playbooks

Install agent skills, MCPs and docs into your coding agents from any git repository.

Find skills to add at playbooks.com.

Works with OpenCode, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, plus many more.

Quick start

Launch the interactive menu:

npx playbooks

Install skills directly from a repo:

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills

Install a single skill:

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design

What are agent skills?

Agent skills are reusable instructions that teach your agent how to do things. It's a universal format that most AI coding tools now support, defined in a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter containing a name and description.

Skills let your agents perform specialized tasks like:

• Generating release notes from git history
• Creating PRs following your team's conventions
• Integrating with external tools (Linear, Notion, etc.)

Usage

Source formats

The <source> argument accepts multiple formats:

• GitHub shorthand

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills

• Full GitHub URL

npx playbooks skill https://github.com/anthropics/skills

• Direct path to a skill in a repo

npx playbooks skill https://github.com/anthropics/skills/tree/main/skills/release-notes

• GitLab URL

npx playbooks skill https://gitlab.com/org/repo

• Any git URL

npx playbooks skill git@github.com:anthropics/skills.git

• Direct SKILL.md URL

npx playbooks skill https://docs.example.com/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md

• Marketplace.json (path)

npx playbooks skill ./path/to/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

• Marketplace.json (URL)

npx playbooks skill https://raw.githubusercontent.com/org/repo/main/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

• Marketplace.json (owner/repo path)

npx playbooks skill org/repo/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json

Options

Examples

• List skills in a repository

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills --list

• Install multiple specific skills

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills --skill release-notes --skill incident-summary

• Install to specific agents

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills -a claude-code -a opencode

• Non-interactive installation (CI/CD friendly)

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills --skill release-notes -g -a claude-code -y

• Install all skills from a repo

npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills -y -g

Manage installed skills

• List installed skills (interactive)

npx playbooks skill list

• Update installed skills

npx playbooks skill update

• Remove skills (interactive)

npx playbooks skill manage

Marketplace.json support

Playbooks can ingest a Claude-style marketplace.json and pull skills from the plugins it lists.

What it scans:

• The plugin root (if it contains SKILL.md)
• Standard folders inside each plugin: skills/, commands/, agents/, hooks/
• Any explicit overrides in marketplace.json such as skills, commands, agents, hooks
• If nothing is found in the standard locations, it falls back to a recursive search

Example marketplace.json plugin entry (minimal):

{
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "acme",
      "description": "Acme tools",
      "source": "plugins/acme"
    }
  ]
}

Example with overrides:

{
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "acme",
      "source": "plugins/acme",
      "skills": "skills",
      "commands": "commands"
    }
  ]
}

Available agents

Skills can be installed to any of these supported agents. Use -g, --global to install to the global path instead of project-level.

[!NOTE] Kiro CLI users: After installing skills, you need to manually add them to your custom agent's resources in .kiro/agents/<agent>.json:

{
  "resources": ["skill://.kiro/skills/**/SKILL.md"]
}

Agent detection

The CLI automatically detects which coding agents you have installed by checking for their configuration directories. If none are detected, you'll be prompted to select which agents to install to.

Creating skills

Skills are directories containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent to follow when this skill is activated.

## When to Use

Describe the scenarios where this skill should be used.

## Steps

1. First, do this
2. Then, do that

Required fields

• name: Unique identifier (lowercase, hyphens allowed)
• description: Brief explanation of what the skill does

Skill discovery

The CLI searches for skills in these locations within a repository:

• Root directory (if it contains SKILL.md)
• skills/
• skills/.curated/
• skills/.experimental/
• skills/.system/
• .agents/skills/
• .agent/skills/
• .claude/skills/
• ./skills/
• .cline/skills/
• .codex/skills/
• .commandcode/skills/
• .continue/skills/
• .crush/skills/
• .cursor/skills/
• .factory/skills/
• .gemini/skills/
• .github/skills/
• .goose/skills/
• .kilocode/skills/
• .kiro/skills/
• .mcpjam/skills/
• .opencode/skills/
• .openhands/skills/
• .pi/skills/
• .qoder/skills/
• .qwen/skills/
• .roo/skills/
• .trae/skills/
• .windsurf/skills/
• .zencoder/skills/
• .neovate/skills/

If no skills are found in standard locations, a recursive search is performed.

Compatibility

Linting

This repo uses Biome plus a max‑file‑length guard.

npm run lint      # Biome check + max 400 lines per file
npm run lint:fix  # Biome auto-fix

If you see a warning about Biome’s install script being skipped, run:

npm approve-builds

Skills are generally compatible across agents since they follow a shared Agent Skills specification. However, some features may be agent-specific:

Troubleshooting

"No skills found"

Ensure the repository contains valid SKILL.md files with both name and description in the frontmatter.

Skill not loading in agent

• Verify the skill was installed to the correct path
• Check the agent's documentation for skill loading requirements
• Ensure the SKILL.md frontmatter is valid YAML

Permission errors

Ensure you have write access to the target directory.

Telemetry

This CLI collects anonymous usage data to help improve the tool. No personal information is collected.

To disable telemetry, set any of these environment variables:

DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills
# or
DO_NOT_TRACK=1 npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills
# or
PLAYBOOKS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 npx playbooks skill anthropics/skills

Telemetry is also automatically disabled in CI environments.

Related links

• Agent Skills Specification
• Amp Skills Documentation
• Antigravity Skills Documentation
• Claude Code Skills Documentation
• Clawdbot Skills Documentation
• Cline Skills Documentation
• Codex Skills Documentation
• Command Code Skills Documentation
• Crush Skills Documentation
• Cursor Skills Documentation
• Gemini CLI Skills Documentation
• GitHub Copilot Agent Skills
• Kiro CLI Skills Documentation
• OpenCode Skills Documentation
• Qwen Code Skills Documentation
• OpenHands Skills Documentation
• Pi Skills Documentation
• Qoder Skills Documentation
• Roo Code Skills Documentation
• Trae Skills Documentation
• Vercel Agent Skills Repository

License

MIT