Skills Manager Extension

A VS Code and Cursor extension that provides a graphical interface for managing agent skills. Built on top of the Skills CLI created by Vercel.

Features

🎯 Visual Skills Management

• Tree view of all installed skills organized by scope (Global / Project)
• One-click install/update/remove with inline buttons
• Automatic update detection — checks for skill updates every 2 hours via GitHub API
• Update indicator on skills that have newer versions available

📚 Repository Management

• Subscribe to multiple repositories (GitHub, GitLab, local paths)
• Browse available skills from your subscribed repositories
• Skill details panel with full description in a formatted webview

⚙️ Flexible Installation

• Choose scope: Project only, Global, or Both
• Choose target agents: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, OpenCode, and more
• Scope-aware updates: update a skill in one scope without affecting the other

GitHub Authentication (for update checking)

The extension checks for skill updates using the GitHub API. To enable this, configure your GitHub token from the Configuration section in the extension sidebar:

1. Open the Skills Manager panel
2. Click "Configure GitHub Token" under Configuration
3. Paste your GitHub Personal Access Token

Without a token, you can still install and manage skills but update checking will be limited to 60 requests/hour for public repos and won't work for private repos.

Installation

Install from the VS Code Marketplace, then open the panel with Cmd+Shift+P → Skills: Show Skills Explorer.

Cursor

Search for Skills Manager in the Extensions tab. If the extension doesn't appear (e.g. it was recently published), you can install it manually:

1. Download the .vsix file from this repository.
2. In Cursor, Cmd+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX... and select the file.
3. Open the panel: Cmd+Shift+P → Skills: Show Skills Explorer.

Quick Start

1. Add a Repository: Click the "+" button in the Repositories section of the sidebar
2. Browse Skills: Expand "Available Skills" to see skills from your subscribed repos
3. Install a Skill: Click the install button on any available skill, choose scope and agents
4. Check for Updates: Use the refresh button or wait for automatic checks every 2 hours

Usage

Adding a Repository

1. Open the Skills Manager panel in the sidebar
2. Click "+" next to "Repositories"
3. Choose repository type (GitHub, GitLab, or Local)
4. Enter a name for the repository (e.g., "My Skills", "Company Skills")
5. Enter the repository URL or select a local folder

Installing Skills

1. Expand "Available Skills" in the tree view
2. Click the install button (⬇) on any skill
3. Choose installation scope: Project only, Global, or Both
4. Select target agents (Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, etc.)

Updating Skills

• Skills with available updates show an update indicator (⬆) in the tree view
• Click the update button to update a specific skill
• Use Cmd+Shift+P → Skills: Check for Updates to force a check

Removing Skills

• Click the uninstall button (🗑) on any installed skill
• Confirm the removal

Supported Agents

The extension works with any agent supported by the Skills CLI:

• Cursor
• GitHub Copilot
• Claude Code
• OpenCode
• Antigravity
• Codex
• And 40+ more...

Skill Discovery

The extension uses the Skills CLI for discovering skills in repositories. The CLI searches for folders containing a SKILL.md file across many locations including skills/, agent-specific directories (.cursor/skills/, .claude/skills/, etc.), and the repository root itself.

Lock Files

The extension uses lock files to track installed skills and detect updates:

• Project lock (skills-lock.json in your project root) — tracks skills installed with project scope. This file should be committed to your repo so all team members share the same skills.
• Global lock (~/.agents/.skill-lock.json) — tracks skills installed globally, managed by the Skills CLI.

After each install or update, the extension enriches these lock files with a skillFolderHash (the GitHub Tree SHA of the skill folder) which is used to detect when a newer version is available remotely.