Find Skills

Find Skills (reskill)

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

Key Principles:

1. Search → Present → Ask → Install — always show results first, ask the user before installing.
2. Be registry-aware — check if the project has a configured registry (private or public) and tell the user which registry you're searching. If results are empty, suggest the user may need to configure a private registry.

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 reskill?

reskill is a Git-based package manager for AI agent skills. It provides declarative configuration, version locking, and seamless synchronization for managing skills across projects and teams.

CLI usage:

If reskill is installed globally, use it directly. Otherwise use npx reskill@latest:

# Global install
reskill <command>

# Or via npx (no install needed)
npx reskill@latest <command>

Registry configuration:

The find command automatically resolves the registry in this order:

1. --registry <url> CLI option (highest priority)
2. RESKILL_REGISTRY environment variable
3. defaults.publishRegistry in skills.json
4. Public registry https://reskill.info/ (fallback)

To configure a custom registry for the project, add it to skills.json:

{
  "defaults": {
    "publishRegistry": "https://your-registry.example.com/"
  }
}

Once configured, all find / install commands will use it automatically — no need to pass --registry every time.

Key commands for skill discovery:

• reskill find <query> — Search for skills by keyword
• reskill find <query> --json — Search with machine-readable JSON output
• reskill install <ref> — Install a skill
• reskill list — List installed skills
• reskill info <skill> — Show skill details

How to Help Users Find Skills

Step 0: Check Registry Context

Before searching, determine which registry to use (see "Registry configuration" above for the full priority order).

Check these sources:

1. RESKILL_REGISTRY environment variable
2. defaults.publishRegistry in skills.json

If either is configured → use it, and tell the user which registry you're searching.

If neither is configured → ask the user before proceeding:

No private registry is configured for this project.

Do you want to search a private registry? If so, provide the URL
(e.g. --registry https://your-registry.example.com/).

Otherwise, I'll search the public registry (reskill.info).

Once the user responds:

• User provides a URL → use it with --registry <url>
• User says no / skip → proceed with the public registry (https://reskill.info/)

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 (Progressive Strategy)

Use --json for structured results:

npx reskill@latest find "<query>" --json

The JSON output has this structure:

{
  "total": 2,
  "items": [
    {
      "name": "@scope/skill-name",
      "description": "What this skill does",
      "latest_version": "1.0.0",
      "keywords": ["keyword1", "keyword2"],
      "publisher": { "handle": "author" },
      "updated_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

IMPORTANT: Use progressive search to maximize results. The registry may not support multi-word fuzzy matching, so follow this strategy:

Round 1: Try the natural query first

npx reskill@latest find "frontend design" --json

If total > 0, proceed to Step 3 (present results).

Round 2: Try hyphenated version

Skill names often use hyphens. If Round 1 returns 0 results, try connecting keywords with a hyphen:

npx reskill@latest find "frontend-design" --json

Round 3: Broaden to the most relevant single keyword

If still 0 results, pick the most specific keyword from the user's query and search with that alone:

npx reskill@latest find "frontend" --json

Choose the keyword that best narrows the domain (e.g., prefer "frontend" over "design" because "design" is too broad).

Round 4 (optional): Try alternative/synonym keywords

If still no results, try synonyms or related terms:

• "frontend" → "ui", "web", "react"
• "deploy" → "deployment", "ci-cd", "devops"
• "test" → "testing", "jest", "playwright"

Agent-side filtering

When broader searches return multiple results, read each item's description field and filter by relevance to the user's original request. Only present skills whose description genuinely matches what the user needs. Do not present all results blindly.

Example flow — user asks "help me with frontend design":

1. find "frontend design"    → 0 results
2. find "frontend-design"    → 0 results
3. find "frontend"           → 3 results
4. Read descriptions → filter → 1 result is relevant to UI design
5. Present that 1 result to user

Search query examples:

Stop as soon as you get relevant results — no need to run all rounds.

Step 3: Present Results and Ask Before Installing

When you find relevant skills, present them clearly:

1. The skill name and description
2. The version and author
3. Which registry the result came from (public or private)
4. The install command

Then ask the user which one(s) they want to install.

Example response:

I found a skill that might help! (from public registry: reskill.info)

**@scope/react-best-practices** (v1.2.0)
React and performance optimization guidelines.

To install:
  npx reskill@latest install @scope/react-best-practices -y

Would you like me to install it?

If multiple results are found, present the top 2-3 most relevant ones and let the user choose. Once the user confirms (e.g., "install it", "yes", "install 1 and 3"), proceed to install all confirmed skills — no need to ask again for each one.

Step 4: Install the Skill

# Install to the current project
npx reskill@latest install <name> -y

# Install globally (user-level, available in all projects)
npx reskill@latest install <name> -y -g

The -y flag skips CLI confirmation prompts.

After installation, let the user know the skill is ready and briefly describe what new capabilities it provides.

Common Skill Categories

When constructing search queries, consider these categories:

Tips for Effective Searches

1. Follow the progressive strategy: multi-word → hyphenated → single keyword → synonyms
2. Pick the most specific keyword when narrowing down: prefer "frontend" over "design", prefer "playwright" over "testing"
3. Try alternative terms: "deploy" → "deployment", "ci-cd", "devops"
4. Always read descriptions: when a broad search returns many results, use descriptions to filter relevant ones
5. Skill names use hyphens: remember to try hyphenated versions like "code-review", "best-practices"

When No Skills Are Found

If no relevant skills exist after exhausting all search rounds (multi-word → hyphenated → single keyword → synonyms):

1. Acknowledge that no existing skill was found and briefly mention what you searched for
2. Offer to help with the task directly using your general capabilities
3. Suggest the user could create their own skill

Example:

I searched the registry with several queries ("frontend design", "frontend-design", "frontend")
but didn't find a matching skill.

I can still help you with this task directly! Would you like me to proceed?

If this is something you do often, you could also create your own skill and share it:
  mkdir my-skill && echo "---\nname: my-skill\n---\n# My Skill" > my-skill/SKILL.md

Checking Installed Skills

Before searching for new skills, you can check what's already installed:

# List all installed skills
npx reskill@latest list

# Get details about a specific skill
npx reskill@latest info <skill-name>

This avoids suggesting skills the user already has.

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