Looker Developer Skills Repository

This repository contains a collection of "skills" designed to assist AI agents and developers in writing high-quality, standardized LookML code and guiding them through Looker onboarding. Each skill encapsulates specific instructions, best practices, and examples for different aspects of Looker development.

Installation & Usage

To use these skills in your own projects—especially to enhance AI assistants like Gemini, Cursor, Antigravity, or Claude Code—we recommend adding this repository to your project.

Installation via npx skills add (Recommended)

The skills CLI is a tool used to install and manage specialized instructions (skills) for AI agents in your workspace. To install these LookML skills in your project, use npx skills add.

npx skills add looker-open-source/looker-skills

Installing as an Agent Plugin

You can install this repository as a plugin in your favorite AI coding agent to expose these LookML and onboarding skills:

Antigravity CLI

Install the plugin directly from the Git repository:

agy plugin install https://github.com/looker-open-source/looker-skills

Claude Code

First, clone the repository locally:

git clone https://github.com/looker-open-source/looker-skills.git

To run Claude Code with the plugin loaded temporarily:

claude --plugin-dir ./looker-skills

To install the plugin persistently:

claude plugin install ./looker-skills

Codex

Run the installer script to clone the repository locally and register it in your personal marketplace:

curl -sSL -o codex-install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/looker-open-source/looker-skills/main/codex-install.sh && bash codex-install.sh

Once complete, restart Codex and open the plugin manager (/plugins) to verify that the Looker Developer Skills plugin is active.

Core LookML Skills

These skills provide specific instructions for creating and modifying LookML objects.

Models

• lookml-model: Instructions for creating and configuring Model files, including connections and includes.

Explores

• lookml-explore: Basic Explore definition, including descriptions, labels, and basic joins.
• lookml-explore-joins: Detailed guidance on defining joins, relationships, and SQL conditions.
• lookml-explore-advanced: Advanced configurations like access_filter, sql_always_where, and UNNESTing arrays.

Views

• lookml-view: Standard View definitions, sql_table_name, and file organization (Standard, Extended, Refined).
• lookml-view-derived-table: Creating Native Derived Tables (NDT) and SQL Derived Tables (SDT).
• lookml-refinements: Deep dive into LookML includes, refinements (layering), and project structure best practices.
• lookml-sets: Guide to using LookML sets for grouping fields, controlling visibility, and managing drill paths.

Fields

• lookml-fields: Overview of LookML field types (Dimension, Measure, Filter, Parameter) and the role of the sql parameter in each.
• lookml-fields-dimension: Creating Dimensions, including HTML, links, and tier types.
• lookml-fields-measure: Creating Measures, including aggregation types and drill fields.
• lookml-fields-dimension-group: Defining Dimension Groups for time and duration, including timeframe best practices.
• lookml-fields-filter-parameter: Creating Filter-only fields and Parameters for dynamic interactivity.
• lookml-fields-value-format: Standard and custom formatting for numeric and currency fields.

Advanced Functionality

Logic & Security

• lookml-liquid: Using Liquid variables for dynamic SQL, HTML, and links.
• lookml-access-grants: Implementing access_grant and required_access_grants for row-level security.
• lookml-tests: Writing LookML tests for Views and Explores.

Performance & Optimization

• looker-performance-optimizer: Master developer skill for auditing, diagnosing, and optimizing query performance in Looker projects, including caching, PDT strategies, and SQL profiling.
• lookml-caching-datagroups: Caching alignment strategies, ETL-triggered datagroups, and persistency tuning.
• lookml-query-diagnostics: Guidelines for running diagnostic queries, analyzing SQL explain plans, and identifying bottlenecks.
• lookml-pdt-optimization: PDT optimization standards, index/partition configurations, and incremental materializations.
• lookml-refactoring: Field-level optimization, join pruning, and eliminating redundant calculations.

Developer Onboarding Skills

These skills guide new Looker developers and agents through database exploration, CLI setup, project configuration, LookML modeling, and dashboard creation.

• looker-developer-onboarding: Orchestrator skill coordinating the e2e onboarding journey.
• onboarding-preflight-check: Verifying local system prerequisites (gcloud, bq, permissions) and cloud IAM roles.
• exploring-data-for-looker: Exploring BigQuery data schemas to define onboarding goals.
• installing-looker-cli: Verifying the CLI installation.
• authenticating-looker-cli: Authenticating the CLI via OAuth.
• connecting-looker-to-bigquery: Creating a database connection to BigQuery.
• setting-up-looker-project: Creating Looker project and Git repo.
• creating-lookml-model: Defining views, explores, models, and running verification queries.
• creating-looker-dashboard: Creating LookML dashboard, importing UDD, and iterating on feedback.
• lookml-modeling-guidelines: Consolidated LookML modeling best practices and CLI commands syntax.