Skillsmith
Discover, search, and install agent skills directly in VS Code. Works with any MCP-compatible agent — Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Windsurf.
Why Skillsmith?
- Browse the Skillsmith skill registry from your VS Code sidebar
- View skill details with rendered SKILL.md documentation
- One-click install skills to
~/.claude/skills
Features
| Feature |
Description |
| Sidebar Skill Tree |
Browse skills grouped into Installed and Available sections, with a trust-tier badge shown per skill |
| Skill Search |
Search the registry by keyword — trust-tier badges are shown on each result |
| Detail Panel |
Rich skill detail view with rendered SKILL.md content, score breakdown, and metadata |
| Recommend Skills |
Contextual skill recommendations based on your installed skills, surfaced in a quick pick |
| Compare Skills |
Side-by-side comparison of two skills in a panel with quality, trust tier, key differences, and a recommendation |
| Check for Updates |
Compares an installed skill against the latest registry version and advises whether to update (Individual plan or higher) |
| Audit Skill Inventory |
Scans your local ~/.claude/ for namespace collisions and shows a report with suggested renames |
| MCP Integration |
Live data from the Skillsmith API via Model Context Protocol |
| Offline Fallback |
Works offline with cached local skill data |
Filtering
Click Filter Skills in the Skills view title bar to narrow discovery results by:
- Trust tier — Official, Verified, Curated, Community, or Unverified
- Category — limit results to a specific skill category
- Minimum score — set a quality floor so lower-rated skills are hidden
A persistent banner in the Skills view shows your active query and any filters so you always know what you're looking at. Use Clear Skill Filters (available in the title bar when filters are active) to reset them. Filters are cleared automatically when the window reloads.
Browsing and Detail View
The sidebar displays skills with rich metadata on each row: author, category, score, and an installed indicator when the skill is also available locally. Click a skill to open the detail panel, where a sticky header keeps the Install or Uninstall button visible while you scroll through documentation. For installed skills, the detail panel offers quick shortcuts to open the skill's SKILL.md file or reveal its folder in the operating system.
Local-first by design. Skillsmith caches the registry in a local SQLite database at ~/.skillsmith/skills.db, shared across the MCP server, the CLI, and the VS Code extension. Search is FTS5 (SQLite's built-in keyword search) by default; semantic search is opt-in (SKILLSMITH_USE_HNSW=true) and runs over local ONNX embeddings (an open ML model format that runs on CPU — no API call). Inside the Local Skill Database walks through the schema, the FTS5 / HNSW search paths, and how sync keeps the cache fresh.
Getting Started
- Install Skillsmith from the VS Code Marketplace.
- The extension auto-connects to the Skillsmith MCP server.
- Open the Skillsmith sidebar (activity bar icon) to browse and search skills.
For MCP server setup and configuration, see the Skillsmith documentation.
Configuration Reference
All settings are under the skillsmith.* namespace in VS Code Settings.
| Setting |
Type |
Default |
Description |
skillsmith.skillsDirectory |
string |
~/.claude/skills |
Directory where skills are installed |
skillsmith.apiEndpoint |
string |
"" |
Custom API endpoint for skill search (leave empty for default) |
skillsmith.mcp.serverCommand |
string |
npx |
Command to run the MCP server |
skillsmith.mcp.serverArgs |
string[] |
["@skillsmith/mcp-server"] |
Arguments for the MCP server command |
skillsmith.mcp.autoConnect |
boolean |
true |
Automatically connect to MCP server on extension activation |
skillsmith.mcp.autoReconnect |
boolean |
true |
Automatically reconnect when connection is lost |
skillsmith.mcp.connectionTimeout |
number |
30000 |
Connection timeout in milliseconds |
skillsmith.mcp.minServerVersion |
string |
"0.4.9" |
Minimum required MCP server version. Older servers trigger a non-blocking update prompt. |
skillsmith.telemetry.enabled |
boolean |
true |
Opt-out for anonymous usage telemetry. Also respects VS Code's global telemetry.telemetryLevel. |
skillsmith.telemetryEndpoint |
string |
"" |
Telemetry POST target. Empty (default) disables all network calls. |
Requirements
Node.js 18+ is required for the MCP server connection. The extension itself runs without Node.js.
Privacy
The extension emits anonymous usage events for the Create Skill and Uninstall Skill commands (SMI-4194) when — and only when — all of these are true:
- VS Code's global
telemetry.telemetryLevel is not off.
- The
skillsmith.telemetry.enabled setting is true (default).
- The
skillsmith.telemetryEndpoint setting is a non-empty URL (no default — telemetry is off out of the box).
Events carry an anonymous cohort UUID generated on first activation and persisted in the extension's globalState. The UUID is never tied to a user account, email, or any PII. Event payloads include only the event name, extension version, and VS Code version. Network calls are fire-and-forget with a 2-second timeout.
Disable at any time by setting skillsmith.telemetry.enabled: false or by clearing skillsmith.telemetryEndpoint.
Testing
Unit tests run inside the Skillsmith Docker dev container:
docker exec skillsmith-dev-1 npm test -w packages/vscode-extension
Integration tests use @vscode/test-electron, which launches a real VS Code Extension Host. Electron has no display server inside the container, so integration tests run on the host (per ADR-113, the VS Code extension is host-only):
npm --prefix packages/vscode-extension run test:integration
Links
License
Elastic License 2.0
