SkillCat

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, Google Antigravity, and Zed
• Manual IDE Override - Switch between Auto detect, VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Google Antigravity, and Zed 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
• Flat, Developer-focused UI - Clean monospace interface designed for developer workflow

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 1.107.0 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)
• 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.

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