Skillopedia CLI and Claude Code plugin

Search, view, and install skills from the Skillopedia.ai catalog from the command line or directly inside Claude Code.

Skillopedia is a crowd-sourced, openly-editable catalog of skills for AI agents — think Wikipedia for SKILL.md files. This package lets your agent:

• Search the catalog by keyword.
• Browse by category.
• View a skill's full markdown.
• Install a skill into your project (or your home directory) so it becomes a reusable Codex or Claude Code skill.

Command line install

Install a skill into the current project for both Codex and Claude Code:

npx skillopedia add <slug>

By default, add writes both compatible project layouts:

| Agent | Project path | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------- | | Codex | .agents/skills/skillopedia/<slug>/SKILL.md | | Claude Code | .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md |

Use --agent codex or --agent claude to install only one layout. Use --scope user to install to user-level roots instead:

| Agent | User path | | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | Codex | $AGENTASTIC_HOME/skills or ~/.codex/skills | | Claude Code | ~/.claude/skills |

Other useful options:

npx skillopedia add <slug> --revision <revision>
npx skillopedia add <slug> --overwrite
npx skillopedia add <slug> --expected-sha256 <hash>

After installing, restart the agent or reload skills before using the new skill.

How it works

The plugin ships two MCP servers:

| Server | Transport | Hosted by | Purpose | | --------------------- | --------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------- | | skillopedia-catalog | HTTP | skillopedia.ai | Read-only catalog: search, browse, view | | skillopedia-local | stdio | your machine | Writes SKILL.md to your filesystem |

Read tools live on the remote server so you don't run any extra infrastructure for them. The local stdio server only handles installs, because writing to .claude/skills/ requires filesystem access.

The remote catalog is anonymous and rate-limited to 1000 requests / hour per IP. No accounts, no API keys.

Install

/plugin marketplace add github:skillopedia/skillopedia-plugin
/plugin install skillopedia

After install, /mcp should show both skillopedia-catalog and skillopedia-local as Connected.

Use it

Just ask Claude. The plugin ships four slash-command shortcuts:

• /search <query> — full-text search.
• /browse [category] — list categories, or skills in one category.
• /view <slug> — show a skill's full markdown.
• /install <slug> — write the skill into your project.

Or talk to it in natural language:

"Find me a Skillopedia skill for writing pytest fixtures, then install the best match into this project."

After install_skill succeeds, run /reload-plugins (or restart Claude Code) so the freshly written SKILL.md becomes available.

Install scope

install_skill defaults to project scope — the file is written under ./.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md in the current working directory.

Pass scope: "user" (or say "install it globally") to write under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md instead, so the skill follows you across projects.

If a skill already exists at the target path the tool refuses to overwrite. Pass overwrite: true to replace it — the plugin asks for confirmation before doing this when called via the /install shortcut.

Tools reference

Read tools (skillopedia-catalog, hosted by skillopedia.ai)

| Tool | What it does | | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | search_skills | Full-text search ranked by relevance. | | list_skills | Paginated list of all skills, optional tag/category. | | list_categories | Top categories with skill counts and sample titles. | | browse_category | List skills in a specific category, ordered by recency. | | get_skill | Full metadata + rendered markdown for one slug. | | get_skill_markdown | The raw SKILL.md text (frontmatter + body). |

Write tool (skillopedia-local, runs on your machine)

| Tool | What it does | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | install_skill | Download a skill and write .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md to disk. |

Using the MCP server without the plugin

The public MCP server works with any MCP-capable client, not just Claude Code. It speaks Streamable HTTP transport at:

POST https://skillopedia.ai/api/v1/mcp
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json, text/event-stream

Quick test with curl

# List the available tools
curl -sS -X POST https://skillopedia.ai/api/v1/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

# Search the catalog
curl -sS -X POST https://skillopedia.ai/api/v1/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call",
       "params":{"name":"search_skills",
                 "arguments":{"query":"python","limit":3}}}'

Wire it into another client

Anything that supports Streamable HTTP MCP can use it. For example, a config entry for another agent:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skillopedia-catalog": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://skillopedia.ai/api/v1/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Plain HTTP API (no MCP)

If you just want JSON, the same data is exposed as a plain REST API:

| Method | Path | Returns | | ------ | ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | GET | /api/v1/skills | Paginated list of skills. | | GET | /api/v1/skills/:slug | One skill (metadata + content). | | GET | /api/v1/skills/search?q=… | Full-text search. | | GET | /api/v1/skills/browse?category=… | Skills in a category. | | GET | /api/v1/skills/categories | Top categories. | | GET | /skills/:slug.md | Raw SKILL.md (text/markdown). | | GET | /skills/:slug.json | Same shape as .md but as JSON. | | GET | /.well-known/skills.json | Discovery manifest. | | GET | /api/v1/schema | JSON Schema for skill metadata. |

The .md endpoint is the one install_skill uses internally — agents that prefer raw HTTP can skip MCP entirely and just curl for skills.

Privacy & data

• Read traffic is anonymous; the only thing the server sees is your IP (used for rate-limiting).
• The local install tool never sends your filesystem state anywhere — it fetches /skills/<slug>.md from skillopedia.ai and writes the response to disk. That's it.
• No telemetry, no analytics in the plugin.

Reporting issues

• Plugin or stdio bugs: open an issue against the plugin repo.
• Catalog data or remote MCP bugs: open an issue against skillopedia.ai.
• Skill content disputes (wrong, malicious, or copyrighted content): use the report flow on the skill's page on skillopedia.ai.

License

MIT.