AgentSkills CLI

The .NET commandline tool for the open Agent Skills ecosystem.

Install skills from GitHub, NuGet, npm, well-known endpoints, or local folders into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, and any spec-compliant agent.

First-class NuGet & npm · library-bundled skill packages · extension points by design.

📖 Documentation · Why AgentSkills CLI? · Quick start · vs vercel-labs/skills · vs dotnet-package-skills

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Install

# Global tool (recommended for daily use; .NET 10, .NET 8, or later)
dotnet tool install --global agentskills-cli
agentskills-cli --version

# Or one-shot via dnx (.NET 10+) for CI / no-install scenarios
dnx agentskills-cli -- --help

See the install guide for .NET 8 notes, shell shortcuts for both paths, and verification.

At a glance

Once installed globally (dotnet tool install --global agentskills-cli):

# Install from any source - one command, multiple ecosystems
agentskills-cli add anthropics/skills              # GitHub shorthand
agentskills-cli add Contoso.AgentSkills            # NuGet package
agentskills-cli add @my-org/agent-skills           # npm package
agentskills-cli add ./my-local-skill               # local folder

# Inspect what's installed, grouped however you want
agentskills-cli list --by package

# Search community skills
agentskills-cli find testing

# What changed upstream? Then update one package, or everything
agentskills-cli outdated
agentskills-cli update Contoso.AgentSkills -y
agentskills-cli update -y

# Fresh clone or CI: install everything in skills-lock.json
agentskills-cli restore -y

# Remove an entire package's worth of skills
agentskills-cli remove @my-org/agent-skills -y

Or one-shot via dnx for CI / no-install scenarios:

dnx agentskills-cli -- add ./my-skill

The -- separates dnx's own flags from the args passed through to the tool. For interactive daily use, prefer the installed-tool path - it's much less typing.

Tip: Both paths support a one-character shell alias (as add ./skill instead of typing the full command). See Shortcuts for bash / zsh / fish / PowerShell.

Five-minute quick start →

What makes it different

• NuGet as a first-class source - public and private feeds via your existing NuGet.config and credential providers. No new auth surface.
• npm registry fetch (not just node_modules sync) - public and private registries via your existing .npmrc, scoped registries, _authToken.
• Private feeds just for skills - agentskills-cli feed add <url> and agentskills-cli registry add <url> keep skills feeds in .agents/ (committed) and ~/.agents/ (credentials), standard nuget.config / .npmrc format, without touching your normal .NET or npm setup.
• Skills can ship inside library packages - drop a skills/ folder into your existing .nupkg or .tgz. Users get the skills for free when they install your library. How →
• Versioned install units - skills from a NuGet or npm package are tracked together as a managed set. agentskills-cli remove MyOrg.SkillPack -y wipes all of them at once; agentskills-cli update MyOrg.SkillPack moves them to the newest version on your feed (or @2.1.0 for an exact one); agentskills-cli list --by package groups them.
• Updates for every source - outdated / update check NuGet and npm versions, GitHub, GitLab, any git URL, well-known endpoints, and local folders, and keep each skill's agents and symlink/copy mode. restore rebuilds a project from skills-lock.json. Same dependency-like semantics .NET devs already use for NuGet packages - no orphan skills when you uninstall.
• Extension points by design - register ISkillSourceFactory for new source types and ISkillSearchProvider for new search backends with a single DI registration.
• Multi-targeted - one .nupkg ships .NET 8 and .NET 10 builds and rolls forward to .NET 11 and later.
• Lock-file interop - same ~/.agents/.skill-lock.json and ./skills-lock.json format as upstream vercel-labs/skills, so the two tools share state.

Full feature matrix vs vercel-labs/skills →

Documentation

Comprehensive guides at mysticmind.github.io/agentskills-cli:

Section	What's there
Why AgentSkills CLI	The value proposition, condensed
Install	dnx, global tool, shell aliases, runtime requirements
Quick start	Five-minute hands-on tour
Concepts	Skill, source, agent, scope - the five terms
Commands	Full reference: add, list, remove, init, find, update, outdated, restore, version
Source formats	Local, GitHub, GitLab, git, NuGet, npm, well-known endpoints
Authoring + publishing	SKILL.md format + NuGet + npm publishing patterns
Common workflows	Bootstrap a project, drive dnx in CI, set up private feeds, etc.
Reference	Agents, lock files, env vars, search-provider extension contract
Troubleshooting	Common issues with fixes
FAQ	The "why is it like that" questions

A .NET-native port of vercel-labs/skills

AgentSkills CLI is a faithful .NET port of vercel-labs/skills (the npx skills CLI). The two tools share the open Agent Skills specification, the same SKILL.md format, the same lock-file format, and the universal .agents/skills/ install directory - so a skill installed by either tool is visible to the other and you can mix toolchains in a polyglot team.

AgentSkills CLI extends the upstream with first-class NuGet support, full npm registry fetch (not just node_modules sync), library-bundled skill packages, version-aware target matching on list / remove, and an extension-point architecture for custom sources and search backends. See the full feature comparison.

Samples

Three working samples under samples/ - a minimal standalone skill, a NuGet package that bundles a skill, and an npm package that does the same. Each has its own README with copy-pasteable verify commands. See the Samples reference for what to try.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/mysticmind/agentskills-cli. See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

To build from source:

git clone https://github.com/mysticmind/agentskills-cli.git
cd agentskills-cli
dotnet build agentskills-cli.sln
dotnet test agentskills-cli.sln

Requires the .NET 10 SDK (it can build both net8.0 and net10.0 outputs; the .NET 8 SDK cannot build the net10 output). Running the net8.0 tests also needs the .NET 8 runtime.

License

MIT. See LICENSE and NOTICE.