skm-cli 0.2.0

Skill Manager - manage agent skills from GitHub repos

SKM - Skill Manager

A CLI tool that manages global AI agent skills from GitHub repos or local directories. Clone repos or link local paths, detect skills via SKILL.md, and symlink them into agent directories — all driven by a single YAML config.

Note: skm manages skills at the user level (e.g. ~/.claude/skills/), not at the project level. It is not intended for installing skills into project-scoped directories.

Install

uv tool install skm-cli

Or install from source:

uv tool install git+https://github.com/reorx/skm

Quick Start

1. Create ~/.config/skm/skills.yaml:

packages:
  - repo: https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills
    skills:
      - vercel-react-best-practices
      - vercel-react-native-skills
  - repo: https://github.com/blader/humanizer
  - local_path: ~/Code/my-custom-skills       # use a local directory instead of a git repo

2. Run install (skm i for short):

skm install

Skills are cloned (or symlinked from local paths) into your agent directories (~/.claude/skills/, ~/.codex/skills/, etc.).

Install from a source directly

You can also install skills directly from a repo URL or local path — no need to edit skills.yaml first:

# Install from a GitHub repo (interactive skill & agent selection)
skm install https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Install a specific skill by name
skm install https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills vercel-react-best-practices

# Install from a local directory
skm install ~/Code/my-custom-skills

# Skip interactive prompts with --agents-includes / --agents-excludes
skm install https://github.com/blader/humanizer --agents-includes claude,codex

This detects available skills, lets you pick which ones to install (unless a specific skill name is given), and automatically adds the package to your skills.yaml config.

Commands

Command	Description
skm install (or skm i)	Install all packages from config. Clone repos (or link local paths), detect skills, symlink to agents, write lock file. Idempotent — also removes stale links (see below).
skm install <source> [skill] (or skm i)	Install directly from a repo URL or local path without editing config. Interactively select skills and agents, then auto-update config.
skm list	Show installed skills and their linked paths.
skm list --all	Show all skills across all agent directories, marking which are managed by skm.
skm view <source>	Browse and preview skills from a repo URL or local path without installing.
skm edit	Open skills.yaml in $EDITOR (falls back to system default). Shows diff after editing.
skm check-updates	Fetch remotes and show available updates (skips local_path packages).
skm update <skill>	Pull latest for a skill's repo, re-detect, re-link, update lock (skips local_path packages).

Config Format

~/.config/skm/skills.yaml:

agents:
  default:                   # optional: select which agents are active (omit = all)
    - claude
    - standard

packages:
  - repo: https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills
    skills:                  # optional: install only these skills (omit = all)
      - vercel-react-best-practices
    agents:                  # optional: further filter agents for this package
      excludes:
        - standard

  - repo: https://github.com/blader/humanizer   # installs all detected skills to default agents

  - local_path: ~/Code/my-custom-skills         # use a local directory as package source
    skills:
      - my-skill

Each package must specify exactly one of repo or local_path. Local path packages use the directory directly (no cloning) and are skipped by check-updates and update.

Install Sync Behavior

skm install treats skills.yaml as a declarative state file. Each run syncs the agent directories to match the config:

• New skills are linked to agent directories.
• Removed skills (dropped from a package's skills: list, or entire package removed) have their links deleted.
• Agent config changes (e.g. adding excludes: [openclaw]) remove links from excluded agents while keeping links in others.

Only links tracked in skills-lock.yaml are affected. Manually created files or skills installed by other tools in agent directories are never touched.

Skill Detection

A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (name field required). Detection order:

1. Root SKILL.md — the repo itself is a singleton skill
2. ./skills/ subdirectory exists — scan its children
3. Otherwise — walk all subdirectories from repo root
4. Stop descending once SKILL.md is found (no nested skills)

Known Agents

Skills are symlinked into these directories by default:

Agent	Path
standard	~/.agents/skills/
claude	~/.claude/skills/
codex	~/.codex/skills/
openclaw	~/.openclaw/skills/

CLI Path Overrides

Override default paths for testing or custom setups:

skm --config /tmp/test.yaml \
    --store /tmp/store \
    --lock /tmp/lock.yaml \
    --agents-dir /tmp/agents \
    install

Key Paths

• Config: ~/.config/skm/skills.yaml
• Lock: ~/.config/skm/skills-lock.yaml
• Store: ~/.local/share/skm/skills/

Development

uv sync
uv run pytest -v      # run tests
uv run skm --help     # run CLI