vercel-labs/skills: how npx skills installs, previews and syncs agent skills across coding agents

Skills land in the current project unless you pass -g

The core command takes a source repository and asks which skills and which coding agents to install to. Run it from inside your project:

npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills

The default scope is the current project, so the skill files sit next to your code and travel with it. Adding -g makes the skills available across projects instead. That choice matters for teams: a project install is visible to everyone who clones the repository, while a global install only exists on your machine, and a colleague opening the same project will not get the same agent behavior.

Targeting one skill and one agent out of a multi-skill repository

A source such as vercel-labs/agent-skills holds several skills, and the CLI supports Claude Code, OpenCode, Codex, Cursor and 75 more agents listed in docs/agents.md. When you already know what you want, skip the interactive picker with --skill and -a:

# Choose one skill and agent
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill web-design-guidelines -a claude-code

# Browse available skills
npx skills find

The CLI detects which agents are installed and lets you choose where skills go. Each agent reads skills from its own directory, and those installation paths and compatibility notes live in docs/agents.md, so check that page before assuming a skill installed for one agent is visible to another.

skills use prints a prompt when no agent is named

Not every skill needs to be installed. The use command takes a source@skill pair and either launches a supported coding agent with it or, when you leave out --agent, prints the generated prompt so you can paste it wherever you like:

npx skills use vercel-labs/agent-skills@web-design-guidelines --agent claude-code

This is the low-commitment path for trying a skill once. Nothing is written into the project, which also means nothing is recorded for teammates; if a skill proves useful, you still need skills add to make it part of the repository. The rest of the lifecycle is covered by list, check, update and remove, plus find for searching.

Node.js 22.20 is a hard floor

The CLI requires Node.js 22.20 or later. That rules out machines and CI images pinned to older Node lines. If your build containers run an earlier release, npx skills is not something you can add as a one-line step; you have to upgrade Node in that environment first or run the CLI somewhere else and commit the installed skills. The package declares type module in package.json and exposes two binary names, skills and add-skill, both pointing at bin/cli.mjs, so either name invokes the same program.

experimental_sync and experimental_install can change in any release

Two commands carry the experimental_ prefix, and their names, options and behavior may change or be removed in any release without notice. experimental_sync links skills shipped inside npm dependencies into your project, so they update along with the dependency, and also installs skill packs declared in package.json. experimental_install restores project skills recorded in skills-lock.json.

npm install -D skills agent-browser
npx skills experimental_sync -y

The consequence is practical: a lockfile workflow built on experimental_install is the obvious way to reproduce skills across a team, yet it is exactly the part that can break on upgrade. Releases arrive fast, with v1.7.4 on 2026-10-19, v1.7.5 on 2026-11-02 and v1.7.6 on 2026-11-03, so pin the skills devDependency if scripts depend on these commands. The design discussion behind sync is tracked in issue 2323 on the repository.

Telemetry and security-audit requests are on by default

The CLI collects anonymous usage data unless you opt out. Setting DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 turns it off, but the same switch also disables security-audit requests. You cannot keep one and drop the other with these variables, so an environment that forbids outbound reporting also gives up whatever audit checks the CLI would have made. What is collected is listed in docs/troubleshooting.md, along with other environment variables and common problems; read it before running the tool on a machine with strict egress rules.

Authoring a skill starts with a generated SKILL.md

Creating your own skill is a template step followed by plain text editing:

npx skills init my-skill

The command generates a SKILL.md file that you fill with instructions for your agent. Frontmatter, repository layouts, plugins and the discovery rules that decide whether the CLI finds your skill are covered in docs/creating-skills.md, and the wider format follows the Agent Skills Specification at agentskills.io. Published skills can be discovered through the skills.sh directory. The repository itself is MIT licensed, written in TypeScript, and was last pushed on 2026-11-02.

Editorial conclusion

Use npx skills if you run one or more coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode and want a single command to pull shared instructions into a project. Skip it if you are stuck below Node.js 22.20 or cannot allow outbound telemetry without setting environment variables. Before relying on it in a team, check the agent's skill directory in docs/agents.md and keep experimental_sync and experimental_install out of anything that must stay stable.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official documentation
2. Official README
3. Project repository
4. Release notes