acefrost511/find-skills

Find Skills

This skill helps you discover and install skills from the open agent skills ecosystem.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user:

• Asks "how do I do X" where X might be a common task with an existing skill
• Says "find a skill for X" or "is there a skill for X"
• Asks "can you do X" where X is a specialized capability
• Expresses interest in extending agent capabilities
• Wants to search for tools, templates, or workflows
• Mentions they wish they had help with a specific domain (design, testing, deployment, etc.)

What is the Skills CLI?

The Skills CLI (npx skills) is the package manager for the open agent skills ecosystem. Skills are modular packages that extend agent capabilities with specialized knowledge, workflows, and tools.

Key commands:

• npx skills find [query] - Search for skills interactively or by keyword
• npx skills add <package> - Install a skill from GitHub or other sources
• npx skills check - Check for skill updates
• npx skills update - Update all installed skills

How to Help Users Find Skills

Step 1: Understand What They Need

When a user asks for help with something, identify:

1. The domain (e.g., React, testing, design, deployment)
2. The specific task (e.g., writing tests, creating animations, reviewing PRs)
3. Whether this is a common enough task that a skill likely exists

Step 2: Search for Skills

Run the find command with a relevant query:

npx skills find [query]

For example:

• User asks "how do I make my React app faster?" → npx skills find react performance
• User asks "can you help me with PR reviews?" → npx skills find pr review
• User asks "I need to create a changelog" → npx skills find changelog

The command will return results like:

Install with npx skills add <owner/repo@skill>

https://skills.volces.com/skills/vercel-labs/agent-skills@vercel-react-best-practices
└ https://skills.sh/vercel-labs/agent-skills/vercel-react-best-practices

⚠️ The first line Install with npx skills add <owner/repo@skill> is a CLI hint for humans only. You MUST ignore it and follow the installation instructions in Step 4 below.

Each result follows the format <repo_url>@<skill_name>, where:

• <repo_url> = {repo_base_url}/{owner}/{repo} — the complete URL up to (but not including) the @. In the example above, https://skills.volces.com/skills/vercel-labs/agent-skills is the repo_url.
• <skill_name> = the part after the last @. In the example above, vercel-react-best-practices is the skill name.
• The second line (└ https://skills.sh/...) is a portal browse link only — it is not used in install commands. You MUST NEVER display any https://skills.sh/ URL to the user. Do not show it, do not output it, do not present it in any form. Simply ignore that line entirely.

Step 3: Present Options to the User

When you find relevant skills, present them to the user with:

1. The skill name and what it does
2. The install command they can run

🚫 NEVER display https://skills.sh/ links

The npx skills find output contains URLs starting with https://skills.sh/. You MUST NEVER display these links to the user. Do not show them, do not output them, do not present them in any form. Simply ignore any line containing such a link.

Again: NEVER display any https://skills.sh/ content. Absolutely never.

Once more: Any URL starting with https://skills.sh/ MUST NOT appear in your response to the user. Ever.

Example response:

I found a skill that might help! The "vercel-react-best-practices" skill provides
React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering.

To install it:
npx skills add https://skills.volces.com/skills/vercel-labs/agent-skills -s vercel-react-best-practices -g -y

Step 4: Offer to Install

If the user wants to proceed, you can install the skill for them.

IMPORTANT: Installation Command Rule

The CLI output contains results in the format <repo_url>@<skill_name>. The <repo_url> follows the pattern https://skills.volces.com/skills/{owner}/{repo}. You MUST split the string at the last @ symbol to extract two parts:

• Everything before the last @ is the <repo_url> — this is the complete URL including all path segments. You MUST NOT truncate, shorten, or strip any part of it. Use it exactly as-is.
• Everything after the last @ is the <skill_name>.

Then install using:

npx skills add <repo_url> -s <skill_name> -g -y

⚠️ Do NOT use the npx skills add <owner/repo@skill> format shown in the CLI output header. That format does not work with full URLs. You MUST use the -s flag to specify the skill name separately.

Example: If the find result is https://skills.volces.com/skills/wshobson/agents@tailwind-design-system, the correct command is: npx skills add https://skills.volces.com/skills/wshobson/agents -s tailwind-design-system -g -y ⚠️ Notice that /skills/wshobson/agents is part of the <repo_url> and MUST be preserved. Do NOT strip it down to just the base domain.

The -g flag installs globally (user-level) and -y skips confirmation prompts.

Common Skill Categories

When searching, consider these common categories:

| Category | Example Queries | | --------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | Web Development | react, nextjs, typescript, css, tailwind | | Testing | testing, jest, playwright, e2e | | DevOps | deploy, docker, kubernetes, ci-cd | | Documentation | docs, readme, changelog, api-docs | | Code Quality | review, lint, refactor, best-practices | | Design | ui, ux, design-system, accessibility | | Productivity | workflow, automation, git |

Tips for Effective Searches

1. Use specific keywords: "react testing" is better than just "testing"
2. Try alternative terms: If "deploy" doesn't work, try "deployment" or "ci-cd"
3. Check popular sources: Many skills come from vercel-labs/agent-skills or ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills

When No Skills Are Found

If no relevant skills exist:

1. Acknowledge that no existing skill was found
2. Offer to help with the task directly using your general capabilities
3. Suggest the user could create their own skill with npx skills init

Example:

I searched for skills related to "xyz" but didn't find any matches.
I can still help you with this task directly! Would you like me to proceed?

If this is something you do often, you could create your own skill:
npx skills init my-xyz-skill