skillc

The development kit for Agent Skills — create, validate, and optimize skills that extend AI agent capabilities.

Who is this for?

Skill Authors

Create, validate, and test skills locally before publishing with confidence:

flowchart LR
    A[skc init] --> B[skc lint]
    B --> C[skc build]
    C --> D[skc stats]
    D --> E[git push]

    A -.- A1[scaffold]
    B -.- B1[validate]
    C -.- C1[test locally]
    D -.- D1[trace usage]
    E -.- E1[publish]

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Power Users

Compile any skill to unlock full-text search and usage analytics:

flowchart LR
    A[skc build] --> B[skc search]
    B --> C[skc stats]

    A -.- A1[enable indexing]
    B -.- B1[find content]
    C -.- C1[track usage]

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Note: skc build is optional for consumers. Published skills work without compilation — building just enables search and analytics.

Installation

cargo install skillc

Quick Start

For skill authors:

skc init my-skill           # Create a new skill
# ... edit SKILL.md ...
skc lint my-skill           # Validate quality
skc build my-skill          # Build for local testing
skc stats my-skill          # See how agents use your skill
git push origin main        # Publish to GitHub

For power users:

npx skills add user/skill   # Install a skill
skc build user-skill        # Enable search + analytics
skc search user-skill "api" # Full-text search
skc stats user-skill        # Usage insights

Commands

Category	Command	Description
Author	skc init	Create new skill or project
	skc lint	Validate structure and quality
	skc build	Compile and deploy locally
	skc list	List all managed skills
Read	skc outline	List all sections
	skc show	Show section content
	skc open	Read file contents
	skc search	Full-text search
	skc sources	List source files
Analytics	skc stats	Usage analytics
	skc sync	Merge local logs
Agent	skc mcp	Start MCP server

Command examples

# Authoring
skc init my-skill --global          # Create in ~/.skillc/skills/
skc lint my-skill                   # Check for issues
skc build my-skill --target cursor  # Deploy to Cursor

# Reading (also available as MCP tools)
skc outline my-skill                # List all headings
skc outline my-skill --level 2      # Only # and ## headings
skc show my-skill --section "API Reference"
skc show my-skill --section "API" --max-lines 50  # Truncate output
skc open my-skill SKILL.md --max-lines 100        # Read first 100 lines
skc search my-skill "borrow checker"
skc sources my-skill --pattern "*.md"
skc sources my-skill --format json          # JSON output

# Analytics
skc stats my-skill --group-by sections
skc stats my-skill --group-by search  # Most frequent search terms
skc sync --dry-run

What is an Agent Skill?

A directory with a SKILL.md file:

my-skill/
├── SKILL.md          # Required: metadata + instructions
└── docs/             # Optional: additional content
    ├── reference.md
    └── examples.md

The SKILL.md has YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: A skill that does something useful
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent...

See agentskills.io for the full specification.

MCP Integration

skillc exposes all read commands as MCP tools for direct agent integration:

skc mcp  # Start the MCP server

Add to your agent's MCP configuration to enable tools like skc_outline, skc_show, skc_search.

Storage

Path	Purpose
.skillc/skills/	Project-local skills
~/.skillc/skills/	Global source store
~/.claude/skills/	Claude runtime (deployed)
~/.cursor/skills/	Cursor runtime (deployed)

Development

just test    # Run tests
just cov     # Coverage report
just lint    # Clippy
just fmt     # Format

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0