skill-installer

A CLI tool to manage a personal catalog of Claude Code skill installation commands. Build your collection once, install anywhere.

Why

Claude Code skills are installed via npx/pnpx commands scattered across different repos and docs. You end up hunting through bookmarks, READMEs, and chat histories every time you start a new project. This tool gives you a single catalog you can carry across machines (via git) and run against any project.

Install

# Clone and install globally
git clone https://github.com/david-lai-jpg/skill-installer.git
cd skill-installer
npm install -g .

Requires Node.js >= 18.

Quick Start

# Initialize (first time only)
skill-installer init

# Add a skill to your catalog
skill-installer add

# Browse and install skills into your current project
skill-installer install

Commands

skill-installer init

First-time setup. Creates catalog.json if missing, verifies git remote for syncing, checks Node.js version.

skill-installer add

Interactive prompts to add a new skill:

Field	Required	Notes
name	yes	Must be unique
command	yes	The npx/pnpx install command
category	no	Freeform string for grouping
tags	no	Comma-separated, used for filtering
description	no	What the skill does

If the command matches an existing entry, you'll get a duplicate warning.

skill-installer update

Select a skill from the catalog, then choose which field to edit.

skill-installer delete

Multi-select skills to remove with confirmation.

skill-installer list

Display all cataloged skills. Filter with flags:

skill-installer list                    # all skills
skill-installer list --category react   # by category
skill-installer list --tag performance  # by tag

skill-installer install

The main event. Interactive flow:

1. Optional filter — narrow by category or tag
2. Checkbox selection — pick skills from a grouped list
3. Confirm — review commands before running
4. Execute — runs each command sequentially with stdio: inherit (supports interactive installers)
5. Summary — final report of what succeeded/failed

On failure, you choose to continue or abort. Skipped skills are tracked in the summary.

skill-installer import <file>

Merge skills from a JSON file into your catalog. Handles name collisions per-entry (skip, overwrite, or rename).

skill-installer import ~/shared-skills.json

skill-installer export <file>

Dump your catalog to a JSON file for sharing or backup.

skill-installer export ~/my-skills.json

Catalog Format

The catalog is a JSON array stored in catalog.json at the repo root:

[
  {
    "id": "a1b2c3d4-...",
    "name": "vercel-react-best-practices",
    "command": "npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill vercel-react-best-practices",
    "category": "react",
    "tags": ["performance", "next.js"],
    "description": "Vercel's React/Next.js optimization guidelines"
  }
]

Git Sync

Every catalog mutation (add, update, delete, import) triggers automatic git sync:

1. Pull latest from remote (if configured)
2. Stage catalog.json
3. Commit with "update skill catalog"
4. Push to remote

This keeps your catalog synced across machines. If push fails, the local commit is preserved — push manually when ready.

Project Structure

skill-installer/
├── bin/cli.js          # Entry point, arg routing
├── src/
│   ├── catalog.js      # CRUD operations
│   ├── installer.js    # Select & run flow
│   ├── git.js          # Git sync
│   └── utils.js        # Paths, colors, helpers
├── catalog.json        # Your skill catalog (committed)
└── package.json

Dependencies

Package	Purpose
@inquirer/prompts	Interactive CLI prompts
mri	Minimal argument parsing
picocolors	Terminal colors

License

MIT