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 check` - Check for skill updates
- `npx skills update` - Update all installed skills

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

## Runtime Detection

Before running any `npx skills` command, check if `npx` is available:

```bash
which npx
```

If `npx` is **not found**, fall back to the bundled bun shipped with Cherry Studio.
Cherry Studio sets the `CHERRY_STUDIO_BUN_PATH` environment variable pointing to its
bundled bun binary. Use it as follows:

```bash
if [ -n "$CHERRY_STUDIO_BUN_PATH" ] && [ -x "$CHERRY_STUDIO_BUN_PATH" ]; then
  "$CHERRY_STUDIO_BUN_PATH" x skills <subcommand> [args]
else
  echo "Error: Neither npx nor bundled bun found. Install Node.js or run Cherry Studio's bun installer."
fi
```

For example, `npx skills find react` becomes `"$CHERRY_STUDIO_BUN_PATH" x skills find react`.

Always try `npx` first. Only use the bun fallback when npx is unavailable.

## 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: Install (Requires User Confirmation)

**⚠️ Security:** Skills are third-party code that runs with full agent
permissions. A malicious skill could read, modify, or delete files on your
system.

Before installing any skill you **MUST**:

1. **Show a security warning** — tell the user that the skill is third-party
   code and will run with full agent permissions.
2. **Provide a review link** — the skills.sh page (or source repository) so
   the user can review the skill's SKILL.md and any scripts it contains.
3. **Ask the user for explicit confirmation** — do NOT run `npx skills add`
   until the user says "yes" or equivalent. Never install silently.

Only after the user confirms, run:

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

The `-g` flag installs globally (user-level) and `-y` skips the CLI's own
interactive prompt — the user confirmation step above is what ensures the
install was actually reviewed and approved, so it must happen first.

## 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
```