Squad Skills

Supports OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and 73 more.

Role-specialized engineering skills for AI coding agents. The collection covers product framing, design, frontend, backend, mobile, DevOps, QA, code review, bug fixing, and coordinated squad delivery while preserving clear ownership boundaries.

The repository follows the open Agent Skills format and keeps each installable skill under skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md.

Install

Every path installs the same set of skills. They differ in how the matching subagents arrive.

| Path | Skills | Subagents | Tools | | ------------------ | ------ | ---------------- | ----------------------------------- | | Claude Code plugin | ✅ | ✅ same step | Claude Code | | Codex plugin | ✅ | one more command | Codex | | npm CLI | ✅ | ✅ same step | Claude Code, Codex | | npx skills add | ✅ | one more command | every agent the Skills CLI supports |

As a Claude Code plugin

The plugin ships the skills and the subagents together, so one command installs both:

/plugin marketplace add danh121097/squad-skills
/plugin install squad-skills@squad-skills

Each role then exists twice over: as a skill you invoke, and as a subagent you spawn by name.

As a Codex plugin

Codex installs the skill catalog directly from the repository plugin:

codex plugin marketplace add danh121097/squad-skills
codex plugin add squad-skills@squad-skills

The Codex plugin manifest lives at .codex-plugin/plugin.json and exposes skills/. Codex agent definitions remain a separate runtime surface, so add them after plugin installation when named subagents are wanted:

npx squad-skills agents --global --agent codex

From the npm package (recommended)

Run without a permanent CLI installation:

npx squad-skills list
npx squad-skills add --skill squads-team
npx squad-skills add --skill squad-frontend --global --agent codex

Or install the command globally first:

npm install --global squad-skills
squad-skills add --skill squads-team

The npm command delegates installation to the official skills package and defaults to copied files, so installed skills do not depend on an ephemeral npx package-cache path.

Each role as a subagent too

squad-skills add also writes a subagent definition for every skill it installs, so a role can be spawned by name instead of only loaded as a skill. Claude Code reads .claude/agents/<name>.md; Codex reads .codex/agents/<name>.toml and loads it only once config.toml names the file, which the CLI registers after backing that config up. Each definition points at the SKILL.md just installed rather than copying it, so the skill stays the one source of truth.

squads-team and squad-fix dispatch other roles, and a Claude Code subagent cannot spawn subagents. Invoke those two as skills in your main session; spawned by name they fall back to a single-session loop and report their gates as not independent. The other eight roles do not spawn anyone, so they run the same either way.

Use --no-agents to install skills alone. A catalog installed through npx skills add never runs this CLI, so generate the definitions afterwards:

npx squad-skills agents --global

Each Claude Code subagent file carries a model and a reasoning effort for its role. squads-team, squad-product, squad-fix and squad-code-review run on opus; the other roles run on sonnet. Effort is high for every role except squad-designer and squad-qa, which run at medium. --model and --effort override them, with a bare value for every role or <skill>=<value> for one, and inherit drops the field so the role follows the session:

npx squad-skills agents --global --model squad-qa=opus,squad-designer=inherit --effort squad-qa=high

Every install regenerates these files, so pass the same flags again to keep an override. Codex takes no per-agent model or effort; set [agents] default_subagent_model and default_subagent_reasoning_effort in ~/.codex/config.toml instead, and the CLI says so rather than dropping the flag silently.

See the installation guide for local-checkout commands, installation scope, copy versus symlink behavior, and publishing notes.

From GitHub or skills.sh

List the available skills directly from the public repository:

npx skills add danh121097/squad-skills --list

Install the squad orchestrator globally for selected agents:

npx skills add danh121097/squad-skills \
  --skill squads-team --global \
  --agent codex --agent claude-code --agent cursor --agent opencode

Install a single role:

npx skills add danh121097/squad-skills \
  --skill squad-frontend --global --agent codex

This route installs skills only; generate the subagents afterwards with npx squad-skills agents --global, as above.

Choosing a skill

Every skill here is model-invocable, so an agent routes most work on its own. This table is for the moment you want to pick the role yourself.

| Situation | Reach for | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | | An idea or goal with no acceptance criteria yet, or an empty repository to frame | squad-product | | A UI, UX, design-system or motion decision that your screenshot, link, brief or Figma and the existing system leave open | squad-designer | | Web UI, client logic and API integration | squad-frontend | | APIs, data models, auth, migrations, queues and server logic | squad-backend | | React Native, Expo, Flutter, SwiftUI or Compose screens and app logic | squad-mobile | | CI/CD, containers, IaC, reverse proxy and TLS, observability, release and rollback | squad-devops | | A bug, regression, failing test, broken build or CI/deploy failure whose owner is unproven, or that wants a diagnosis-to-fix pipeline | squad-fix | | Test design, a reproduction, or a fix that needs an evidence-backed verdict | squad-qa | | A diff, PR or branch that needs a final review gate before it ships | squad-code-review | | Work spanning several roles, or work needing independent QA and review gates | squads-team |

Two of these are gates rather than builders. squad-qa verifies observable behavior against acceptance and risk, then issues PASS, FAIL or NEEDS_ENVIRONMENT. squad-code-review consumes that evidence, reviews implementation quality and issues APPROVE, CHANGES_REQUESTED or NEEDS_EVIDENCE; it never implements the fixes it asks for. Reach for the smallest role that fits and let it escalate.

How the squad runs

squads-team names a gate tier in one line before building:

| Tier | When | Closes on | | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | light | One owner; no change to a public contract, auth, data or migration, infrastructure or a dependency | One combined verify pass with real commands | | standard | The default | QA PASS, then Code Review APPROVE | | high | Auth or permissions, payment, data or migration, production infrastructure or secrets, data deletion | Both gates, run independently where the runtime allows |

QA and Code Review together return work to its owner at most twice, each time with every finding they have; a third return comes back to you as blocked, with the evidence and two to four options. APPROVE closes a unit: its warnings and suggestions reach you as options in the final report instead of going back to the owner, and a follow-up you ask for is tiered on its own diff, so a docs or test tweak does not rerun both gates. A build role or squad-fix called on its own verifies with real commands and ends by suggesting /squad-qa then /squad-code-review; high work still runs both. Designer runs only for decisions your own references and the existing design system leave open.

squads-team flags, each overriding one default:

| Flag | Default without it | | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | --devs N | every safe ready slice runs; N caps parallel build slices | | --with-mobile, --with-designer | roles come from scope routing | | --coordinate-only | the lead may implement; with it, the lead only delegates | | --plan-approval | no pause for build plans; material decisions still go to the user | | --mode auto\|team\|subagent\|single | auto, the lowest-overhead safe mode | | --no-worktree | worktrees used when isolation pays; otherwise overlap is serialized |

Skill format

Each skill directory must contain a SKILL.md whose YAML name matches the directory name and whose description explains when the skill applies. Bundle supporting material inside that same skill directory so installations remain self-contained.

The executable contract is owned by the TypeScript validator and tests. Run pnpm validate for a focused catalog check or pnpm test for the full gate.

Written plans

Plans stay in the conversation unless you ask squad-product or squads-team to write one to disk, or pass squad-product a --plan-dir / --plan-file. A written plan is one plan.md, with each phase a ## Phase N — <title> section. A plan too long to read as one file keeps plan.md as the only index and moves each phase to phases/phase-XX-<kebab-case-title>.md:

plans/<YYMMDD-HHmm>-<topic>/
├── plan.md
└── phases/
    ├── phase-01-<kebab-case-title>.md
    └── phase-02-<kebab-case-title>.md

plan.md owns the outcome, constraints, non-goals, acceptance criteria, labeled assumptions, open decisions and the phase list. Each phase names its required Squad roles — for example squad-backend and squad-devops — with a distinct responsibility for each, its ordered work and the evidence that proves it done; the lead assigns live files and agents later. A plan never records a gate verdict: gates hand off in prose between roles.

Upgrading

From 0.3 to 0.4

• A written plan is one plan.md; phases move to phases/ only when the plan is too long. A plan written by 0.3 still reads, but artifacts/, adr/, references/ and gate records are no longer written.
• Claude Code agent files now carry a per-role model and effort. Pass --model inherit or --effort inherit to keep following the session's.
• --model and --effort both accept a bare value for every role or <skill>=<value> for one.

From 0.2 to 0.3

• New plan directories are named <YYMMDD-HHmm>-<topic>; existing <DDMMYYYY-HHmm> directories still read and need no rename.
• --delegate is gone; use --coordinate-only. --allow-new-threads and the thread registry are gone; ask for a separate task directly when you want one.
• QA and Code Review are no longer run on every change: light work closes on one combined verify pass.
• A role invoked on its own names its own gate tier and suggests the gates it did not run; high work still runs both.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Discovery

skills.sh discovers and ranks public GitHub skills from anonymous Skills CLI installation telemetry; the npm package is an additional distribution path and does not replace the GitHub source.