find-skills · diff
git:20260922.d760929 to git:20260923.b0f5b18
121 added, 49 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: find-skills
- description: "Find and install a skill from the open registry. Reach for it when a job needs a written method that is not on your Skills list."
+ description: "Finds and installs agent skills from the open skills registry. Use when the user asks for a skill or for something that might exist as one, or a job needs a specialized method no listed skill covers."
---
- # Find skills
+ # Find Skills
- `npx skills` is the package manager for the open skill registry
- (https://skills.sh). Search it, install what this job needs, and use it.
+ This skill helps you discover and install skills from the open agent skills ecosystem. Here you install the one the job needs and use it; the user decides only who gets it.
- ## In this app
+ If you are Thursday: installing is a bot's work. While you are talking, ask who the skill is for, one bot or every bot, then hand it with `thread_start` to that bot (or to any bot, for every bot) with the answer in the request.
- Everything the app has to say about installing skills is here; the prompts do
- not repeat it.
+ ## When to Use This Skill
- **Where you run it decides who gets it.** `add` installs into `.agents/skills/`
- under the folder it is run from, and the app reads that folder in two places:
+ Use this skill when the user:
- - **Your own folder** (the Environment names it) — the skill is yours alone. The
- default: a method this job needs is rarely one every bot should carry.
+ - Asks "how do I do X" where X might be a common task with an existing skill
+ - Says "find a skill for X" or "is there a skill for X"
+ - Asks "can you do X" where X is a specialized capability
+ - Expresses interest in extending agent capabilities
+ - Wants to search for tools, templates, or workflows
+ - Mentions they wish they had help with a specific domain (design, testing, deployment, etc.)
+ And when a job you hold needs a specialized method that no skill on your Skills list covers.
+
+ ## What is the Skills CLI?
+
+ The Skills CLI (`npx skills`) is the package manager for the open agent skills ecosystem. Skills are modular packages that extend agent capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, and tools.
+
+ **Key commands:**
+
+ - `npx skills find [query] [--owner <owner>]` - Search for skills by keyword, optionally scoped to a GitHub owner
+ - `npx skills add <package> -a universal -y` - Install a skill from GitHub or other sources (Step 6 says from which folder)
+ - `npx skills add <owner/repo> --list` - List the skills a repository holds, without installing any
+
+ To update an installed skill, run its `add` command again from the same folder; it replaces the copy there. Not `npx skills update`: it reinstalls without `-a universal`, which can spread links into other agents' folders (Step 6).
+
+ **Browse skills at:** https://skills.sh/
+
+ ## How to Help Users Find Skills
+
+ ### Step 1: Understand What They Need
+
+ When a user asks for help with something, identify:
+
+ 1. The domain (e.g., React, testing, design, deployment)
+ 2. The specific task (e.g., writing tests, creating animations, reviewing PRs)
+ 3. Whether this is a common enough task that a skill likely exists
+
+ ### Step 2: Check the Makers' Own Skills First
+
+ Before a broad search, check whether the maker of the tool the job is about publishes skills for it. https://skills.sh/official lists the companies and organizations that publish skills for their own products (`anthropics`, `vercel-labs`, `microsoft`, `cloudflare` and many more), and `--owner` narrows a search to one of them:
+
+ ```bash
+ npx skills find theme --owner anthropics
+ ```
+
+ ### Step 3: Search for Skills
+
+ If the makers' own skills don't cover the need, run the find command:
+
+ ```bash
+ npx skills find [query] [--owner <owner>]
+ ```
+
+ For example:
+
+ - User asks "how do I make my React app faster?" → `npx skills find react performance`
+ - User asks "can you help me with PR reviews?" → `npx skills find pr review`
+ - User asks "I need to create a changelog" → `npx skills find changelog`
+
+ Each result prints as `<owner/repo@skill>` with its install count, and under it the link to its page on skills.sh.
+
+ ### Step 4: Verify Quality Before Installing
+
+ **Do not install a skill based solely on search results.** An installed skill runs with your permissions on the user's computer. Always verify:
+
+ 1. **Who published it.** The vendors on https://skills.sh/official publish their own tools. An unknown owner is a stranger's shell script until its repository says otherwise.
+ 2. **Its page and its repository, not its install count.** The skill's page on skills.sh (the link under its search result) shows its repository, the repository's GitHub stars and three automated security audits: high or critical risk is a no, a warning is a reason to read closer. Then open the repository: the last commit, and what `SKILL.md` and its scripts actually do. A count of installs says only that it was fetched — one skill had half a million installs and five stars.
+ 3. **What it needs to work.** Most vendor skills wrap that vendor's CLI and want an API key. Read its `SKILL.md` before you build a plan on top of it — a skill you cannot authenticate is no use in this job.
+ 4. **Its license.** Open the `LICENSE` in its folder. A license that allows use only inside one company's own product is not one to install here — Anthropic's `docx`, `pptx`, `xlsx` and `pdf` skills are licensed that way, while its other skills are Apache-2.0.
+
+ Pick the one that fits best. The user decides who gets it, not which one.
+
+ ### Step 5: Ask Who It Is For
+
+ Unless the request already says who the skill is for, ask before installing. Send Thursday one `send_message` with kind `question`: what the skill is and why this job needs it, with the options "Only this bot" and "Every bot". Then end your turn. The user is not at your screen; their answer brings you back.
+
+ Example question:
+
+ ```
+ To lay the slides out in a set of ready themes, I'd like to install "theme-factory" from anthropics/skills (Apache-2.0), Anthropic's own skill for applying a theme to a deck or a page. Who should have it?
+ Options: Only this bot · Every bot
+ ```
+
+ If the user left it to you ("up to you", "decide yourself"), it is for this bot only. If they asked for it for everyone, it is for every bot. If the answer is something else, such as not now or a different skill, do that instead.
+
+ ### Step 6: Install It and Use It
+
+ Install where the answer says, with `-a universal -y` either way:
+
+ - **Only this bot:** from your own folder (the Environment names it). Listed to you alone.
+
```bash
- (cd <your own folder> && npx skills add <owner>/<repo>@<skill> -y)
+ (cd <your own folder> && npx skills add <owner/repo@skill> -a universal -y)
```
- - **The workspace root**, where your shell starts — every bot and the call get it.
- Only when the user asked for that.
+ - **Every bot:** from the workspace root, where your shell starts. Listed to every bot, and to the call.
```bash
- npx skills add <owner>/<repo>@<skill> -y
+ npx skills add <owner/repo@skill> -a universal -y
```
- Never `-g`. That installs to the machine's own user directory, where this app
- never looks — the command reports success and the skill is nowhere.
+ `-a universal` installs into `.agents/skills/` under the folder the command runs from, which is where this app reads skills. Without it, `add -y` also links the skill into other agents' folders, such as `.claude/skills` when Claude Code is on this machine, which this app never reads. `-y` skips the confirmation prompts. Never `-g`: that installs into this machine's user directory, where this app never looks, so the command reports success and the skill is nowhere.
- **Load it as soon as it is installed.** `load_skill` with the installed name
- finds it on disk, though your Skills list was read before the install; the list
- shows it from the next run.
+ Load it as soon as it is installed: `load_skill` with the installed name finds it on disk, though your Skills list was read before the install; the list shows it from your next turn. Use it for the job, and name it in your report: what you installed, from where, and for whom.
- **Install it, do not offer it.** The user is not at this screen; you are inside
- a job someone else is holding. Pick one, install it, use it, and name it in
- your report. Go back to them only when nothing fits and the job is stuck
- without it.
+ ## Common Skill Categories
- ## Finding one
+ When searching, consider these common categories:
- ```bash
- npx skills find <query> # search the registry
- npx skills find <query> --owner vercel-labs
- npx skills add <owner>/<repo> -l # list what a repo holds, install nothing
- npx skills list # what is already installed
- ```
+ | Category | Example Queries |
+ | --------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
+ | Web Development | react, nextjs, typescript, css, tailwind |
+ | Testing | testing, jest, playwright, e2e |
+ | DevOps | deploy, docker, kubernetes, ci-cd |
+ | Documentation | docs, readme, changelog, api-docs |
+ | Code Quality | review, lint, refactor, best-practices |
+ | Design | ui, ux, design-system, accessibility |
+ | Productivity | workflow, automation, git |
+ | Everyday | recipes, budget, fitness, travel, email |
- Search the domain and the task together — `react performance`, `pr review`,
- `invoice pdf` — not one broad word. Nothing found is an answer: say so and do
- the job with what you have.
+ ## Tips for Effective Searches
- ## Judge it before you install
+ 1. **Use specific keywords**: "react testing" is better than just "testing"
+ 2. **Try alternative terms**: If "deploy" doesn't work, try "deployment" or "ci-cd"
- An installed skill runs with your permissions, and nothing in the registry is
- reviewed by anyone.
+ ## When No Skills Are Found
- - **Who published it.** The vendors on https://skills.sh/official publish their
- own tools — `anthropics`, `vercel-labs`, `microsoft` and the rest. An unknown
- owner is a stranger's shell script until its repository says otherwise.
- - **Its repository, not its install count.** Open the GitHub repository the
- registry names: the stars, the last commit, and what `SKILL.md` and its scripts
- actually do. A count of installs says only that it was fetched — one skill had
- half a million installs and five stars.
- - **What it needs to work.** Most vendor skills wrap that vendor's CLI and want
- an API key. Read its SKILL.md before you build a plan on top of it — a skill
- you cannot authenticate is no use in this job.
+ If no relevant skills exist:
- Writing one instead of installing one is the `skill-creator` skill, and it is
- worth the steps only when the user asked for a skill.
+ 1. Say in your report that none was found, and what you searched for
+ 2. Do the job with what you have, rather than asking whether to
+ 3. Writing a skill instead is the `skill-creator` skill, worth its steps when the user asked for a skill
+
+ ---
+
+ Adapted from vercel-labs/skills find-skills (MIT) at 7407f38: a bot here looks at the makers' own skills rather than the leaderboard, judges a skill by publisher, repository and audits rather than installs, asks who it is for, installs it with `-a universal` into this app's skill folders rather than globally, and uses it rather than suggesting it to the user.