DOCUMENTATION.
Learn how to discover, install, and use skills with your AI agents.
What are Skills?
Skills are modular knowledge files that give AI agents procedural superpowers. Each skill is a .md file your agent reads as context — teaching it to accomplish specific tasks more effectively. Think of them as plugins: drop one in, and your agent instantly knows how to do something new.
Getting Started
Skills install into a local .skills/ folder in your project.
# 1. Install the CLI (requires Node.js 20+) npm install -g mdskill # 2. Sign in mdskill login # 3. Add your first skill mdskill add owner/skill-name
After install, the skill lands at .skills/owner/skill-name/SKILL.md — ready for your agent to reference. The .skills/ directory is automatically added to .gitignore.
How Skills are Ranked
The leaderboard ranks skills by install count, drawn from anonymous telemetry collected when the CLI runs mdskill add. No personal data or usage patterns are tracked — only which skills are being installed and how often.
Public vs. Premium
Skills come in two types:
Free to install. Available to all signed-in users. No subscription required.
Requires an active subscription. The CLI displays an upgrade prompt if you try to install without one.
Run mdskill info owner/skill-nameto see a skill's type.
Security
Skills are regularly audited before appearing on the leaderboard. Audit status is visible in each skill's metadata. Always review a skill's contents before installing in sensitive environments.