Skill Manager

Manage Claude Code skills as git repositories cloned from GitHub.

Strategy

Skills are git repositories containing a SKILL.md file. They can be installed in two locations:

• User skills (~/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/) - available in all projects
• Project skills (<project>/.claude/skills/<skill-name>/) - available only in that project

Each skill is cloned from a GitHub repository. Updates are done via git pull. Versions are tracked by git commit SHA.

Important: Most projects are already git repositories. When installing a skill into a project, it must be added as a git submodule so it can be tracked and shared with collaborators. User skills are regular clones since ~/.claude/skills/ is typically not a git repo.

Important: Clarify Install Location First

When installing a skill, ALWAYS ask the user whether they want:

• User install - available in ALL projects (regular git clone)
• Project install - available only in the current project (git submodule)

Do NOT proceed with installation until the user has specified which location they want.

Helper Script

resolve_url.py

Resolves GitHub shorthand to full URL. Returns: <url> <repo-name>

python scripts/resolve_url.py user/repo
# Output: https://github.com/user/repo repo

Note: The repo name is used as the default skill directory name. If a skill with that name already exists, ask the user for an alternative name to avoid conflicts.

Install a Skill (User)

1. Resolve the repository URL:

python scripts/resolve_url.py user/repo

2. Create the skills directory if needed:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills

3. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/user/repo ~/.claude/skills/repo

4. Check for dependencies:

cat ~/.claude/skills/repo/requirements.txt

If the file exists, install with:

pip install -r ~/.claude/skills/repo/requirements.txt

Install a Skill (Project)

1. Resolve the repository URL:

python scripts/resolve_url.py user/repo

2. Create the skills directory if needed:

mkdir -p /path/to/project/.claude/skills

3. Add as a git submodule:

git -C /path/to/project submodule add https://github.com/user/repo .claude/skills/repo

4. Check for dependencies:

cat /path/to/project/.claude/skills/repo/requirements.txt

If the file exists, install with:

pip install -r /path/to/project/.claude/skills/repo/requirements.txt

Update a Skill (User)

git -C ~/.claude/skills/skill-name pull

Update a Skill (Project)

git -C /path/to/project/.claude/skills/skill-name pull
git -C /path/to/project add .claude/skills/skill-name

Remove a Skill (User)

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/skill-name

Remove a Skill (Project)

git -C /path/to/project submodule deinit -f .claude/skills/skill-name
git -C /path/to/project rm -f .claude/skills/skill-name
rm -rf /path/to/project/.git/modules/.claude/skills/skill-name

Check Skill Version

git -C ~/.claude/skills/skill-name rev-parse --short HEAD