Claude Skills
Pick Claude Code skills for your tech stack from shared libraries.
The extension detects what your project uses, installs only those modules (plus what they depend on), keeps
teammates on the same set through a committed manifest, and shows how many tokens the skills add to every session.
How it works
A library is a GitHub repo of modules, grouped in layers:
| Layer |
Examples |
| Core |
code quality, naming, architecture, software design and patterns, review workflow |
| Languages |
TypeScript, Dart |
| Frontend |
React, Next.js, MUI, next-intl, Amplify client |
| Backend |
AWS Lambda, Amplify Gen 2 |
| Data |
DynamoDB |
| Testing |
Jest, Storybook, Playwright |
Modules declare what they need. Adding Amplify Gen 2 also brings in Lambda, DynamoDB, TypeScript and the core
modules, so you choose one thing and get a consistent set.
Using it
Open a project. That's it. The extension inspects it and installs only the skills that match:
- Modules by what the project uses: dependencies in every
package.json (monorepo packages too), marker files
and npm scripts.
- Skills by their own rules inside each module, e.g.
nextjs-server-action only if the code contains
'use server', llm-functions only with an LLM SDK, amplify-lambda only if amplify/functions/ exists.
Skills that don't apply show as not used in this project and cost nothing.
A notification shows what was set up, with Review and Undo. After that the skills follow the project:
add or remove a dependency and the matching skills arrive or leave (shown in the status bar).
Adjust in the Claude Skills view; every choice is saved as an override in .claude/skills.json:
- Turn Off (⊘) a detected module the project doesn't want; it stays off.
- Exclude a skill (right-click), or include a skipped one (
+).
- Find Module (search icon) or Apply Preset (
… menu) for modules detection can't see.
- Remove All Installed Skills (
… menu) to start over.
By default the sidebar shows only modules in use, required, detected or turned off. Show All Modules browses
the whole library.
Files it writes
With the default workspace scope, everything goes under the project's .claude/ folder:
| File |
Purpose |
Commit it? |
.claude/skills.json |
Libraries, autoDetect, and your overrides (modules added or turned off, skills included or excluded) |
Yes |
.claude/claude-skills.lock.json |
What the extension installed, with versions |
Yes |
.claude/skills/<name>/ |
Installed skills |
Yes, so Claude works without the extension |
.claude/agents/<name>.md |
Installed subagents |
Yes |
Skills and agents you created by hand are never overwritten or deleted. Only items in the lock file are managed.
When a teammate opens the repo, the extension offers to install anything in skills.json that's missing. When
skills.json changes in a pull, the sidebar follows it.
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
|
claudeSkills.sources |
the shared library |
Libraries to use until a project has its own skills.json |
claudeSkills.installScope |
workspace |
workspace uses the project's .claude/; user uses ~/.claude/ for every project |
claudeSkills.setupMode |
auto |
auto sets up projects and follows dependency changes; ask confirms first; manual only acts on your commands |
claudeSkills.budgetWarningTokens |
3000 |
Warn when skill descriptions would add more than this to every session |
claudeSkills.showAllModules |
false |
List the whole library instead of only relevant modules |
Several libraries, including private ones
"claudeSkills.sources": [
{ "name": "Shared", "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Tharaka-Chathuranga/claude-skills/library-v1.0.0/skills-library" },
{ "name": "Acme", "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/acme/claude-skills-acme/main", "auth": "github" }
]
With "auth": "github", VS Code asks you to sign in to GitHub once and uses that token to read the repo.
Pin url to a tag to choose when a project picks up library changes.
To prompt teammates to install the extension, add it to .vscode/extensions.json:
{ "recommendations": ["TharakaChathuranga.claude-skills"] }
Notes
- Token numbers are estimates from description length. In Claude Code,
/context and /skill-doctor show the
real figures.
- GitHub caches raw files for a few minutes, so a change you just pushed to a branch may take up to 5 minutes to appear.
- Detection reads the
package.json at the root of the first workspace folder.
Development
npm install
npm run compile # or: npm run watch
Press F5 in VS Code to launch an Extension Development Host with the extension loaded.
Publishing (free)
- Create a publisher at https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/manage and put its id in
package.json
under publisher.
- Create an Azure DevOps personal access token with the Marketplace > Manage scope, then run
npx vsce login <publisher>.
npm run package builds a .vsix you can share directly or install with Extensions: Install from VSIX....npm run publish:vscode publishes to the VS Code Marketplace.npx ovsx create-namespace <publisher> -p <token> once, then npm run publish:openvsx -- -p <token>,
publishes to Open VSX for Cursor, VSCodium and Windsurf users.
