install-skills

name	install-skills
description	Install agent skills project-locally with the skills CLI. Use when adding or refreshing locked skills in `skills-lock.json`, or when a user names a skill source to install into the current repository.

install-skills

Install skills project-locally so the repository, not the operator's global environment, owns the shared workflow catalog. Use this skill to change that catalog — add, remove, or refresh the entries recorded in skills-lock.json.

Vendored skills are committed, so they load without an install step. When the goal is only to re-vendor the committed overlays from an unchanged lockfile, run the repository's manual maintenance command instead:

pnpm skills:install

Any change to the catalog — add, remove, rename, or refresh — is a catalog change. Execute and describe every one by the shared catalog change convention: the ordered reconciliation method, the staleness audit that catches a skill renamed or deleted upstream, the catalog-delta PR description, and the verification gate. Follow it whenever this skill's steps below change skills-lock.json.

Preflight

1. Read repository guidance first: AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md if present, and any docs governing agent skills or shared tooling.

2. Inspect the current catalog if present:

   test -f skills-lock.json && npm_config_ignore_scripts=true npx --yes skills@latest list --json
   

   If the repository exposes a wrapper such as pnpm skills:list, use that instead of the raw CLI list command.

3. Resolve the requested source and skill names. If the source contents or requested skill names are ambiguous, list before installing:

   npm_config_ignore_scripts=true npx --yes skills@latest add <source> --list
   

Install

Run installs from the repository root. Do not use --global.

Canonical single-source install:

npm_config_ignore_scripts=true npx --yes skills@latest add <source> --skill <skill-name> --agent '*' --yes

For multiple skills from the same source, repeat --skill values as separate arguments after one flag:

npm_config_ignore_scripts=true npx --yes skills@latest add <source> --skill <skill-a> <skill-b> --agent '*' --yes

For all skills from a source, prefer an explicit all-agent install:

npm_config_ignore_scripts=true npx --yes skills@latest add <source> --skill '*' --agent '*' --yes

GitHub lock entries record a source and skillPath. The upstream skills CLI (skills experimental_install) restores them by cloning each source's default branch, so the lock does not pin an immutable ref; re-running picks up the latest upstream commit on that branch. Locked GitHub sources must be publicly readable because restore clones from the public GitHub source.

To re-vendor the committed overlays from the lockfile, run:

pnpm skills:install

This runs pnpm dlx skills@latest experimental_install --yes, which reads skills-lock.json, restores each locked skill into .agents/skills/, and maintains the relative .claude/skills/ symlinks. Commit the refreshed overlays afterward.

Patina Sources

For Patina Project marketplace skills, use patinaproject/skills as the source and install only the requested skills unless the user explicitly asks for all.

Active Patina scaffold defaults are:

• scaffold-repository
• using-github
• new-branch
• working-on-github-issue
• develop
• finish-pr
• polish
• install-skills

Verify

After installing, prove what changed:

npm_config_ignore_scripts=true npx --yes skills@latest list --json
git status --short

Report the installed skills, the source used, and the changed lockfile or agent overlay paths. Stop before committing unless the user asked you to finish the branch.