skills

The CLI for the open agent skills ecosystem.

Supports OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and 72 more.

Install a Skill

npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills

Use a Skill Without Installing

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

npx skills use vercel-labs/agent-skills@web-design-guidelines | claude
npx skills use vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill web-design-guidelines --agent claude-code

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

# GitHub shorthand (owner/repo)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Full GitHub URL
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Direct path to a skill in a repo
npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/web-design-guidelines

# GitLab URL
npx skills add https://gitlab.com/org/repo

# Any git URL
npx skills add git@github.com:vercel-labs/agent-skills.git

# Local path
npx skills add ./my-local-skills

Options

Examples

# List skills in a repository
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --list

# Install specific skills
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill frontend-design --skill skill-creator

# Install a skill with spaces in the name (must be quoted)
npx skills add owner/repo --skill "Convex Best Practices"

# Install to specific agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills -a claude-code -a opencode

# Non-interactive installation (CI/CD friendly)
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill frontend-design -g -a claude-code -y

# Install all skills from a repo to all agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --all

# Install all skills to specific agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill '*' -a claude-code

# Install specific skills to all agents
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --agent '*' --skill frontend-design

# Install from a direct SKILL.md or archive download URL
npx skills add https://example.com/download/my-skill

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

Installation Methods

When installing interactively, you can choose:

Other Commands

skills list

List all installed skills. Similar to npm ls.

# List all installed skills (project and global)
npx skills list

# List only global skills
npx skills ls -g

# Filter by specific agents
npx skills ls -a claude-code -a cursor

skills find

Search for skills interactively or by keyword.

# Interactive search (fzf-style)
npx skills find

# Search by keyword
npx skills find typescript

# Search across every repository owned by an organization or user
npx skills find react --owner vercel

skills update

# Update all skills (interactive scope prompt)
npx skills update

# Update a single skill by name
npx skills update my-skill

# Update multiple specific skills
npx skills update frontend-design web-design-guidelines

# Update only global or project skills
npx skills update -g
npx skills update -p

# Non-interactive (auto-detects scope: project if in a project, else global)
npx skills update -y

skills init

# Create SKILL.md in current directory
npx skills init

# Create a new skill in a subdirectory
npx skills init my-skill

skills remove

Remove installed skills from agents.

# Remove interactively (select from installed skills)
npx skills remove

# Remove specific skill by name
npx skills remove web-design-guidelines

# Remove multiple skills
npx skills remove frontend-design web-design-guidelines

# Remove from global scope
npx skills remove --global web-design-guidelines

# Remove from specific agents only
npx skills remove --agent claude-code cursor my-skill

# Remove all installed skills without confirmation
npx skills remove --all

# Remove all skills from a specific agent
npx skills remove --skill '*' -a cursor

# Remove a specific skill from all agents
npx skills remove my-skill --agent '*'

# Use 'rm' alias
npx skills rm my-skill

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:

[!NOTE] Kiro CLI users: The default agent automatically loads skills from .kiro/skills/ and ~/.kiro/skills/ — no configuration needed. If you use a custom agent, add skills to its resources in .kiro/agents/<agent>.json:

{
  "resources": ["skill://.kiro/skills/**/SKILL.md"]
}

The CLI automatically detects which coding agents you have installed. If none are detected, you'll be prompted to select which agents to install to.

Creating Skills

Skills are directories containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent to follow when this skill is activated.

## When to Use

Describe the scenarios where this skill should be used.

## Steps

1. First, do this
2. Then, do that

Required Fields

• name: Unique identifier (lowercase, hyphens allowed)
• description: Brief explanation of what the skill does

Optional Fields

• metadata.internal: Set to true to hide the skill from normal discovery. Internal skills are only visible and installable when INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS=1 is set. Useful for work-in-progress skills or skills meant only for internal tooling.

---
name: my-internal-skill
description: An internal skill not shown by default
metadata:
  internal: true
---

Skill Discovery

The CLI searches for skills in these locations within a repository. Each skill container directory is walked one level deep for the common flat layout (skills/<name>/SKILL.md) and one extra level deep for catalog layouts (skills/<category>/<name>/SKILL.md). A SKILL.md discovered at the shallower level shadows anything nested below it. Use --full-depth to also discover SKILL.md files outside these container directories (e.g. under examples/ or tests/).

• Root directory (if it contains SKILL.md)
• skills/
• skills/.curated/
• skills/.experimental/
• skills/.system/
• .aider-desk/skills/
• .agents/skills/
• data/skills/
• .autohand/skills/
• .augment/skills/
• .bob/skills/
• .claude/skills/
• .codeartsdoer/skills/
• .codebuddy/skills/
• .codemaker/skills/
• .codestudio/skills/
• .commandcode/skills/
• .continue/skills/
• .cortex/skills/
• .crush/skills/
• .devin/skills/
• .factory/skills/
• agent/skills/
• .forge/skills/
• .goose/skills/
• .grok/skills/
• .hermes/skills/
• .inferencesh/skills/
• .jazz/skills/
• .junie/skills/
• .iflow/skills/
• .kilocode/skills/
• .kimchi/skills/
• .kiro/skills/
• .kode/skills/
• .lingma/skills/
• .mcpjam/skills/
• .minimax/skills/
• .vibe/skills/
• .moxby/skills/
• .mux/skills/
• .openhands/skills/
• .ona/skills/
• .pi/skills/
• .qoder/skills/
• .qwen/skills/
• .reasonix/skills/
• .rovodev/skills/
• .roo/skills/
• .tabnine/agent/skills/
• .terramind/skills/
• .tinycloud/skills/
• .trae/skills/
• .windsurf/skills/
• .zcode/skills/
• .zencoder/skills/
• .neovate/skills/
• .pochi/skills/
• .adal/skills/

Plugin Manifest Discovery

If .claude-plugin/marketplace.json or .claude-plugin/plugin.json exists, skills declared in those files are also discovered:

// .claude-plugin/marketplace.json
{
  "metadata": { "pluginRoot": "./plugins" },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "my-plugin",
      "source": "my-plugin",
      "skills": ["./skills/review", "./skills/test"]
    }
  ]
}

This enables compatibility with the Claude Code plugin marketplace ecosystem. Skill paths declared in a manifest are searched at their declared depth and are not subject to the depth-2 catalog walk described above.

If no skills are found in standard locations, a recursive search is performed.

Compatibility

Skills are generally compatible across agents since they follow a shared Agent Skills specification. However, some features may be agent-specific:

Troubleshooting

"No skills found"

Ensure the repository contains valid SKILL.md files with both name and description in the frontmatter.

Skill not loading in agent

• Verify the skill was installed to the correct path
• Check the agent's documentation for skill loading requirements
• Ensure the SKILL.md frontmatter is valid YAML

Permission errors

Ensure you have write access to the target directory.

Environment Variables

# Install internal skills
INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS=1 npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --list

Telemetry

This CLI collects anonymous usage data to help improve the tool. No personal information is collected.

Telemetry is automatically disabled in CI environments.

Related Links

• Agent Skills Specification
• Skills Directory
• Amp Skills Documentation
• Antigravity Skills Documentation
• Factory AI / Droid Skills Documentation
• Claude Code Skills Documentation
• OpenClaw Skills Documentation
• Cline Skills Documentation
• CodeBuddy Skills Documentation
• Codex Skills Documentation
• Command Code Skills Documentation
• Crush Skills Documentation
• Cursor Skills Documentation
• Firebender Skills Documentation
• Gemini CLI Skills Documentation
• GitHub Copilot Agent Skills
• iFlow CLI Skills Documentation
• Kimi Code CLI Skills Documentation
• Kiro CLI Skills Documentation
• Kode Skills Documentation
• OpenCode Skills Documentation
• Qwen Code Skills Documentation
• OpenHands Skills Documentation
• Pi Skills Documentation
• Qoder Skills Documentation
• Replit Skills Documentation
• Roo Code Skills Documentation
• Trae Skills Documentation
• Vercel Agent Skills Repository

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.