ai-agent-skills

23 shared workflows for AI coding agents. Plan work, implement changes, investigate failures, review code, and prepare delivery with explicit boundaries.

Install

Choose how you want the skills delivered:

Open Skills CLI

Run from the project where you want the skills available:

npx skills add TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills

Choose the coding host and skills interactively. To list skills or install a specific skill:

npx skills add TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills --list
npx skills add TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills --skill test-authoring

For skills available across projects, install globally:

npx skills add TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills -g

This CLI installs skills and supporting resources. It does not install this collection's optional subagents. The CLI chooses the host; the host decides whether to select a skill automatically. See the Open Skills CLI documentation for its supported hosts and options.

To update an existing CLI installation:

To add skills introduced since the last install, run npx skills add TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills again and select the skills you want.

Native shell installer

The shell installer also installs host plugins, native skill directories, and optional subagents. Install the target host app and Git first. List the available flavors from a repository checkout:

macOS / Linux (Bash)

git clone https://github.com/TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills.git
cd ai-agent-skills
bash scripts/install-ai-agent-skills.sh --flavor list

Windows (PowerShell 7.4+)

git clone https://github.com/TylerAkins/ai-agent-skills.git
Set-Location ai-agent-skills
./scripts/install-ai-agent-skills.ps1 -Flavor list

Choose a flavor, replace cursor with it, and run the matching example for your operating system.

macOS / Linux (Bash)

bash scripts/install-ai-agent-skills.sh --flavor cursor

Windows (PowerShell 7.4+)

./scripts/install-ai-agent-skills.ps1 -Flavor cursor

On macOS and Linux, the installer needs Bash, curl, tar, shasum, and jq. On Windows (PowerShell 7.4+), use the PowerShell installer. For project installs, updates, agent-only flavors, destination details, conflicts, and recovery, see the installer reference.

After installing, follow the activation and update steps. The host compatibility guide explains discovery behavior and its limits. File placement alone does not prove that a host loaded or followed a skill.

Update a native installation

The examples below update the cursor plugin installed above. Replace cursor with your installed flavor. Run the installer with update and the same project path when applicable. Use --merge / -Merge for skills and agents so unrelated files are kept; incoming names are refreshed and a backup is created. Plugin updates use the plugin replacement flow and also create a backup. For example, updating cursor-global requires --merge in Bash or -Merge in PowerShell.

macOS / Linux (Bash)

bash scripts/install-ai-agent-skills.sh update --flavor cursor

Windows (PowerShell 7.4+)

./scripts/install-ai-agent-skills.ps1 -Action Update -Flavor cursor

For a project flavor, repeat the same --project / -Project path used during installation. To update the installer in a local checkout, run git pull --ff-only there. --from-source / -FromSource builds a temporary checkout from the selected release; add --ref main / -Ref main to build current main.

Use the skills

Describe the task normally. Hosts with native selection can load a matching skill; name one when you want a specific workflow:

Use agent-planning to plan this feature. Do not implement it yet.
Use code-review to review this branch against main without changing the code.
Use root-cause-debug to reproduce and fix this failure with regression coverage.

For planned work, use agent-planning first and implement-plan after accepting the plan. The implementation workflow includes verification and independent review. If independent review is unavailable, that gate remains incomplete. These are agent instructions, not enforced runtime controls. Work does not authorize commits, pushes, external replies, or deployment.

See the Cursor workflow example for a complete planned change and the host compatibility guide for host behavior and limitations.

Optional subagents

Four read-only investigation agents handle focused work: independent-reviewer, root-cause-investigator, dependency-investigator, and architecture-advisor. Ask the main agent to use one, for example: “Use the independent-reviewer to review my changes against main.” The host and model decide whether to delegate.

Cursor and Claude Code plugins include these agents. Codex desktop and the Open Skills CLI do not. Native agent formats are available for Codex, OpenCode, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, and Antigravity. Muse Code supports runtime delegation, but its current documentation does not define persistent custom agent files. Native installs require a separate agent flavor. See agent installation and the subagent compatibility guide.

Install the matching skills separately. For project flavors, pass the same project path on macOS/Linux with --project or Windows with -Project.

Browse the skills

Browse all 23 skills

Plan and design

Build and verify

Review and collaborate

Deliver and operate

Explain and document

Documentation