Setup Project Skills

setup-project-skills

Installs skills into the current project from a manifest the user maintains. Distinct from claude-automation-recommender (which advises across hooks/MCP/subagents/skills/plugins and does not install) and from find-skills (which discovers public skills). This skill is opinionated: it installs only what's on the user's whitelist.

When to invoke

• "Set up skills for this project."
• "Bootstrap this repo with my skills."
• "What skills should I install here?" — the project-detection pass answers that from the manifest.
• "Link/install/add <name> here."
• Fresh git clone followed by a session in the new directory.

When NOT to invoke

• User is actually doing terraform/k8s/docker/etc. work — the underlying skills handle that.
• User wants a recommendation across the full Claude Code surface (hooks, subagents, MCP, plugins) — that's claude-automation-recommender.
• User wants to discover what skills exist on the public registry — that's find-skills.
• User wants to author a new skill — that's skill-creator.

Cross-cutting rules

1. The manifest is the source of truth. Always read ~/.claude/skill-manifest.json (or $SKILL_MANIFEST if set). Never invent skills not listed there. If a skill the user names isn't in the manifest, offer to add it rather than installing ad-hoc.
2. Project-scoped install only. Always link or install into ./.claude/skills/<name> of the current working directory. Never into ~/.claude/skills/ from this skill — that's the user's global decision.
3. Idempotent. If ./.claude/skills/<name> already exists, check whether it matches the desired target. Skip if identical; refuse and surface the conflict if not.
4. Restart required. Skills installed mid-session don't activate until the next Claude Code session starts in this project. Always say so after a successful install.
5. No slash commands. Claude can't invoke /plugin install. For claude-plugin sources, print the exact command for the user to run themselves.

Manifest schema

{
  "version": 1,
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "<short-id>",
      "source": "local-symlink | npx-skills | claude-plugin",
      "path": "<absolute or ~ path>",         // for local-symlink
      "repo": "<owner/repo[/subpath]>",       // for npx-skills
      "plugin": "<plugin@marketplace>",       // for claude-plugin
      "tags": ["..."],
      "detect": ["glob", "glob:substring", "..."],
      "note": "<optional user-facing hint>"
    }
  ]
}

detect entries are glob patterns. A trailing :<substring> requires that substring to appear inside any matching file (cheap grep). Examples:

• **/*.tf — any Terraform file
• **/*.tf:google_ — Terraform file containing the substring google_
• package.json:"react" — package.json that mentions "react"

Procedure

Step 1 — Locate and validate the manifest

MANIFEST="${SKILL_MANIFEST:-$HOME/.claude/skill-manifest.json}"
test -f "$MANIFEST" || { echo "Manifest not found at $MANIFEST"; exit 1; }
python3 -c "import json,sys; json.load(open('$MANIFEST'))" || { echo "Manifest is not valid JSON"; exit 1; }

If missing or invalid, offer to create a minimal one and stop.

Step 2 — Detect matches against the current project

For each skill, evaluate its detect patterns against the current working directory. Use find for plain globs and grep -l for glob:substring form. Mark every skill that matches at least one pattern as recommended.

If the project is empty (no entries in ls -A), skip detection — present the full catalog and ask which to install.

Step 3 — Present and confirm

Show the user a table grouped by status:

RECOMMENDED (detected in this project)
  [x] cloudflare-cf-cli       — wrangler.jsonc found
  [x] docker-workflows        — Dockerfile found
  [x] github-actions-pipelines — .github/workflows/deploy.yml found

OPTIONAL (in your manifest, not detected)
  [ ] terraform-workflows
  [ ] kubernetes-operations
  ...

Pre-check the recommended ones. Ask the user to confirm or amend the selection before installing anything. Honor an explicit user request that contradicts detection (e.g. "actually also install terraform-workflows").

Step 4 — Install each selected skill by source

Always create the target directory first: mkdir -p .claude/skills.

local-symlink — symlink the path into .claude/skills/<name>:

TARGET="$(python3 -c 'import os,sys; print(os.path.expanduser(sys.argv[1]))' "<path-from-manifest>")"
LINK=".claude/skills/<name>"
test -d "$TARGET" || { echo "Source missing: $TARGET"; exit 1; }
if [ -L "$LINK" ]; then
  current=$(readlink "$LINK")
  [ "$current" = "$TARGET" ] && { echo "$<name> already linked — skip"; }
  [ "$current" != "$TARGET" ] && { echo "$LINK points elsewhere — resolve manually"; exit 1; }
elif [ -e "$LINK" ]; then
  echo "$LINK exists and is not a symlink — refusing"; exit 1
else
  ln -s "$TARGET" "$LINK" && echo "Linked $<name>"
fi

npx-skills — fetch into the project's skills directory (NOT global):

# `npx skills add` defaults to project scope (./.claude/skills/) when run without -g
npx skills add "<repo-from-manifest>"

npx skills add copies files; updates require npx skills update later. Mention this when installing.

claude-plugin — Claude can't trigger slash commands. Tell the user to run it themselves:

Run this command yourself (Claude can't invoke slash commands):
  /plugin install <plugin>

Include any note field from the manifest.

Step 5 — Post-install

After each successful install:

• Print a one-line confirmation.
• After all installs, remind the user to restart the session.
• If a .gitignore exists and doesn't already cover .claude/skills/, ask whether to add it. Symlinks to absolute user-machine paths shouldn't be committed; copies from npx skills add may or may not be wanted in the repo — let the user decide.

Adding new skills to the manifest

When the user says "I found a new skill on skills.sh, add it to my manifest" or similar:

1. Confirm source type (most often npx-skills for skills.sh entries, or claude-plugin for Claude Code marketplace plugins).
2. Confirm the repo/plugin identifier.
3. Ask for tags and detect patterns — the user's project-detection signals.
4. Append to ~/.claude/skill-manifest.json (preserve formatting and trailing newline).
5. Validate JSON before writing back.

This is the only modification this skill makes outside the project directory.

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Installing a skill not in the manifest without first offering to add it.
• ❌ Linking into ~/.claude/skills/ from this skill — global is the user's explicit choice.
• ❌ Running npx skills add -g here — that's global, not project-scoped.
• ❌ Attempting /plugin install via Bash — Claude can't invoke slash commands; print the instruction.
• ❌ Overwriting an existing symlink or directory without confirming.
• ❌ Forgetting to remind the user to restart the session.
• ❌ Recommending skills based on Claude's general knowledge instead of the manifest — that's claude-automation-recommender's job.
• ❌ Copying skill content into the project instead of symlinking when source is local-symlink — defeats the live-edit benefit.

Cross-skill notes

• claude-automation-recommender (claude-code-setup plugin): broader codebase-aware advisor across hooks, subagents, MCP, plugins, and skills. Read-only. Useful BEFORE this skill — surfaces new ideas; you then add the good ones to the manifest.
• find-skills: discovers skills on the public registry. Use to find candidates worth adding to the manifest.
• skill-creator: for authoring new skills (which then get added to the manifest as local-symlink).
• devops-skill-link: deprecated — this skill subsumes its job. Safe to delete.