skill-dev

Lightweight, token-efficient software engineering skills for coding agents. Works with Claude Code, OpenCode, Qwen, Copilot, Cursor and more.

A single command to install curated engineering skills (code review, debugging, refactoring, security, etc.) into your coding agent of choice — globally or per-project.

$ npx skill-dev

┌  devkit  Dev Kit Installer
│
◇ Select skills
│  Space to toggle · Enter to continue
│
│ ◉ all
│ ◉ code-review
│ ◉ debugging
│ ◉ root-cause-analysis
│ ◉ architecture-review
│ ◉ refactoring
│ ◉ performance-analysis
│ ◉ security-review
│ ◉ test-generation
│ ◉ ...
└

◇ Select target agent
❯ Claude Code
  OpenCode
  Qwen Code
  GitHub Copilot
  Cursor
  Continue
  Generic

◇ Install location
❯ Global (~/.claude/skills)
  Current project

◇ Summary
Agent: Claude Code
Skills: 13 selected
Location: Global
Install? (Y/n)

Install

npx skill-dev

No install step — npx runs the published CLI on demand.

Usage

npx skill-dev                       # default: baka3/dev-kit on GitHub
npx skill-dev <url>                 # any supported source
npx skill-dev owner/repo            # GitHub shorthand
npx skill-dev ./local-skills        # local directory
npx skill-dev https://example.com   # well-known endpoint
npx skill-dev -h                    # help
npx skill-dev -v                    # version

Syncing extra files

Use --sync-file <path> (repeatable) or SKILL_DEV_SYNC_FILES (comma-separated) to copy extra files into the install target alongside the skills. Useful for keeping a project-level AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md in sync with a master copy:

# One-off
npx skill-dev --sync-file ~/notes/AGENTS.md --sync-file ~/notes/CLAUDE.md

# Persistent via env
export SKILL_DEV_SYNC_FILES="~/notes/AGENTS.md,~/notes/CLAUDE.md"
npx skill-dev

For project scope the files land in the current working directory; for global scope, in $HOME. Existing files are overwritten. Missing source files are skipped with a warning (no failure).

Supported agents

| Agent | Global install | Project install | | --- | --- | --- | | Claude Code | ~/.claude/skills | .claude/skills | | OpenCode | ~/.config/opencode/skills | .opencode/skills | | Qwen Code | ~/.qwen/skills | .qwen/skills | | GitHub Copilot | ~/.copilot/skills | .github/skills | | Cursor | ~/.cursor/skills | .cursor/skills | | Continue | ~/.continue/skills | .continue/skills | | Generic | ~/.devkit/skills | .devkit/skills |

Set CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR, CODEX_HOME, or XDG_CONFIG_HOME to override the base config directory.

Custom sources

The CLI uses a provider pattern — no git clone, only HTTP. To publish your own skill set, point skill-dev at any of:

| Provider | Example | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | | GitHub | https://github.com/owner/repo | Uses the Git Trees API + raw.githubusercontent.com | | GitLab | https://gitlab.com/owner/repo | Uses the GitLab Repository Tree API | | Well-known | https://example.com (serves /.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) | RFC 8615–style discovery | | Local | ./my-skills | Reads SKILL.md files from a directory tree |

A "skill" is any directory that contains a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: Code Review
description: Carefully review code for correctness, performance, and style
---

# Code Review

When reviewing code, follow these steps…

A repository may lay out skills under any of skills/, skills/.curated/, .agents/skills/, or at the repo root.

How install works

For each (skill, agent, scope) pair, the CLI:

1. Writes the skill's SKILL.md to .agents/skills/<name> (the canonical location).
2. Symlinks the agent's skills directory to the canonical one (single source of truth, easy updates).
3. Falls back to a recursive copy on Windows when symlinks aren't available.

The result: one copy on disk that every agent reads from, and updates apply everywhere.

Environment variables

| Var | Effect | | --- | --- | | GITHUB_TOKEN | Use a GitHub token to avoid rate limits (private repos too) | | GITLAB_TOKEN | Use a GitLab token to avoid rate limits (private repos too) | | INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS=1 | Include skills marked metadata.internal: true | | CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR | Override the Claude Code base config directory | | CODEX_HOME | Override the Qwen Code base config directory | | XDG_CONFIG_HOME | Override the OpenCode base config directory |

Programmatic API

import { parseSource, findProvider, loadSkillsFromSource } from "skill-dev/source";
import { discover } from "skill-dev/source/discover";
import { installSkill } from "skill-dev/install/run";

The package is published as ESM ("type": "module").

License

MIT © dev-kit contributors