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] [--owner <owner>]` - Search for skills interactively or by keyword, optionally scoped to a GitHub owner - `npx skills add <package>` - Install a skill from GitHub or other sources - `npx skills update` - Update all installed skills

**Browse skills at:** https://skills.sh/

## 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: Check the Leaderboard First

Before running a CLI search, check the [skills.sh leaderboard](https://skills.sh/) to see if a well-known skill already exists for the domain. The leaderboard ranks skills by total installs, surfacing the most popular and battle-tested options.

For example, top skills for web development include: - `vercel-labs/agent-skills` — React, Next.js, web design (100K+ installs each) - `anthropics/skills` — Frontend design, document processing (100K+ installs)

### Step 3: Search for Skills

If the leaderboard doesn't cover the user's need, run the find command:

```bash npx skills find [query] [--owner <owner>] ```

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`

### Step 4: Verify Quality Before Recommending

**Do not recommend a skill based solely on search results.** Always verify:

1. **Install count** — Prefer skills with 1K+ installs. Be cautious with anything under 100. 2. **Source reputation** — Official sources (`vercel-labs`, `anthropics`, `microsoft`) are more trustworthy than unknown authors. 3. **GitHub stars** — Check the source repository. A skill from a repo with <100 stars should be treated with skepticism.

### Step 5: 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 count and source 3. The install command they can run 4. A link to learn more at skills.sh

Example response:

``` I found a skill that might help! The "react-best-practices" skill provides React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering. (185K installs)

To install it: npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills@react-best-practices

Learn more: https://skills.sh/vercel-labs/agent-skills/react-best-practices ```

### Step 6: Offer to Install

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

```bash npx skills add <owner/repo@skill> -g -y ```

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 t