Agent Skills Repository — VS Code extension

Browse, install and update agent skills hosted in your private Skills API.

Features

• Tree view of all available skills, grouped by category path.
• Three states per skill: not installed, installed, update available (badge appears when the version in the catalogue differs from the locally installed one).
• Right-click actions: Preview / Install / Uninstall / Update / Reveal in Explorer.
• Read-only skill preview opens SKILL.md directly from the repository before installation.
• Install location picker: Global (~/.claude/skills), Project (./.github/skills or ./.claude/skills) or any custom directory.
• API key stored in the OS keychain via vscode.SecretStorage.
• "Test Connection" command pings GET /auth/verify to validate the URL + key.

Setup

1. Install the extension (npm install && npm run build, then F5 to launch an Extension Development Host, or vsce package to produce a .vsix).
2. Open the Agent Skills Repository view (gear icon → Open Settings) and set:
   • API URL — your Skills API base URL.
   • API key — paste it; stored in the OS-native secret store.
   • Default scope — global or project.
   • Project skills path — defaults to .github/skills.
   • Global skills path — defaults to ~/.claude/skills.
3. Click Test Connection to verify. It now asserts the endpoint returns {ok:true}, so a stray app on the same port can't pass.
4. Use Refresh to load the catalogue.

How install tracking works

Each install directory keeps a .skills-manifest.json with one entry per installed skill:

{
  "version": 1,
  "skills": {
    "general/git/commit-helper": {
      "id": "general/git/commit-helper",
      "name": "Commit Helper",
      "installedVersion": "1.2.0",
      "source": "https://skills.example.com",
      "installedAt": "2026-05-15T10:00:00.000Z",
      "files": ["SKILL.md", "skill.yml"],
      "scope": "project",
      "installPath": "/abs/path/.github/skills/commit-helper"
    }
  }
}

The extension reads this file from both the project and global locations to decide whether a skill is installed and which version. Don't edit it by hand unless you know what you're doing — uninstall through the UI instead.

Commands