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npx skills

npx skills is a CLI tool for managing reusable Claude Code skills. Skills are prompt-based plugins that extend Claude Code's behavior — you can install them from public registries, link them globally, or share your own.

Installation​

No install needed. Run directly with npx:

npx skills --help

Or install globally to use the skills command without npx:

npm install -g skills

Adding Skills​

Add a skill to the current project​

Downloads the skill into .agents/skills/ inside your project directory:

npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill skill-creator

Add a skill globally​

Downloads the skill into ~/.agents/skills/:

npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill skill-creator -g

Use -g when you want the skill available across all your projects.

Instead of copying, create a symlink from the global install into your project's Claude skills folder:

ln -s ~/.agents/skills/skill-creator ~/.claude/skills/skill-creator

This way the skill stays up to date when you update the global copy, and you avoid duplicating files.

If your project keeps skills in a ./skills/ directory at the repo root, you can link the whole folder at once:

ln -s ./skills ./.claude/skills

This makes every skill in ./skills/ available to Claude Code without copying anything. Useful when the team manages skills directly in the repo and everyone should get all of them automatically.

Listing Skills​

List skills installed in the current project​

npx skills list

List globally installed skills​

npx skills list -g

Removing Skills​

Remove a skill from the current project​

npx skills remove skill-creator

Remove a globally installed skill​

npx skills remove skill-creator -g

Updating Skills​

Update a specific skill in the current project​

npx skills update skill-creator

Update a specific skill globally​

npx skills update skill-creator -g

Update all skills at once​

npx skills update --all
npx skills update --all -g

Searching for Skills​

Browse available skills from the registry:

npx skills search <keyword>

Example — find skills related to testing:

npx skills search test

Inspecting a Skill​

Show the metadata and description of a skill before installing it:

npx skills info anthropics/skills --skill skill-creator

Publishing a Skill​

If you created your own skill and want to share it:

npx skills publish

Run this from the root of your skill directory. It packages and uploads the skill to the registry under your account.

Typical Workflow​

A common setup when starting on a new machine:

# 1. Install the skills you use most, globally
npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill skill-creator -g
npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill deep-research -g
npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill code-review -g

# 2. In each project, symlink only what that project needs
ln -s ~/.agents/skills/skill-creator ~/.claude/skills/skill-creator
ln -s ~/.agents/skills/code-review   ~/.claude/skills/code-review

This keeps your global skill library as the single source of truth, and each project opts in to only what it uses.

Quick Reference​

CommandWhat it does
npx skills add <repo> --skill <name>Install a skill into the current project
npx skills add <repo> --skill <name> -gInstall a skill globally
npx skills listList skills in the current project
npx skills list -gList globally installed skills
npx skills remove <name>Remove a skill from the current project
npx skills remove <name> -gRemove a globally installed skill
npx skills update <name>Update a skill in the current project
npx skills update --all -gUpdate all global skills
npx skills search <keyword>Search the skill registry
npx skills info <repo> --skill <name>Show skill metadata
npx skills publishPublish your own skill
ln -s ~/.agents/skills/<name> ~/.claude/skills/<name>Link a global skill into a project
ln -s ./skills ./.claude/skillsLink the whole local skills folder into Claude