agent-install

Install SKILL.md files, MCP servers, and AGENTS.md guidance for any AI coding agent. Ships a Node API and a CLI from a single package.

pnpm add agent-install
# or, as a one-shot CLI
npx agent-install@latest <skill|mcp|agents-md> <action>

Node API

import { installSkillsFromSource } from "agent-install";
import { installMcpServer } from "agent-install/mcp";
import {
  readAgentsMd,
  upsertAgentsMdSection,
  symlinkClaudeToAgents,
} from "agent-install/agents-md";

Skills

await installSkillsFromSource({
  source: "./skills/react-grab", // local, owner/repo, URL, or direct SKILL.md
  agents: ["claude-code", "cursor"],
  cwd: process.cwd(),
  mode: "symlink", // or "copy"
});

One canonical copy lives at .agents/skills/<name>; agent-specific dirs (.claude/skills, .cursor/skills, etc.) receive relative symlinks, with automatic copy fallback on systems that don't allow them.

MCP servers

installMcpServer({
  source: "https://mcp.context7.com/mcp",
  agents: ["cursor", "claude-code"],
  name: "context7",
});

installMcpServer({
  source: "@modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres",
  agents: ["claude-code"],
  env: { DATABASE_URL: "postgres://..." },
});

// Also available:
// listInstalledMcpServers, removeMcpServer, parseMcpSource,
// buildMcpServerConfig, mcpAgents, detectProjectInstalledMcpAgents, ...

14 MCP hosts across 3 config formats (JSON/JSONC with comment preservation, YAML, TOML). Per-agent transformConfig hooks handle Goose's {cmd, envs, enabled, timeout}, Zed's {source: "custom", ...}, OpenCode's {type, command[], environment}, Codex TOML layout, and VS Code's {type: "stdio", ...}.

Source types auto-detected by parseMcpSource:

AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md / GEMINI.md

const { sections, content, path } = readAgentsMd();

upsertAgentsMdSection({
  heading: "Testing",
  body: "Run `pnpm test` before every commit.",
  placement: "replace", // or "append" / "prepend"
  level: 2,
});

// Agent-specific variants
upsertAgentsMdSection({
  agent: "gemini-cli", // writes GEMINI.md
  heading: "Setup",
  body: "...",
});

// Claude Code still reads CLAUDE.md; point it at the canonical AGENTS.md
await symlinkClaudeToAgents({ overwrite: false });

Known variants (from agentsMdFiles):

CLI

agent-install skill <action>     Manage SKILL.md files
  add <source>                   -a, --agent, -s, --skill, -g, --global, --copy, -y, -l
  init [name]
  list                           -g, -a, --json
  remove [skills...]             -g, -a, -y

agent-install mcp <action>
  add <source>                   -a, -g, -t|--transport, --header, --env, -n|--name, -y, --all
  list                           -g, -a, --json
  remove <name>                  -g, -a, -y

agent-install agents-md <action>      (alias: doc)
  init                           [--agent <agent>]
  read                           [--agent <agent>] [-f <file>] [--json]
  set-section <heading>          --body | --body-file, --placement, --level, --agent, -f
  remove-section <heading>       --agent, -f
  symlink-claude                 --overwrite, --backup <name>

Subpath exports

References

• MCP build guide: modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/develop/build-server
• AGENTS.md spec: agents.md