SkillForge

Give your agent a YouTube video and it will learn a skill.

SkillForge is an open-source, agent-agnostic CLI that turns any YouTube video into structured knowledge your AI agent can actually use. Drop in a URL, and SkillForge:

1. Pulls the transcript — downloads the full video transcript via yt-dlp
2. Learns from it — your configured AI provider reads the transcript and extracts frameworks, tactics, key quotes, and key numbers
3. Creates a skill — saves a structured skill folder to ~/.skillforge/library/@creator/topic/SKILL.md
4. Organizes by creator — your agent's knowledge is filed by who taught it, searchable by topic

Your agent can then recall that knowledge instantly:

skillforge recall --intent "pricing strategy"
# → Returns: Alex Hormozi — The Mathematics of Business (100% relevance)

The result isn't a transcript dump. It's operational knowledge — frameworks your agent can reason with, tactics it can apply, and quotes it can cite.

Quick Start

# Install
npm install -g skillforge

# Install transcript fetcher
brew install yt-dlp  # or: pip install yt-dlp

# Configure your AI provider (pick one)
export SKILLFORGE_PROVIDER=claude-cli   # default — uses your Claude Code session
# or: export SKILLFORGE_PROVIDER=anthropic && export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-...
# or: export SKILLFORGE_PROVIDER=openai && export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

# Give your agent a video to learn from
skillforge watch https://youtu.be/A_tx40lNpf8

That's it. In ~60 seconds, your agent knows what's in that video.

How It Works

YouTube URL
    ↓
yt-dlp downloads transcript
    ↓
AI provider reads the full transcript
    ↓
Skill created: frameworks, tactics, quotes, key numbers
    ↓
Organized in ~/.skillforge/library/@creator/topic/SKILL.md
    ↓
Agent recalls it by intent anytime

The skill doc is structured for agents — not humans. It contains what an agent needs to reason, advise, and act: not summaries, but frameworks with steps, tactics with context, numbers with significance.

Commands

skillforge watch <url>

The core command. Give it a single YouTube video URL, get a skill.

skillforge watch https://youtu.be/A_tx40lNpf8
# → Skill saved to ~/.skillforge/library/@alex-hormozi/the-mathematics-of-business-explained/SKILL.md

skillforge recall --intent "topic"

Search your skill library by what you want to know.

skillforge recall --intent "pricing"
# → 100%  Alex Hormozi — The Mathematics of Business, Explained

skillforge list

See all skills your agent has learned.

skillforge list
# @alex-hormozi
#   ↳ the-mathematics-of-business-explained  (4 frameworks, built 2026-03-01)

skillforge build [url]

Build a skill from a channel, topic, multiple URLs, or a saved proposal.

# Build from a channel (auto-score top videos by intent)
skillforge build --auto --channel https://youtube.com/@AlexHormozi --intent "pricing"

# Build from specific URLs
skillforge build --urls "https://youtu.be/abc,https://youtu.be/def" --intent "outreach"

# Build from a saved proposal
skillforge build --proposal abc12345

skillforge scan <url>

Score all videos from a channel by relevance to an intent and save a proposal for review.

skillforge scan https://youtube.com/@AlexHormozi --intent "retention"

skillforge suggest --topic "topic"

Search YouTube for channels related to a topic.

skillforge suggest --topic "meta ads scaling"

skillforge trust add|remove|list

Manage your trusted creators list.

skillforge trust add @AlexHormozi
skillforge trust list
skillforge trust remove @AlexHormozi

skillforge prune --skill <slug>

Remove a skill from the index.

skillforge prune --skill cold-email-outreach

skillforge merge --a <creator/topic> --b <creator/topic>

Merge two existing skills into one unified, deduplicated skill.

skillforge merge --a @alex-hormozi/pricing --b @leila-hormozi/pricing --output-creator @hormozi --output-topic pricing

skillforge share <skill>

Share a skill with attribution. Copies the skill to an output folder with "Skill by [GitHub username], sourced from [Creator]" attribution.

# Share to a folder
skillforge share cold-email-outreach -o ./shared

# Print to stdout (for piping)
skillforge share @alex-hormozi/pricing --stdout

skillforge serve

Start the SkillForge MCP server for agent integration (stdio transport).

skillforge serve

skillforge check-auth

Verify your configured provider is set up correctly.

skillforge check-auth --validate

Authentication

SkillForge supports three AI providers. Set SKILLFORGE_PROVIDER to choose:

| Provider | Env Var | How It Works | |----------|---------|-------------| | claude-cli (default) | — | Uses your Claude Code session. Run claude login first. | | anthropic | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | Calls the Anthropic API directly via SDK. | | openai | OPENAI_API_KEY | Calls the OpenAI API via fetch. |

# Option 1: Claude CLI (default, no API key needed)
claude login
skillforge check-auth --validate

# Option 2: Anthropic API
export SKILLFORGE_PROVIDER=anthropic
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

# Option 3: OpenAI API
export SKILLFORGE_PROVIDER=openai
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

Skill Library Structure

Every skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md plus optional supporting files:

~/.skillforge/library/@creator-handle/topic/SKILL.md

The creator folder groups skills by who taught them. Each topic folder can hold scripts, references, and assets alongside the core skill document.

~/.skillforge/library/
  @alex-hormozi/
    the-mathematics-of-business-explained/
      SKILL.md
    100m-offers-pricing-framework/
      SKILL.md
  @andrew-huberman/
    sleep-optimization-protocols/
      SKILL.md

Legacy flat files (topic.skill.md) are still readable — SkillForge automatically detects both formats.

Advanced: Build from a Full Channel

Trust a creator, then auto-build skills on any topic:

# Add a creator to your trusted list
skillforge trust add @AlexHormozi

# Auto-score and build from their best videos on a topic
skillforge build --auto --channel https://youtube.com/@AlexHormozi --intent "retention"

SkillForge will score all videos by relevance to your intent, pick the top matches, and synthesize them — no manual selection required.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• yt-dlp (transcript fetching)
• One of: Claude CLI (claude login), ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, or OPENAI_API_KEY

License

MIT — Built with ❤️ by Cutbox.ai