Skills
Skills are reusable agent instructions for AI coding tools. Rules are governance guidelines or coding standards.
Types
A skill provides agent instructions, capabilities, or workflows – installed into your tool's skill directory.
A rule provides governance guidelines or coding standards. On some platforms, rules are placed in a separate directory (e.g. .claude/rules/).
Both are stored as Markdown with a maximum size of 512 KB.
Visibility
| Level | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Public | Discoverable in search, profiles, and explore. Installable by anyone. |
| Private | Visible only to team members. Requires authentication to install. |
| Unlisted | Accessible via direct link only. Not shown in search or profiles. |
Versioning
Every publish creates an auto-incrementing version. Content is hashed with SHA-256 so the CLI can detect whether an update is available.
The dashboard shows the full version history for each skill. Owners and admins can revert to any previous version with one click.
Running localskills pull compares the local content hash against the latest version and updates only when they differ.
Supported platforms
| Platform | Path | Scope | Method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | .cursor/rules/{slug}.mdc | Global + project | Symlink |
| Claude Code | .claude/skills/{slug}/SKILL.md | Global + project | Symlink |
| Codex CLI | AGENTS.md | Global + project | Section |
| Windsurf | .windsurf/rules/{slug}.md | Global + project | Section / symlink |
| Cline | .clinerules/{slug}.md | Project only | Symlink |
| GitHub Copilot | .github/copilot-instructions.md | Project only | Section |
| OpenCode | .opencode/rules/{slug}.md | Global + project | Symlink |
| Aider | .aider/skills/{slug}.md | Project only | Symlink |
Install methods
Symlink – Creates a symbolic link from the target location to the cached file in ~/.localskills/cache/. Pulling a new version updates the cache and all symlinks point to the latest content automatically.
Copy – Writes an independent copy of the skill content into the target location. Running localskills pull re-writes the file with updated content.
Section – Embeds the skill in a shared file using marker comments:
<!-- localskills:start:{slug} -->
...skill content...
<!-- localskills:end:{slug} -->Section-based installs are used for platforms that rely on a single shared file (e.g. GitHub Copilot's copilot-instructions.md or Codex CLI's AGENTS.md).