How to use npx skills add

npx skills add <source> installs agent skills from a GitHub repository, a git or download URL, a local folder, or a site that publishes a skills index, such as https://seoskills.sh. It puts them in your agent's skills folder for the current project, or for every project with -g. The same open-source CLI lists what you installed with npx skills list, updates it with npx skills update and uninstalls it with npx skills remove.

Install skills with npx skills add

The CLI behind the command is vercel-labs/skills, and it needs no account. Run it from your project's root, since a project install writes into folders under the current directory. Pass -a to choose the agent; without it, the CLI detects the coding agents you have installed and asks you to pick when it finds none.

From seoskills.sh

npx skills add https://seoskills.sh
npx skills add https://seoskills.sh --skill content-decay-predictor

The first command lists every skill our index serves and asks which ones to install. The second installs one of our own skills, Content Decay Predictor, by its slug, together with its scripts and reference files. Keep the https://: the CLI only looks up a site's index for a full URL, and it reads seoskills.sh/content-decay-predictor as a GitHub repository.

From a GitHub repository

npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills
npx skills add https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill seo-audit

The owner/repo shorthand and the full GitHub URL point at the same repository, and --skill names the skill you want. The second line is the form seoskills.sh shows for other authors' skills, as on the SEO Audit page. It is also what skills.sh shows, so the install is credited to the author. Private repositories take the same command, with the Git authentication you already have for that URL.

Other sources

• A path to one skill inside a repository, such as https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/web-design-guidelines
• GitLab and Azure Repos URLs, or any git URL, such as git@github.com:vercel-labs/agent-skills.git
• A local folder: npx skills add ./my-local-skills
• A direct download URL for a single SKILL.md or a .zip, .tar, .tar.gz or .tgz archive, which the CLI tries after well-known discovery

Choose skills and agents with flags

To pass several skills or agents, repeat the flag:

# See what a repository holds before installing
npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --list

# Two skills from one repository
npx skills add coreyhaines31/marketingskills --skill seo-audit --skill schema

# Every skill in the seoskills.sh index, into Claude Code only
npx skills add https://seoskills.sh --skill '*' -a claude-code

# One skill, global, two agents, no prompts
npx skills add https://seoskills.sh --skill content-decay-predictor -g -a claude-code -a cursor -y

Install for one project or globally

A project install, the default, writes into the agent's folder under the current directory, so you can commit the skills and your team gets the same set. -g writes to your home directory instead, for every project on the machine.

The CLI's README has the paths for every supported agent, and where agents keep skills explains the folders in more detail.

Installing interactively, you also choose how the files are placed. A symlink, the recommended option, links each agent to one canonical copy: a single source of truth that is easy to update. A copy gives each agent independent files. Choose it, or pass --copy, where symlinks aren't supported.

List, update and remove skills

See what is installed

npx skills list
npx skills ls -g
npx skills ls -a claude-code -a cursor

list, alias ls, shows both project and global skills. -g narrows the list to global skills, and -a to the agents you name.

Update installed skills

npx skills update
npx skills update seo-audit
npx skills update -g
npx skills update -y

With no names, update covers every installed skill and asks which scope to update. Give it names to update only those skills. -g limits the run to global skills and -p to project skills. -y skips the scope question and picks for you: project scope inside a project directory, global anywhere else.

Remove (uninstall) skills

npx skills remove
npx skills remove seo-audit
npx skills remove seo-audit -a claude-code
npx skills remove --global seo-audit
npx skills remove --all

To uninstall a skill, use remove, or its alias rm. With no names, it lets you pick from the skills you have installed. -a removes a skill from the agents you list only, and --global targets global installs. --all is shorthand for --skill '*' --agent '*' -y: every skill, from every agent, with no confirmation.

How the seoskills.sh index works

When the source is an https URL, the CLI looks for an index under the Agent Skills Discovery RFC at that address. seoskills.sh publishes one at https://seoskills.sh/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json. It lists every installable skill with a sha256 digest, and each entry is one of two kinds:

The CLI checks each download against its digest and skips one that doesn't match, and update compares digests to find the skills that changed. Our own skills are served as archives of their whole folder, which is how npx skills add https://seoskills.sh --skill content-decay-predictor brings scripts and reference files along.

The index holds one skill per name. When two skills share a name, the more-installed one gets it, and the other installs from its GitHub repository. A new skill waits in a review queue and is listed only after someone has read and approved it, a static security scan included. If a listed skill changes upstream and the new version adds a risky pattern the old one didn't have, the index keeps serving the last reviewed version until the change is reviewed. That hold covers what seoskills.sh serves: a GitHub-form command fetches the author's repository as it is when you run it.

Command reference

Next

• How to install skills in Claude Code: where Claude Code keeps skills and how it picks one
• Skill safety: what to check before you install
• How to write a SKILL.md: the format behind npx skills init