Agent Skills: The Open Standard
One skill, every agent. What Agent Skills are, which tools support them, where to find them, and how to install and publish your own.
In short: Agent Skills are reusable capabilities you can give an AI agent, packaged as a folder with a SKILL.md file. The format is an open standard, so the same skill runs across 20+ agents including Claude Code, Cursor, and GitHub Copilot. This guide covers the ecosystem: which agents support skills, where to discover them, and how to install and publish your own. For the Claude-specific view, see our Claude Skills guide.
One skill, every agent
The point of an open standard is portability. A skill is just a folder with a SKILL.md (YAML frontmatter with a name and description, plus Markdown instructions) and optional bundled resources. Because the format is shared, you write a skill once and it works wherever the standard is supported. Agents that support Agent Skills today include:
For the format internals and how to write a good SKILL.md, including progressive disclosure and the official skill-creator, see the Claude Skills guide. The format is identical across agents.
The Agent Skills ecosystem: discover, install, publish
Discover
Browse the Agent Skills Directory at skills.sh, a Vercel-maintained registry of skills ranked by installs and activity, filterable by topic.
Install
One command works across agents: npx skills add owner/repo. The open-source skills CLI writes the skill to your agent's skills directory.
Publish
Push a folder with a SKILL.md to a public repo. It becomes installable through the same CLI and can be indexed by the directory.
The Agent Skills Directory (skills.sh) is the open ecosystem hub, maintained by Vercel, with hundreds of thousands of installs indexed across topics like React, Next.js, databases, testing, and more.
Install a skill in any agent
Installation is the same command regardless of which agent you use. As a worked example, this installs the TurboDocx Quickstart Skill, which teaches your agent to add e-signatures and document generation to a project:
npx skills add TurboDocx/quickstart
The CLI writes the skill to your agent's skills directory, and the agent invokes it when a request matches its description. See it end to end in the Claude Code and Cursor guides.
Frequently asked questions
What are Agent Skills?
Agent Skills are reusable capabilities for AI agents, packaged as a folder with a SKILL.md file (YAML frontmatter plus Markdown instructions) and optional scripts, references, and assets. They follow an open standard, so the same skill works across many agents rather than being locked to one vendor.
What is the difference between Agent Skills and Claude Skills?
Agent Skills is the vendor-neutral open standard. "Claude Skills" refers to that same standard used with Claude and Claude Code. The SKILL.md format is identical. A skill you write once can run in Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and other agents that support the standard.
What is skills.sh?
skills.sh is the Agent Skills Directory, a Vercel-maintained registry and marketplace where you can discover, install, and publish skills. It supports 20+ agents and ranks skills by installs and recent activity, with topic-based browsing.
How do I install an Agent Skill?
Run npx skills add owner/repo from your project. The CLI clones the skill and writes it to the location your agent expects, such as .claude/skills/ for Claude Code or .cursor/skills/ for Cursor. The agent then invokes it automatically when a task matches its description.
How do I publish an Agent Skill?
Create a folder with a SKILL.md (a clear name and an assertive description, plus instructions), put any heavy material in scripts, references, or assets, and push it to a public GitHub repo. It is then installable via the skills CLI. For authoring details, see our Claude Skills guide.
Related resources
Claude Skills: The Complete Guide →
The Claude-specific view, plus how to author a SKILL.md.
Build a Skill from Scratch →
The hands-on tutorial, with a worked example.
AI Engineering Guide →
Ship backend features with AI coding agents.
Best Skills, Plugins & MCP Servers →
A curated toolkit for your agent.
Loop Engineering →
Designing the feedback loop your agent runs inside.
All Developer Guides →
Every how-to in one browsable index.
Alex Martinez
Developer Relations & Automation Lead
Try an Agent Skill in your project
Install the TurboDocx Quickstart Skill and have any supported agent add e-signatures or document generation in minutes. Your first 5 signatures each month are free.