SkillCat

SKillCat is a VS Code extension that lets users search for, discover, and install agent skills from GitHub repositories.

Features

• Activity Bar Integration - Quick access to the skill finder from the VS Code activity bar
• Real-time Skill Search - Search for agent skills across GitHub by querying for SKILL.md manifest files
• One-click Skill Install - Install a selected skill directly from the results list
• IDE-aware Skill Placement - Targets the correct global skill folder for VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and Google Antigravity
• Manual IDE Override - Switch between Auto detect, VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and Google Antigravity when you use a custom VS Code fork
• Selectable Install Scope - Choose between global installs and workspace-local installs
• Multi-source Indexing - Indexes skills from GitHub, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, and community repositories simultaneously
• Custom Skill Sources - Add any GitHub repository as an additional skill source directly from the panel
• Grouped Source Manager - View and manage all built-in and custom sources in a grouped QuickPick menu
• GitHub API Integration - Discovers skills directly from GitHub repositories containing SKILL.md files
• Local Fallback - Falls back to a local skills database if the GitHub API is unavailable. Please note that the local fallback is very limited for the time being. I highly recommend curating your own repo of skills and adding it manually so you have the skills you use across every codebase without needing to leave the IDE.

Screenshots

Main Panel

Filter Sources

Built In Skill Editor and Reviewer

Install Scope

Installation Target

Skill Source Manager (Built-in repos are non-removable and non-editable)

How to Use

1. Look for the SkillCat icon in the VS Code activity bar (left sidebar)
2. Click to open the SkillCat panel
3. Type in the search box to find agent skills by name or description
4. Review the install target banner at the top of the panel. Click Change Target if you want to override detection and Change Scope to switch between global and workspace installs.
5. Click Install on any skill to install it into the configured IDE's folder.
6. Click the skill name to visit its repository on GitHub.

Adding Custom Sources

• Click + Add Source in the panel to add any GitHub repository as a skill source. Enter owner/repo to index the whole repo, or owner/repo/path/to/skills to scope to a subfolder.
• Click Manage Sources to see all active sources grouped by type (built-in vs. custom). Select a custom source to remove it.

You can also run SkillCat: Select Install Target or SkillCat: Select Install Scope from the Command Palette, or configure skillFinder.installTarget, skillFinder.installScope, and skillFinder.additionalRepositories in Settings.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.106.3 or later
• Node.js with npm available on PATH
• Optional: a globally installed skills CLI if you want the extension to retry installs without npm
• An open workspace folder if you want to use workspace scope
• Internet connection (for real-time GitHub API searches; local fallback available offline)

Installation

This extension is available on the VS Code Marketplace or through wavfinaudio.com

Technical Details

The extension:

• Uses the GitHub Search API to find repositories containing SKILL.md manifest files
• Extracts skill metadata (name, description, repository) from the search results
• Installs skills through the skills CLI in non-interactive mode so the target agent and destination folder are explicit
• Retries with a direct skills CLI invocation when npm launcher issues prevent npm exec from working
• Falls back to a local skills.json file if the GitHub API is unavailable or rate-limited

Data Source

Skills are indexed from the following built-in sources:

Additional repositories can be added at any time via the + Add Source button or the skillFinder.additionalRepositories setting.

Known Issues

• GitHub API has rate limits (60 requests/hour for unauthenticated requests; 5,000/hour with authentication) I am working on a direct Github integration which lets you Authenticate to raise this.
• Network requests may fail in restricted network environments; local fallback will be used

Release Notes

1.0.0

• Initial release of SkillCat
• Activity bar integration with Webview panel
• GitHub Search API integration for real-time skill discovery
• Support for SKILL.md manifest standard
• Real-time skill search functionality
• Local fallback support
• Full VS Code theme integration

1.0.1

Fixed issue where the extension would fail to install skills when the skills CLI was not globally installed. (we have sinecd removed the skills dependency entirely)

1.0.2

Fixed issue where the extension would not install on any other IDEs due to VSCode version requirements.

1.0.3

Updated README.md to reflect the correct version number and featureset.

1.0.4

• Added built-in skill sources from multiple repositories.
• Added + Add Source button to index any GitHub repository as a custom skill source
• Added Manage Sources panel showing all built-in and custom sources grouped by type; custom sources can be removed from this view
• Added skillFinder.additionalRepositories setting for managing custom sources in VS Code Settings
• Redesigned UI with flat, developer-focused aesthetic using IBM Plex Sans and IBM Plex Mono
• Removed decorative fonts and gradient effects in favour of a clean, minimal developer-tool look

1.0.5

• Refactored UI to better organize skills
• Removed broken skills.sh API search I was trying to get working, it now just fetches from the same repos as skills.sh
• Completely refactored skill installation so as to not rely on skills cli. It supports the following repositories: GitHub Copilot, Antigravity (cleodin), Antigravity (sickn33), Claude / Composio, Anthropic, OpenAI (curated), OpenAI (system), Google Gemini
• Added comprehensive Qoder repository wiki documentation
• Documented API Reference, User Guide, Technical Architecture, and Development Guide
• Added project knowledge base for future contributors

1.0.6

• Refactored UI again (Grouped Skills By Repo, Rebuilt the Webview, added filtering by repo and working on adding more IDEs)
• Updated to work with Github Version 1.106.3 to work with Qoder and VSCode based IDEs that use older versions. -Reorganized how the filtering works, by default everything is enabled. If you want to browse a specific Repo you can do so by just hitting "Sources" and than hit "Filter Sources" and it will allow you to remove existing sources from the view.
• Added a brand new SKill Editor/Reviewer. Click on Any skill and it now opens a Editor window in which lets you review/edit and install the skill right from the window.