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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