How do I install the Content Retrieval skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add kentico/content-retrieval in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Content Retrieval safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Content Retrieval?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Content Retrieval free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Content Retrieval?

Kentico (@kentico) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Content Retrieval by kentico — Agent Skill

Name: Content Retrieval
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: Kentico

Content Retrieval

Content retrieval in Xperience by Kentico — best practices for retrieving content (pages, reusable content items, reusable-schema items) in code. Proactively read this before writing or modifying any code that retrieves content (IContentRetriever, ContentItemQueryBuilder), turning a Combined content selector / Page selector selection into data, or debugging slow content retrieval.

Kentico Updated Sep 22, 2026

File contents

Content retrieval

This skill is a map, not a manual — the decision rules below, then pointers to the docs and API reference for the details. Prefer the linked references over reconstructing API signatures from memory.

references/content-retrieval-docs.md — the documentation map: every relevant docs page and the API reference, each with a "when to read" hint.
references/performance.md — how to keep retrieval fast under load and the known API limitations. Read this before setting any linked-items depth above 0, writing a custom query, or diagnosing a page that's slow under load.

The two APIs — prefer the retriever

Two APIs read published content. Reach for IContentRetriever first; drop to the content item query API only when you outgrow it.

IContentRetriever (Kentico.Content.Web.Mvc, injected via DI) — the default for almost all retrieval. It supplies the defaults you usually want (language fallback, preview, URL paths, linked-item depth), caches results implicitly, and exposes every default as an override hook — so advanced filtering/ordering/tags/smart folders is not a reason to leave it.
Content item query API (ContentItemQueryBuilder + IContentQueryExecutor, CMS.ContentEngine) — the same engine with nothing pre-decided and no implicit caching. Reach for it only for advanced query composition the retriever's hooks can't express.
Non-content objects (users, settings, custom module classes) — use the ObjectQuery API; neither content API applies.
Combined content selector returns ContentItemGUIDs (even for pages) → load with RetrieveContent*ByGuids. Page selector returns WebPageItemGUIDs → load with RetrieveAllPagesByGuids/RetrievePagesByGuids.

---name: content-retrievaldescription: Content retrieval in Xperience by Kentico — best practices for retrieving content (pages, reusable content items, reusable-schema items) in code. Proactively read this before writing or modifying any code that retrieves content (IContentRetriever, ContentItemQueryBuilder), turning a Combined content selector / Page selector selection into data, or debugging slow content retrieval.---# Content retrievalThis skill is a **map, not a manual** — the decision rules below, then pointers to the docs and API reference for the details. Prefer the linked references over reconstructing API signatures from memory.- **`references/content-retrieval-docs.md`** — the documentation map: every relevant docs page and the API reference, each with a "when to read" hint.- **`references/performance.md`** — how to keep retrieval fast under load and the known API limitations. **Read this before setting any linked-items depth above 0, writing a custom query, or diagnosing a page that's slow under load.**## The two APIs — prefer the retrieverTwo APIs read published content. **Reach for `IContentRetriever` first; drop to the content item query API only when you outgrow it.**- **`IContentRetriever`** (`Kentico.Content.Web.Mvc`, injected via DI) — the default for almost all retrieval. It supplies the defaults you usually want (language fallback, preview, URL paths, linked-item depth), **caches results implicitly**, and exposes every default as an override hook — so advanced filtering/ordering/tags/smart folders is *not* a reason to leave it.- **Content item query API** (`ContentItemQueryBuilder` + `IContentQueryExecutor`, `CMS.ContentEngine`) — the same engine with nothing pre-decided and **no implicit caching**. Reach for it only for advanced query composition the retriever's hooks can't express.- **Non-content objects** (users, settings, custom module classes) — use the ObjectQuery API; neither content API applies.- **Combined content selector** returns `ContentItemGUID`s (even for pages) → load with `RetrieveContent*ByGuids`. **Page selector** returns `WebPageItemGUID`s → load with `RetrieveAllPagesByGuids`/`RetrievePagesByGuids`.

Frequently asked questions