upskill

upskill is a package manager for Agent Skills — the shared skill format supported by Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor, Kiro, Windsurf, and OpenCode.

It installs skills from any GitHub or GitLab repository into your project in one command. Skills land in .agents/skills/ and are automatically linked into whichever agent config directories already exist in your project. No Node.js. No npm. A single static binary.

upskill search code-review          # find skills
upskill add owner/repo              # install from a GitHub repo
upskill list                        # see what's installed
upskill update                      # re-fetch from source

Installation

cargo install upskill

Or download a pre-built binary from the releases page.

Quick start

# Search the public registry
upskill search python

# Install a skill (auto-detects your agents)
upskill add anthropics/skills --skill python-best-practices

# See what's installed and which agents are linked
upskill list

Skills are installed to .agents/skills/ in the current directory. Agent symlinks (.claude/skills, .github/skills, etc.) are created automatically when the corresponding agent config directory is detected.

Commands

upskill add <source>

Install skills from a source into the current project (or globally with -g).

upskill add owner/repo                   # GitHub shorthand
upskill add owner/repo:path/to/skills    # Subfolder only
upskill add owner/repo@v1.2              # Pin to tag
upskill add owner/repo@main              # Pin to branch
upskill add owner/repo@abc123            # Pin to commit SHA
upskill add gitlab:owner/repo            # GitLab.com
upskill add https://gitlab.example.com/owner/repo  # Self-hosted GitLab
upskill add ./path/to/local              # Local directory

Skill selection:

upskill add owner/repo --skill my-skill         # Install one skill
upskill add owner/repo -s foo -s bar            # Install multiple skills
# (no --skill): interactive prompt in a TTY, default name in CI

Agent flags:

upskill add owner/repo --claude     # Symlink to .claude/skills
upskill add owner/repo --copilot    # Symlink to .github/skills
upskill add owner/repo --all        # Symlink to all 7 supported agents
upskill add owner/repo --copy       # Copy instead of symlinking
# (no flag): auto-detect from existing agent config directories

Other flags:

upskill add owner/repo -g           # Global install (~/.agents/skills)

upskill list

List installed skills and their agent symlinks.

upskill list         # Project skills
upskill list -g      # Global skills

Output format:

my-skill    source=github:owner/repo    symlinks=claude,copilot
other-skill source=local:/path/to/src  symlinks=none

upskill search <query>

Search the public skills registry (skills.sh).

upskill search rust
upskill search code-review
upskill search --limit 20 python

Output:

rust-mcp-server-generator    7608 installs    upskill add awesome-copilot --skill rust-mcp-server-generator
rust-analyzer                3200 installs    upskill add anthropics/skills --skill rust-analyzer

Each result includes the install command to use directly.

Flags:

upskill remove <skill>

Remove an installed skill and clean up agent symlinks.

upskill remove my-skill         # Prompts for confirmation in a TTY
upskill remove my-skill --yes   # Skip confirmation
upskill remove my-skill -g      # Remove from global install

upskill check

Show installed skills and their pinned refs.

upskill check     # Project lockfile
upskill check -g  # Global lockfile

Output:

my-skill    github:owner/repo    pinned: latest
other-skill github:owner/repo    pinned: v1.2

upskill update

Re-install skills from their recorded sources.

upskill update                      # Update all skills
upskill update my-skill             # Update one skill
upskill update --dry-run            # Preview without applying
upskill update --force              # Overwrite locally modified skills
upskill update -g                   # Update global skills

Local modifications are detected via a SHA-256 content hash stored in the lockfile. Modified skills are skipped with a warning unless --force is used.

Recipes

CI usage

# Install without prompts (auto-detects NO_COLOR, non-TTY)
upskill add owner/repo

# Explicit non-interactive
GITHUB_TOKEN=${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} upskill add owner/repo

In a non-TTY environment (CI, pipes), upskill automatically:

• Skips interactive prompts and uses defaults.
• Disables colored output when NO_COLOR is set.

Override the search registry URL

For testing or private deployments:

UPSKILL_REGISTRY_URL=https://my-registry.example.com upskill search query

Defaults to https://skills.sh.

Private repositories

# GitHub — set one of:
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_...
export GH_TOKEN=ghp_...
# or rely on `gh auth token` if the GitHub CLI is authenticated

# GitLab — set one of:
export GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat_...
export GL_TOKEN=glpat_...
# or rely on `glab auth token` if the GitLab CLI is authenticated

Pin a skill to a specific version

upskill add owner/repo@v1.2 --skill my-skill

The pinned ref is recorded in .upskill-lock.json. upskill update will re-fetch from the same ref.

Install to all agents

upskill add owner/repo --all

Creates symlinks in all 7 supported agent directories: .claude/skills, .github/skills, .codex/skills, .cursor/skills, .kiro/skills, .windsurf/skills, .opencode/skills.

Copy instead of symlinking

For environments where symlinks are not supported (e.g. some Windows setups, Docker mounts):

upskill add owner/repo --copy

Copies skill files directly into each agent directory. Copied skills are independent of the source after installation.

Global install

upskill add owner/repo -g      # Install to ~/.agents/skills
upskill list -g                # List global skills
upskill remove my-skill -g     # Remove from global

Global skills are not tied to a project directory.

Lockfile

Every add operation writes .upskill-lock.json in the project root (or ~/.upskill-lock.json for global installs). Commit this file to track exact skill versions.

Example:

{
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "my-skill",
      "source": "github:owner/repo@v1.2",
      "ref": "v1.2",
      "hash": "a3f8c2..."
    }
  ]
}

Fields:

The hash is used by upskill update to detect local modifications before overwriting.

Exit codes

Supported agents