¹ https://github.com/hodgesmr/agent-fecfile?tab=readme-ov-file...
https://zzbbyy.substack.com/p/what-are-skills
In my experience it doesn’t work too well with codex, but I expect llm providers to train them on that use case and improve the situation soon.
The UI looks nice, otherwise. I had thought about building something like this - maybe this just increases my confidence that this is needed, just not affiliated with a company.
Vercel's skills are popularly installed because we initially launched `npx skills` with the launch of our `react-best-practices`
But have been developing the tool in tandem!
By npm weekly installs (??). Famously good signal for quality.
Edit: Not even npm, their own tools download count...
Anyways, great work on this btw, the agent-agnostic approach is the right call
If your "skill" doesn't come with scripts/executables, it's just a fancy slash command.
I've had success with code quality analysis skills that use PEP723 Python scripts with tree-sitter to actually analyse the code structure as an AST. The script output and switches are specifically optimised for LLM use, no extra fluff - just condensed content with the exact data needed.
I have a feeling that codex still does not do it reliably - so I still have normal README files which it loads quite intelligently and it works better than the discovery via skills.
Try installing the Claude Superpowers skills - you can install them one by one from here, but it's easier to install the superpowers plugin. Try using it for a couple of sessions and see how it works for you.
For a full test, try starting with the brainstorming one which then guides you from brainstorming though planning, development etc.
I've been using it for a few days and I would say it's enhanced my workflows at least.
But it’s put a damper in my dream of constraining them with well crafted skills, and producing high quality output.
I've added a UserPromptSubmit hook that does basic regex matches on requests, and tries to interject a tool suggestion, but it's still not foolproof.
I think this really has a future. Skills are going to be the way forward for portable ai tools. I think the skills standard needs to adapt to allow forward slashes so we can name things @vercel/somecategory/sometool. I've already brought it up in the agentskills GitHub.
posted last month: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46435383
I love vercel, but I think the 'collect a bunch of random skills' approach just isn't it. You need versioning, linking between skills, an easy install client...basically a full package manager, which this is not.
If any of that is interesting, check out noriskillsets.dev. Would love to get feedback!
A small UI suggestion: it would be helpful if hovering on a row showed the skill description, along with a button to copy the install command.
For anyone interested, there are two other sites already doing something similar:
- claudemarketplaces.com - A comprehensive directory with 1900+ marketplaces, shows descriptions directly in the list view with copy-to-install commands
- skillsmp.com - Has 77K+ skills indexed from GitHub. Cool developer-style UI, but honestly the UX could use work—the search is hidden behind cryptic command-style buttons and it's not obvious how to actually search
Also worth checking out the Claude Code Mastery guide (thedecipherist.github.io/claude-code-mastery) for a deeper dive into skills, hooks, MCP, and CLAUDE.md.
[yup, my project :)]
openskills.space
Nice.
The page should properly advertize that this is a corporate built/sponsored site so people can understand that it's totally biased.
> but which package manager?
The one being linked to.
Maybe it’s my own ignorance, but Claude loves to ignore its CLAIDE.MD which says it’s mandatory to leverage sub agents to delegate tasks and use skills for accomplish specific workflows.
Every time I call Claude out it tells me it knows and chose to ignore it, even going as far as saying it’s not my decision.
Any tips?
Forget Claude.md
My Claude.md was nearly 1,900 lines. It’s down to 150 lines now with Skills fully built out for the agents, and a hook to steer the ship. It’s all working perfectly now.
Thank you again!
I was so much more productive today and used far less tokens. Thank you again!
Here's the `skills` package on NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/skills - it's MIT licensed but I can't find it on Github.
`skills` looks to be a wrapper around `add-skill`: https://github.com/vercel-labs/add-skill
From the docs, `add-skill` auto detects from 16 different potential paths to copy skills to in a repository (.claude/, .codex/, .Gemini/, etc).
`add-skill` also let's you install skills globally (~/). From the code, `skills` looks like it doesn't support global installs but under the hood it passes all args to add-skill, so you should be able to install skills globally or install multiple skills (even if the wrapper doesn't expect it).
Aside: although lots of agents have adopted SKILLS.md conventions, they're currently all using their own paths. There doesn't seem to be a consensus yet, like there is with AGENTS.md. There are even 3 generic paths: .agent/skills/, .agents/skills/ and just skills/