Discover A Skill

Discover a Skill

Use this skill when you need to operate askill reliably as an AI agent: discover skills, install them, run commands, maintain updates, and troubleshoot install/runtime issues.

Core Workflow

When a user asks for a capability that might be implemented as a skill:

1. Discover candidates: askill find <query>
2. Inspect details: askill info <slug>
3. Install: askill add <source> -y
4. Read installed instructions: <skill-dir>/SKILL.md
5. Execute commands if defined: askill run <skill>:<command> [args]

Always prefer reading the installed SKILL.md before improvising.

Source Formats You Should Use

Use any supported install source:

• @author/skill-name - published skill slug from askill registry
• owner/repo - discover and install from a GitHub repo
• owner/repo@skill-name - install one named skill
• owner/repo/path/to/skill - install by explicit folder path
• gh:owner/repo@skill-name - explicit GitHub-prefixed format
• https://github.com/owner/repo - full GitHub URL
• ./local/path - local skill directory for testing

Notes:

• askill install, askill add, and askill i are equivalent
• Prefer explicit, non-interactive calls (-y) in agent workflows

Installation Patterns

Non-interactive (agent-safe)

# Published skill slug
askill add @johndoe/awesome-tool -y

# Indexed GitHub skill slug
askill add gh:owner/repo@skill-name -y

Install all discovered skills from a repo

askill add gh:owner/repo --all -y

Preview before install

askill add gh:owner/repo --list

Target specific agents

askill add gh:owner/repo@skill-name -a claude-code opencode -y

Global install

askill add gh:owner/repo@skill-name -g -y

Copy mode (avoid symlink)

askill add gh:owner/repo@skill-name --copy -y

Where Skills Are Installed

askill installs to canonical directories and links into agent-specific paths.

• Project canonical: .agents/skills/<skill>/
• Global canonical: ~/.agents/skills/<skill>/
• Agent paths: .claude/skills/, .opencode/skills/, .cursor/skills/, etc.

State and metadata:

• Project lock file: .agents/.skill-lock.json
• Global lock file: ~/.agents/.skill-lock.json
• Credentials: ~/.askill/credentials.json
• Preferences: ~/.config/askill/config.json

Running Skill Commands

If the skill defines commands in frontmatter, run:

askill run <skill>:<command> [args...]

Examples:

askill run memory:save --key preference --value "TypeScript"
askill run memory:recall --key preference
askill run my-skill:_setup

Rules:

• Read available commands from the installed SKILL.md
• If command fails from missing dependencies, try _setup first
• Pass user arguments through after the command target

Maintenance Commands

Use these routinely:

• askill list - show installed skills
• askill check - check update availability
• askill update - update tracked GitHub-installed skills
• askill remove <skill> - uninstall
• askill validate [path] - validate SKILL.md format

Submit vs Publish

Treat these as different workflows:

• askill submit <github-url>: request indexing (and slug-driven publish pipelines)
• askill publish [path]: local publish, requires login token, author = logged-in user
• askill publish --github <blob-url>: GitHub publish, no login required, author = repo owner

Publishing requires frontmatter slug and version:

---
name: my-skill
slug: my-skill
version: 1.0.0
---

Troubleshooting Checklist

When something fails, check in this order:

1. Source is valid and reachable (gh: slug, URL, or local path)
2. Skill exists and parsed correctly (askill add ... --list, askill info ...)
3. Skill actually defines the command (commands: in installed SKILL.md)
4. _setup has run if runtime dependencies are needed
5. User is authenticated for publish (askill whoami)

Agent Behavior Guidelines

• Prefer deterministic commands with -y for automation
• Do not assume command names; read installed SKILL.md
• Use askill run instead of running scripts by hardcoded paths
• Prefer explicit agent targeting with -a when environment is multi-agent
• Surface actionable errors and next commands when a step fails