills/<name>/ | ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ | | AEO Agent | .aeokit/skills/<name>/ | ~/.aeokit/skills/<name>/ |

The shared .agents/skills/ location is documented by OpenAI, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Gemini CLI. Claude Code discovers the same skill format from its own directory. AEO Agent uses that file structure and adds typed AEO tool and evidence contracts.

Plugin distribution

The repository root is a skills-only plugin for the OpenAI and Claude plugin systems:

| Ecosystem | Manifest | Skill discovery | |---|---|---| | ChatGPT and Codex | .codex-plugin/plugin.json | ./skills/ declared by the manifest | | Claude Code | .claude-plugin/plugin.json | ./skills/ discovered from the plugin root |

The OpenAI plugin exposes the same three skills in ChatGPT and Codex. The Claude Code plugin exposes them with the aeokit namespace, such as /aeokit:aeo-audit. Neither manifest forks or rewrites the underlying skill instructions.

This layout follows the OpenAI skill and plugin guidance and Claude Code plugin guidance. The npm installer remains useful for direct project or user installation without a plugin marketplace.

Invoke

Codex:

$aeo-audit Audit this repository for the buyer question "best open-source AEO testing tools."

ChatGPT:

Select the installed AEO Audit skill with @, then ask it to audit the site for a buyer question.

Claude Code:

/aeokit:aeo-improve Make this site easier to accurately cite for "best open-source AEO testing tools."

The namespaced form above is for the plugin. A direct --to claude installation uses /aeo-improve. Cursor and GitHub Copilot expose installed skills through /; Gemini CLI lists and manages them through /skills.

AEO Agent loads aeo-improve automatically during planning when installed:

aeo-agent skills
aeo-agent plan --query "What are the best open-source AEO testing tools?"

Design rules

• The optimizing agent does not grade its own work.
• Every diagnosis is tied to an evidence ID or source URL.
• Local checks, grounded simulations, and production observations are labeled separately.
• Skills never invent claims or imply that schema alone creates visibility.
• Mutating work requires user authorization; deployment is a separate action.

Research basis

The skills are maintained against a source-backed AEO evidence review, last researched on 2026-08-29. Every substantive instructional line links to a stable research claim (C##), source (S##), or repository policy (P##) in its numbered citation ledger.

Its core conclusion is that durable AEO combines platform-specific retrieval access, people-first and verifiable content, consistent entity data, and reproducible per-surface measurement. It does not assume that llms.txt, special schema, artificial content chunking, or a single prompt observation improves visibility.

Development

Requires Node.js 22.19 or newer.

npm install
npm run audit:citations
npm run check

The GitHub Actions definition is checked in as .github/ci.yml.example; move it to .github/workflows/ci.yml when the publishing token has GitHub's workflow scope.

License

MIT