Find Skills

Find Skills

This skill helps you discover and install skills from the open agent skills ecosystem.

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.)

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] - Search for skills interactively or by keyword
• npx skills add <package> - Install a skill from GitHub or other sources
• npx skills update / npx skills upgrade - Update installed skills
• npx skills experimental_install - Restore project skills from skills-lock.json

Do not use npx skills check as a read-only update check in this repo. With skills@1.5.7, that subcommand is not listed in npx skills --help and was observed to rewrite .agents/skills/* and skills-lock.json. Treat it like update: run it only when you intentionally want to refresh installed skills and are prepared to review and revert the full diff.

Browse skills at: https://skills.sh/

Repo-local skills (Asymmetric-al/core)

Before searching the public index, check docs/ai/skills/ and docs/ai/rules/agent-skill-routing.md. Canonical repo-owned skills live under docs/ai/skills/ and are mirrored to .agents/skills/, .cursor/skills/, and .claude/skills/ with bun run skills:sync (CI: bun run skills:verify).

Use the canonical docs path when routing or documenting repo-critical skills. Treat .agents/skills/, .cursor/skills/, and .claude/skills/ as runtime mirrors for tool compatibility, not the primary authoring location.

Some extra ecosystem or tool-specific skills may exist only in .cursor/skills/ or .agents/skills/. Those are optional unless the repo explicitly promotes them into docs/ai/skills/.

Example — Supabase: platform work is covered by docs/ai/skills/supabase/SKILL.md and Postgres tuning by docs/ai/skills/supabase-postgres-best-practices/SKILL.md. Install or refresh from supabase/agent-skills with npx skills add supabase/agent-skills -y, then bun run skills:refresh-upstream, bun run skills:sync, and bun run skills:verify. skills-lock.json records CLI pins; use targeted npx skills add <source> -y refreshes before falling back to npx skills experimental_install -y, because the latter rewrites all lockfile entries.

Example — Tiptap: rich text work is covered by docs/ai/skills/tiptap/SKILL.md. To compare against upstream: npx skills add ueberdosis/tiptap (see also Tiptap agent skill).

Example — npm dependency cleanup: reducing unused or heavy JS dependencies across npm, pnpm, Yarn, or Bun is covered by docs/ai/skills/npm-deps-cleanup/SKILL.md. Install or refresh from anthonyshew/dotfiles with npx skills add anthonyshew/dotfiles -y, then bun run skills:refresh-upstream, bun run skills:sync, and bun run skills:verify.

Example — Resend CLI: terminal, automation, and CI work is covered by docs/ai/skills/resend-cli/SKILL.md. It is vendored from resend/resend-cli (skills/resend-cli/ at tag v2.0.0+); maintainer refresh notes are in docs/ai/skills/resend-cli/references/upstream.md.

Example — Resend platform skills: SDK, webhooks, inbound, and send/receive platform workflows are a separate concern. Optional ecosystem install resend/resend-skills may live under .agents/skills/resend/ when added with the Skills CLI.

Example — Resend app integration: app-level Resend integration in this monorepo is documented in docs/guides/features/resend-integration.md.

Example — bendc frontend guidelines: semantic HTML, CSS discipline, and vanilla JS readability patterns from bendc/frontend-guidelines are covered by docs/ai/skills/bendc-frontend-guidelines/SKILL.md (vendored README.md under references/); maintainer refresh notes are in docs/ai/skills/bendc-frontend-guidelines/references/upstream.md. Use docs/ai/rules/frontend.md first for apps/* and packages/ui work.

Example — Emil Kowalski design-engineering pack: the five skills from emilkowalski/skills are canonical under docs/ai/skills/{animation-vocabulary,apple-design,emil-design-eng,improve-animations,review-animations}/. Refresh with npx --yes skills@1.5.7 add emilkowalski/skills -y, then bun run skills:refresh-emilkowalski, bun run skills:sync, and bun run skills:verify. Follow the narrow routes in docs/ai/rules/agent-skill-routing.md rather than treating installer output as authoritative.

Example — Grill for Unknowns: the complete nicobailon/grill-for-unknowns plugin is canonical under docs/ai/skills/grill-for-unknowns/. Refresh with npx --yes skills@latest add nicobailon/grill-for-unknowns -y, then bun run skills:refresh-grill-for-unknowns, bun run skills:sync, and bun run skills:verify. It is explicit-only in Core: use it for a requested map-vs-territory, blindspot, unknown-known prototype, or launch-packet workflow; generic grilling stays with grilling or grill-with-docs.

Example — Payload CMS:

• Application skill: docs/ai/skills/payloadcms-payload/SKILL.md for collections, fields, hooks, access, queries, adapters, plugins, and Payload app behavior.
• Migration skill: docs/ai/skills/payloadcms-cms-migration/SKILL.md for CMS to Payload content-model migration.
• Upstream: vendored from payloadcms/skills (skills/payload/, skills/cms-migration/).
• Refresh notes: docs/ai/skills/payloadcms-payload/references/upstream.md and docs/ai/skills/payloadcms-cms-migration/references/upstream.md.
• Optional Skills CLI install: npx skills add payloadcms/skills.
• Pair with: docs/ai/rules/backend.md for server and data boundaries.

Example — Inngest agent tooling: durable workflow and agent integration work is covered by official skills vendored under docs/ai/skills/inngest-*, with docs/ai/skills/inngest/SKILL.md as the router. Use docs/ai/skills/inngest-brownfield-audit/SKILL.md before changing existing app workflows, and use docs/ai/skills/inngest-setup/SKILL.md only when explicitly adding product runtime Inngest. Refresh with bun run skills:refresh-inngest, then bun run skills:sync and bun run skills:verify.

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: Search for Skills

Run the find command with a relevant query:

npx skills find [query]

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

The command will return results like:

Install with npx skills add <owner/repo@skill>

vercel-labs/agent-skills@vercel-react-best-practices
└ https://skills.sh/vercel-labs/agent-skills/vercel-react-best-practices

Step 3: Present Options to the User

When you find relevant skills, present them to the user with:

1. The skill name and what it does
2. The install command they can run
3. A link to learn more at skills.sh

Example response:

I found a skill that might help! The "vercel-react-best-practices" skill provides
React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering.

To install it:
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills@vercel-react-best-practices

Learn more: https://skills.sh/vercel-labs/agent-skills/vercel-react-best-practices

Step 4: Offer to Install

If the user wants to proceed, you can install the skill for them:

npx skills add <owner/repo@skill> -g -y

The -g flag installs globally (user-level) and -y skips confirmation prompts.

Common Skill Categories

When searching, consider these common categories:

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"
3. Check popular sources: Many skills come from vercel-labs/agent-skills or ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills

When No Skills Are Found

If no relevant skills exist:

1. Acknowledge that no existing skill was found
2. Offer to help with the task directly using your general capabilities
3. Suggest the user could create their own skill with npx skills init

Example:

I searched for skills related to "xyz" but didn't find any matches.
I can still help you with this task directly! Would you like me to proceed?

If this is something you do often, you could create your own skill:
npx skills init my-xyz-skill

Triggers

• User asks how to do something that might have an existing skill
• User wants to find, install, or compare agent skills (public or repo-local)

Checklist

• Checked docs/ai/skills/ and Skill Routing in docs/ai/rules/agent-skill-routing.md before suggesting npx skills find
• For repo work, pointed at canonical paths under docs/ai/skills/ and bun run skills:sync when mirrors matter