--- name: find-skills 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 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. 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. ## When to Use This Skill Use this skill when the user: - 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 ]` - Search for skills by keyword, optionally scoped to a GitHub owner - `npx skills add -a universal -y` - Install a skill from GitHub or other sources (Step 6 says from which folder) - `npx skills add --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 ] ``` 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 `` 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 && npx skills add -a universal -y) ``` - **Every bot:** from the workspace root, where your shell starts. Listed to every bot, and to the call. ```bash npx skills add -a universal -y ``` `-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 your next turn. Use it for the job, and name it in your report: what you installed, from where, and for whom. ## Common Skill Categories When searching, consider these common categories: | 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 | ## Tips for Effective Searches 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" ## When No Skills Are Found If no relevant skills exist: 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.