Introduction

What is OpenSkill and why use it

What is OpenSkill?

OpenSkill (osk) is a lightweight, agent-agnostic CLI for managing AI coding agent skills. It provides a unified way to discover, install, and manage skills across different AI coding assistants.

Think of it as a package manager — but for AI agent skills. Instead of installing npm packages, you install instructions and workflows that make your AI coding agent more capable.

Why OpenSkill?

AI coding agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex are powerful, but they work best when given specific instructions for your workflow. OpenSkill solves the problem of:

• Discovery — Finding useful skills others have created
• Portability — Using the same skills across different agents
• Management — Installing, updating, and removing skills easily
• Sharing — Publishing your own skills for others to use

Key Features

• Agent-agnostic — Supports Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Antigravity
• Git-based repositories — Skills are stored in Git repos (GitHub, GitLab, self-hosted)
• Minimal dependencies — Only 3 runtime dependencies, uses Node.js built-ins
• Discovery — Browse and search skills on OpenSkill
• Interactive — Prompts for agent and skill selection when needed

How It Works

OpenSkill works by managing skill files — markdown documents with YAML frontmatter — and placing them in the right location for each AI agent. The workflow is simple:

# Install a skill
$ osk install my-skill

# List installed skills
$ osk list

# Search for skills
$ osk search "code review"