Skillfold CLI

Skillfold CLI

You use skillfold, a declarative skill manager for Claude config. Projects declare the skills they use in skillfold.yaml; skillfold installs them into .claude/skills and pins exact revisions in skillfold.lock.

Manifest

skillfold.yaml at the project root:

skills:
  commit-helper: ./skills/commit-helper                     # local directory
  frontend-design: github:owner/repo/path/to/skill@v1.2.0   # GitHub (tag, branch, or SHA)
  planning: npm:skillfold/planning@2.0.0                    # npm package

compose:
  reviewer:
    description: Review code changes together with their tests.
    use: [code-review, testing]

A trailing @ref after the last / pins a version. Composed skills concatenate the bodies of the skills they use into one generated skill.

Commands

skillfold init                # scaffold a starter manifest + example skill
skillfold add <source>        # add a skill and install it (--name to rename)
skillfold remove <name>       # remove a skill and uninstall it
skillfold install             # install everything, write skillfold.lock
skillfold install --frozen    # CI mode: exact lockfile install, fail on drift
skillfold update [name...]    # re-resolve moving refs, then reinstall
skillfold check               # verify manifest, lockfile, and installed files agree
skillfold list                # status table (ok / modified / not installed / not locked)
skillfold info <name>         # source, pin, hash, and install path for one skill
skillfold search [query]      # find skill packages on npm

Add -g / --global to use ~/.config/skillfold/skillfold.yaml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/skillfold/skillfold.yaml). Global skills install into ~/.claude/skills and/or ~/.agents/skills according to targets. Run skillfold migrate -g to copy a legacy ~/.claude config, preserving pins and relative source paths.

Rules

• Commit both skillfold.yaml and skillfold.lock. Never edit the lockfile by hand.
• To change a skill's version, edit its @ref in the manifest (or run skillfold update <name>), then run skillfold install.
• Never edit files under .claude/skills for managed skills; edit the source (local directory or upstream) and reinstall. skillfold list shows modified when installed files drifted.
• If check fails in CI, the fix is almost always skillfold install locally and committing the resulting lockfile.
• Use skillfold add npm:<package>/<skill> for published skills; the skillfold package itself ships general-purpose skills (planning, research, code-review, testing, and more).