skills-init
Install a small set of focused engineering skills into a project, with one
source of truth shared by Claude, Cursor, Codex, and OpenCode.
npx skills-init
The installer copies skills into .agents/skills and creates relative links in
.claude/skills, .cursor/skills, .codex/skills, and .opencode/skills.
Your project owns the installed copies.
The pack
adversarial-review | Fresh-context reviewer subagents find issues; separate validator subagents challenge them. Optional references cover change impact and caller-facing interfaces. |
arena | Fresh subagents produce competing solutions; a separate judge compares them before the parent integrates and verifies one result. |
systematic-debugging | Causal diagnosis and focused repairs. Optional references cover trustworthy benchmarks and runtime artifacts. |
simplify | Behavior-preserving cleanup that reduces indirection, duplicate ownership, and hidden state. |
trace-codebase | Subsystem walkthroughs and ownership questions grounded in representative flows. |
create-verification | Creating repo-specific instructions that launch, drive, observe, and clean up a real app, CLI, or API. |
prevent-repeat-mistakes | Replacing recurring corrections with clearer ownership, types, lint, or tests. |
repo-automations | Repository playbooks, runtime ownership, retry safety, and delivery failures. |
writing-skills | Creating and maintaining focused skills and supporting resources. |
The skills assume a capable agent. They supply specific decision rules and
operational knowledge. They do not impose a planning ceremony, fixed reviewer
panels, model names, or a report template on every task.
Descriptions determine when a skill is considered. The main file contains the
shared guidance; substantial details load only for the relevant mode. Review
and diagnosis requests preserve their read-only scope unless fixes are also
authorized.
Options
skills-init --target /path/to/project
skills-init --dry-run
skills-init --overwrite
skills-init --prune
skills-init --no-links
skills-init --copy-links
skills-init --list
--target selects the project directory. The default is the current directory.
--dry-run describes changes without writing.
--overwrite replaces existing copies and custom links for currently bundled skills, including local edits.
--prune removes recognized, unmodified retired skills and their owned tool views.
--no-links installs only the source copies under .agents/skills.
--copy-links creates tool-specific copies instead of symlinks.
--list prints the bundled names.
Upgrading from 0.2.1
Three broad skills have left the default pack:
outcome-first-workflows | The agent's normal task execution and your project guidance. |
plan-changes | The agent's normal planning, with specialized skills used where relevant. |
interface-review | The interface lens under adversarial-review/references/interfaces.md. |
Preview the upgrade before replacing local skill copies:
npx skills-init --overwrite --prune --dry-run
npx skills-init --overwrite --prune
Pruning checks file contents against the exact retired skills shipped in 0.2.1.
This lets it remove untouched old copies while preserving local edits. It also
preserves directories with extra files, custom links, and modified tool copies,
and reports what needs manual review. It does not remove unrelated skills.
Without --prune, retired installations remain and the installer reports them.
The installer refuses to write through symlinked skill-parent directories. Use
project-local directories, or --no-links to leave tool directories alone.
Development
This package has no runtime dependencies. Its layout is:
bin/ CLI entrypoint
src/ installer and retirement metadata
skills/ bundled skills and conditional references
scripts/ metadata and reference checks
test/ installer and tooling tests
From this checkout:
npm ci
npm run check
This validates skill metadata and local references, checks installer behavior,
and verifies the npm package contents.
The published package includes bin/, src/, and skills/. Development tooling
stays in this repository.
Release
GitHub Actions publishes through npm trusted publishing. The tag must match
package.json. After review and validation, use the appropriate version bump
and push the release tag through the repository's normal process.
Design sources
The pack draws on pstack
and current OpenAI skill guidance.
Keep additions only when they supply useful knowledge or change a demonstrated
decision. Prefer structural enforcement over accumulating prompt rules.
License
MIT