2.1Phase 1: Installation

Skills are installed from Git repositories using the skills CLI, or generated by the tool they wrap:

# From a repository
npx skills add <repo-url> --skill <skill-name>

# Generated by the wrapped tool (the 2026-native path)
playwright-cli install --skills   # writes a SKILL.md teaching the agent the CLI

What happens:

1. The repository is cloned (or the skill directory is downloaded)
2. The SKILL.md is copied to the agent's skills directory
3. Any bundled resources (/scripts/, /references/, /assets/) are copied alongside
4. The skill becomes available in the agent's next session

Installation Locations

Skills can live in multiple locations, loaded in priority order:

Location	Scope	Use Case
.claude/skills/	Project	Skills specific to this codebase
~/.config/claude/skills/	User	Personal skills across all projects
Built-in	System	Anthropic-provided defaults
Plugin-provided	Plugin	Skills bundled with IDE extensions

Project skills override user skills which override built-in skills (by name).

The Skills Directory (skills.sh)

The Agent Skills Directory is a centralized marketplace with tens of thousands of skills. Skills are portable across agent platforms (Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Copilot, Cline) — as of 2026 the SKILL.md format is a de facto cross-agent standard, which is exactly why tool vendors now ship skills alongside their CLIs.