skills

The CLI for the open agent skills ecosystem.

Supports OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and 75 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 [email protected]:vercel-labs/agent-skills.git

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

Private Repositories

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

# GitHub shorthand or HTTPS (Git credential helper, GitHub CLI, then SSH fallback)
npx skills add acme/private-skills

# SSH on GitHub, GitLab, or another Git host
npx skills add [email protected]:acme/private-skills.git
npx skills add ssh://[email protected]/acme/private-skills.git

# HTTPS on any Git host (uses your configured Git credential helper)
npx skills add https://git.example.com/acme/private-skills.git

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 executegh 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 <agents...> | Target specific agents (e.g.,

claude-code, codex). See Supported Agents | | -s, --skill <skills...> | Install specific skills by

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

| Scope | Flag | Location | Use Case | | ----------- | --------- | ------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | Project

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 <source> | Use one skill

versions | | npx skills init [name] | Create a new SKILL.md template |

`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

| Option | Description | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | -g, --global | Only

else global) | | [skills...] | Update specific skills by name instead of all |

`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

| Option | Description | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | -g, --global | Remove from global scope (~/)

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 | |-------|-----------|--------------|-------------| | AiderDesk |

~/.adal/skills/ |

[!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: > > ```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 up to three levels deep, covering flat

layouts (skills/<name>/SKILL.md) and catalog layouts with one or two category levels (skills/<category>/<name>/SKILL.md or

skills/<category>/<category>/<name>/SKILL.md). A SKILL.md discovered at a 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/ - agent/skills/ - .forge/skills/ - .fx/skills/ - .goose/skills/

.grok/skills/ - .hermes/skills/ - .inferencesh/skills/ - .jazz/skills/ - .junie/skills/ - .iflow/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/ - .posit/assistant/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:

```json // .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 bounded depth-3 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:

Copilot | Amp | OpenClaw | Neovate | Pi | Qoder | Zencoder | | --------------- | -------- | --------- | ----------- | ----- | --------- | ----- |

------------ | -------- | ------ | ----------- | -------- | -------------- | --- | -------- | ------- | --- | ----- | -------- | | Basic skills | Yes

| Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | allowed-tools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | | context: fork | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No

| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | | Hooks | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |

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

| Variable | Description | | ------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |

INSTALL_INTERNAL_SKILLS | Set to 1 or true to show and install skills marked as internal: true | | DISABLE_TELEMETRY | Set to disable

GitHub API requests | | GH_TOKEN | Fallback explicit token for authenticated GitHub API requests |

# 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.

GitHub repository and skill identifiers are sent only for repositories that GitHub positively confirms are public. Other remote source types may

include source and skill identifiers in install telemetry because their visibility cannot be checked through GitHub. Security-audit requests remain

limited to confirmed-public GitHub repositories. Set DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 to disable both entirely.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

vercel-labs/skills · 全文文字稿