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skills

The CLI for the open agent skills ecosystem.

Supports OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and 75 more.

Install a Skill

Use a Skill Without Installing

Generate a prompt for one skill, or start a supported coding agent interactively:

skills use resolves sources the same way as skills add, writes the selected skill files to a temporary directory, and prints only the generated prompt to stdout unless --agent is provided. With --agent, it starts one supported agent interactively with the generated prompt.

Source Formats

Private Repositories

Use the same command for public and private repositories. The CLI uses the authentication already configured for the repository URL:

For GitHub HTTPS and shorthand sources, skills first uses normal Git credentials. If that fails and GitHub CLI is authenticated, it tries gh repo clone, followed by SSH. It does not execute gh auth token or copy the stored GitHub CLI credential into the Node.js process.

For GitHub tree lookups, skills first tries the API anonymously, then an explicitly supplied environment token, then gh api. GitHub CLI applies its own stored authentication and returns only the API response; the credential is never printed to or read by skills. If API access still fails, update checks fall back to an authenticated Git clone.

GITHUB_TOKEN or GH_TOKEN can be set explicitly for GitHub API access, including private repository downloads and update checks. They are optional for installs when Git, GitHub CLI, or SSH authentication is already configured.

Options

| Option | Description |

| -g, --global | Install to user directory instead of project | | -a, --agent | Target specific agents (e.g., claude-code, codex). See Supported Agents | | -s, --skill | Install specific skills by name (use '*' for all skills) | | -l, --list | List available skills without installing | | --copy | Copy files instead of symlinking to agent directories | | -y, --yes | Skip all confirmation prompts | | --all | Install all skills to all agents without prompts |

Examples

Direct download URLs are tried after well-known discovery. They may point to a single valid SKILL.md file or a .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, or .tgz archive; the URL does not need to include a file extension. Downloads are limited to 10 MiB, extracted content to 25 MiB, and archives to 1000 files by default. Override with SKILLS_DOWNLOAD_MAX_BYTES, SKILLS_EXTRACT_MAX_BYTES, and SKILLS_EXTRACT_MAX_FILES when you trust the source.

Installation Scope

| Scope | Flag | Location | Use Case |

| Project | (default) | .//skills/ | Committed with your project, shared with team | | Global | -g | ~//skills/ | Available across all projects |

Installation Methods

When installing interactively, you can choose:

| Method | Description |

| Symlink (Recommended) | Creates symlinks from each agent to a canonical copy. Single source of truth, easy updates. | | Copy | Creates independent copies for each agent. Use when symlinks aren't supported. |

Other Commands

| Command | Description |

| npx skills use | Use one skill without installing | | npx skills list | List installed skills (alias: ls) | | npx skills find [query] | Search for skills interactively or by keyword | | npx skills remove [skills] | Remove installed skills from agents | | npx skills update [skills] | Update installed skills to latest versions | | npx skills init [name] | Create a new SKILL.md template |

skills list

List all installed skills. Similar to npm ls.

skills find

Search for skills interactively or by keyword.

skills update

| Option | Description |

| -g, --global | Only update global skills | | -p, --project | Only update project skills | | -y, --yes | Skip scope prompt (auto-detect: project if in a project dir, else global) | | [skills...] | Update specific skills by name instead of all |

skills init

skills remove

Remove installed skills from agents.

| Option | Description |

| -g, --global | Remove from global scope (~/) instead of project | | -a, --agent | Remove from specific agents (use '' for all) | | -s, --skill | Specify skills to remove (use '' for all) | | -y, --yes | Skip confirmation prompts | | --all | Shorthand for --skill '' --agent '' -y |

What are Agent Skills?

Agent skills are reusable instruction sets that extend your coding agent's capabilities. They're defined in SKILL.md files with YAML frontmatter containing a name and description.

Skills let agents perform specialized tasks like:

• Generating release notes from git history • Creating PRs following your team's conventions • Integrating with external tools (Linear, Notion, etc.)

Discover skills at skills.sh

Supported Agents

Skills can be installed to any of these agents:

| Agent | --agent | Project Path | Global Path |…