manage-skills

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from review. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: manage-skills
description: Discover, list, create, edit, toggle, copy, move, and delete AI agent skills across 11 tools (Cursor, Claude, Agents, Windsurf, Copilot, Codex, Cline, Aider, Continue, Roo Code, Augment)
---

# Manage AI Agent Skills

You can manage skills and rules for all major AI coding tools directly from the terminal. This skill teaches you the directory layout, file format, and operations for each tool.

## Supported Tools & Paths

### Directory-based tools (multiple skills)

Each skill lives in its own subdirectory with a `SKILL.md` file containing YAML frontmatter.

| Tool | Global Path | Project Path |
|------|------------|--------------|
| Agents | `~/.agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` | `.agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` |
| Cursor | `~/.cursor/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` | `.cursor/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` |
| Claude | `~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` | `.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` |
| Windsurf | `~/.windsurf/rules/<name>/<name>.md` | `.windsurf/rules/<name>/<name>.md` |
| Cline | `~/.cline/rules/<name>/<name>.md` | `.cline/rules/<name>/<name>.md` |
| Continue | `~/.continue/rules/<name>/<name>.md` | `.continue/rules/<name>/<name>.md` |
| Roo Code | `~/.roo/rules/<name>/<name>.md` | `.roo/rules/<name>/<name>.md` |

### Single-file tools (one config file)

| Tool | Global Path | Project Path |
|------|------------|--------------|
| Copilot | `~/.github/copilot-instructions.md` | `.github/copilot-instructions.md` |
| Codex | `~/.codex/AGENTS.md` | `.codex/AGENTS.md` |
| Aider | `~/.aider.conf.yml` | `.aider.conf.yml` |
| Augment | `~/augment-guidelines.md` | `augment-guidelines.md` |

### Cursor plugins (read-only)

Plugin skills are cached at `~/.cursor/plugins/cache/<org>/<plugin>/<version>/skills/<name>/SKILL.md`. These are managed by Cursor and should not be edited directly.

## Skill File Format

For directory-based tools (Agents, Cursor, Claude), skills use YAML frontmatter:

```markdown
---
name: skill-name
description: Brief description of what this skill does
---

# Skill Name

Skill instructions go here. The AI agent reads this content
when the skill is activated.
```

For Windsurf, Cline, Continue, and Roo Code, skills are plain `.md` files (frontmatter optional).

## Operations

### List all skills

```bash
# List skills for a specific tool
ls ~/.agents/skills/
ls ~/.cursor/skills/
ls ~/.claude/skills/
ls ~/.windsurf/rules/
ls ~/.cline/rules/
ls ~/.continue/rules/
ls ~/.roo/rules/

# Count total skills across all tools
echo "Agents: $(ls ~/.agents/skills/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Cursor: $(ls ~/.cursor/skills/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Claude: $(ls ~/.claude/skills/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Windsurf: $(ls ~/.windsurf/rules/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Cline: $(ls ~/.cline/rules/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Continue: $(ls ~/.continue/rules/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Roo: $(ls ~/.roo/rules/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"

# Check single-file tools
test -f ~/.github/copilot-instructions.md && echo "Copilot: exists" || echo "Copilot: not found"
test -f ~/.codex/AGENTS.md && echo "Codex: exists" || echo "Codex: not found"
test -f ~/.aider.conf.yml && echo "Aider: exists" || echo "Aider: not found"
test -f ~/augment-guidelines.md && echo "Augment: exists" || echo "Augment: not found"
```

### Read a skill

```bash
cat ~/.cursor/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md
```

### Create a new skill

```bash
# For Agents/Cursor/Claude (SKILL.md format)
mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills/my-new-skill
cat > ~/.agents/skills/my-new-skill/SKILL.md << 'EOF'
---
name: my-new-skill
description: What this skill does
---

# My New Skill

Instructions for the agent go here.
EOF

# For Windsurf/Cline/Continue/Roo (plain .md format)
mkdir -p ~/.windsurf/rules/my-new-rule
cat > ~/.windsurf/rules/my-new-rule/my-new-rule.md << 'EOF'
# My New Rule

Instructions go here.
EOF

# For single-file tools
cat > .github/copilot-instructions.md << 'EOF'
Instruction