AI Coding Agent Skills Guide
This page is a practical catalog of coding-agent skills, covering where to get each one and how to invoke it. Every card lists its source (bundled official or a GitHub link), how to call it, and when to use it, so you can adopt anything that catches your eye right away.
If you want to compare which approach fits your workflow first, see the cross-service Skill Pros & Cons page.
What is SKILL.md
SKILL.md is a "mission brief" for an AI agent. It consists of YAML front matter and a Markdown body that define the name, description, and steps.
my-skill/
├── SKILL.md # required: metadata + steps
├── scripts/ # optional: shell scripts
├── references/ # optional: reference docs
└── agents/ # optional: agent settings
It plays a different role from always-on instruction files.
CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md are rules applied to a repository at all times, while SKILL.md is a reusable workflow the agent picks per task.
Recommended skills by tool
Switch tools with the tabs below to compare ready-to-use skills, each with its source, invocation, and when to use it.
Claude Code's official skills need no install and are called by a slash command or plain language. Community skills are cloned and placed. Invocation differs by surface: in Claude Code (CLI / IDE) you call them explicitly with a slash like /code-review, while the desktop and web apps (claude.ai) trigger the same .claude/skills skills through natural language.
/code-review
An official skill that reviews PR diffs across bugs, security, and quality.
WhenChecking a diff before commit or merge
SourceOfficial, no install
UsageType /code-review
/deep-research
An official skill that researches the web and generates a cited report.
WhenScoping tech choices or market research
SourceOfficial, no install
Usage/deep-research your topic
/security-review
An official skill that audits code for security and surfaces vulnerabilities.
WhenA vulnerability check before release
SourceOfficial, no install
UsageType /security-review
Official document skills
Official skills to create and manipulate PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel (pdf / docx / pptx / xlsx).
WhenGenerating routine documents and extracting content
SourceOfficial, no install
UsageTrigger automatically by stating intent like "make a PDF"
awesome-claude-skills
A community curated list of high-quality skills. Good for a first step.
WhenSurveying what skills exist
Sourcetravisvn/awesome-claude-skills
UsagePick a skill repo from the list and clone it
mcp-builder
An official skill that scaffolds an MCP server following best practices. Available via the anthropics/skills plugin.
WhenImplementing your own tool as an MCP server
Sourceanthropics/skills
Usage/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills, then state your intent
web-artifacts-builder
An official skill that builds multi-component HTML artifacts for claude.ai.
WhenBuilding a working demo or tool in a single HTML file
Sourceanthropics/skills
UsageInstall the same plugin and say "build an artifact"
Codex ships system skills and the official catalog openai/skills, installable via $skill-installer. New skills load after a restart. Invocation differs by surface: the CLI and IDE extension use the /skills picker or a $skill-name mention, the desktop app uses the Skills list in the sidebar or the same $skill-name, and non-interactive codex exec has no picker, so you state it in the prompt or rely on description-based auto-selection.
$skill-installer
A system skill that installs catalog skills by name or GitHub URL.
WhenPulling a needed skill from the catalog
SourceSystem, bundled
Usage$skill-installer name, then restart Codex
$skill-creator
A system skill that generates a new SKILL.md scaffold from your answers. Good for authoring.
WhenSpinning up a skill of your own quickly
SourceSystem, bundled
Usage$skill-creator for an interactive build
openai/skills
The official catalog of curated skills for deploy, testing, CI triage, and more.
WhenDelegating staple development tasks
Sourceopenai/skills
UsageBy name, e.g. $skill-installer gh-address-comments
awesome-codex-cli
A list of Codex CLI tools, including subagents and plugins.
WhenLooking for tools beyond the catalog
SourceRoggeOhta/awesome-codex-cli
UsagePick a tool or repo from the list
gh-fix-ci
A curated skill that inspects failing CI logs and fixes the cause.
WhenQuickly recovering a red CI run
Sourceopenai/skills
Usage$skill-installer gh-fix-ci
playwright
A curated skill that automates the browser and writes E2E tests.
WhenVerifying UI behavior automatically
Sourceopenai/skills
Usage$skill-installer playwright
The SKILL.md format is compatible across Claude Code and Codex. Keep the same folder layout and copy it into your tool's skills directory to share it.
claude-skills
A large skill collection that runs on 8+ tools including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Cursor.
WhenReusing the same skills across tools
Sourcealirezarezvani/claude-skills
UsageCopy the folder into your tool's skills directory
Caveman
A skill that strips filler and preamble to compress output tokens. Runs on 40+ agents.
WhenCutting token cost on long sessions
SourceJuliusBrussee/caveman
UsageClone and copy into each tool's skills directory
awesome-agent-skills
A large curated collection of 1000+ skills. Compatible with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and more.
WhenBrowsing widely for tool-agnostic skills
SourceVoltAgent/awesome-agent-skills
UsagePick from the list and copy into each tool's skills directory
anthropics/skills
The official Agent Skills repository. SKILL.md shares one format across both tools, so you can take skills individually.
WhenBuilding on official skills in your own setup
Sourceanthropics/skills
UsageCopy the folder of the skill you want into your skills directory
How to install
The steps depend on where the skill comes from.
Repository-distributed community skills: clone a repo that actually ships the skill and copy it into the skills directory (awesome-claude-skills is a link list, so pick an individual skill repo from it).
git clone https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman
cp -r caveman/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/
Codex catalog skills are installed from the TUI by passing a name or a GitHub URL to $skill-installer.
Loading them requires a Codex restart.
$skill-installer gh-address-comments
Claude Code's official skills need no install.
Call them with a slash command like /code-review, or state the intent (such as creating a document) to trigger them automatically.
How to write a skill (minimal template)
---
name: my-skill
description: One or two sentences on what this skill is for. Lead with trigger words.
---
# My Skill
## Steps
1. The first thing to do
2. The next thing to do
3. Confirm the completion condition
description is the key the agent uses to auto-select the skill.
The clearer the purpose and trigger words, the more accurately it gets chosen.
Check GitHub for the latest details on each repository.