Install Your First Skill

What You'll Learn

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

Install skills from Anthropic official repository to your project
Use interactive selection interface to choose the skills you need
Understand where skills are installed (.claude/skills/ directory)
Verify that skills are successfully installed

Prerequisites

This tutorial assumes you have completed OpenSkills installation. If you haven't installed it yet, please complete the installation steps first.

Your Current Challenges

You may have just finished installing OpenSkills, but:

Don't know where to find skills: There are many skill repositories on GitHub, and you don't know which one is official
Don't know how to install skills: You know there's an install command, but you don't know how to use it
Worried about installing in the wrong place: Afraid skills will be installed globally and become inaccessible when switching projects

These are common issues. Let's solve them step by step.

When to Use This Approach

Installing your first skill is suitable for these scenarios:

First time using OpenSkills and want to experience it quickly
Need to use skills provided by Anthropic official repository (such as PDF processing, Git workflows, etc.)
Want to use skills in the current project instead of installing them globally

Recommended Practice

For the first installation, it's recommended to start with the Anthropic official repository anthropics/skills, as these skills are high-quality and verified.

🎒 Before You Start

Before beginning, please confirm:

[ ] Completed OpenSkills installation
[ ] Navigated to your project directory
[ ] Configured Git (for cloning GitHub repositories)

Prerequisites Check

If you don't have a project directory yet, you can create a temporary directory for practice:

bash

mkdir my-project && cd my-project

Core Concept: Installing Skills from GitHub

OpenSkills supports installing skills from GitHub repositories. The installation process works like this:

[Specify repository] → [Clone to temp directory] → [Find SKILL.md] → [Interactive selection] → [Copy to .claude/skills/]

Key points:

Use owner/repo format to specify GitHub repository
The tool automatically clones the repository to a temporary directory
Finds all subdirectories containing SKILL.md
Selects skills to install through an interactive interface
Skills are copied to the project's .claude/skills/ directory

Follow Along

Step 1: Navigate to Your Project Directory

First, navigate to your development project directory:

bash

cd /path/to/your/project

Why

OpenSkills installs skills to the project's .claude/skills/ directory by default, so skills can be version-controlled with the project and shared among team members.

What You Should See:

Your project directory should contain one of the following:

.git/ (Git repository)
package.json (Node.js project)
Other project files

Recommended Practice

Even for a new project, it's recommended to initialize a Git repository first to better manage skill files.

Step 2: Install Skills

Use the following command to install skills from the Anthropic official skill repository:

bash

npx openskills install anthropics/skills

Why

anthropics/skills is the official skill repository maintained by Anthropic, containing high-quality skill examples suitable for first-time experience.

What You Should See:

The command will launch an interactive selection interface:

Installing from: anthropics/skills
Location: project (.claude/skills)
Default install is project-local (./.claude/skills). Use --global for ~/.claude/skills.

Cloning repository...
✓ Repository cloned

Found 4 skill(s)

? Select skills to install:
❯ ◉ pdf (24 KB)    Comprehensive PDF manipulation toolkit for extracting text and tables...
  ◯ git-workflow (12 KB)   Git workflow: Best practices for commits, branches, and PRs...
  ◯ check-branch-first (8 KB)    Git workflow: Always check current branch before making changes...
  ◯ skill-creator (16 KB)   Guide for creating effective skills...

<Space> select  <a> select all  <i> invert selection  <Enter> confirm

Operation Guide:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Operation Instructions                                     │
│                                                             │
│  Step 1        Step 2           Step 3                      │
│  Move cursor  →  Press Space   →  Press Enter               │
│                                                            │
│  ○ Unselected      ◉ Selected                                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

You should see:
- Cursor can move up and down
- Press spacebar to toggle selection (○ ↔ ◉)
- Press Enter to confirm installation

Step 3: Select Skills

In the interactive interface, select the skills you want to install.

Example:

Suppose you want to install the PDF processing skill:

? Select skills to install:
❯ ◉ pdf (24 KB)    ← Select this one
  ◯ git-workflow (12 KB)
  ◯ check-branch-first (8 KB)
  ◯ skill-creator (16 KB)

Operations:

Move cursor: Use the up and down arrow keys to move to the pdf line
Select skill: Press Spacebar, ensuring there's a ◉ instead of ◯ in front
Confirm installation: Press Enter to start installation

What You Should See:

✅ Installed: pdf
   Location: /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/pdf

Skills installed to: /path/to/your/project/.claude/skills/

Next steps:
  → Run openskills sync to generate AGENTS.md with your installed skills
  → Run openskills list to see all installed skills

Advanced Operations

If you want to install multiple skills at once:

Press spacebar to select each needed skill (multiple ◉)
Press <a> to select all skills
Press <i> to invert current selection

Step 4: Verify Installation

After installation is complete, verify that the skill has been successfully installed to the project directory.

Check directory structure:

bash

ls -la .claude/skills/

What You Should See:

.claude/skills/
└── pdf/
    ├── SKILL.md
    ├── .openskills.json
    ├── references/
    │   ├── pdf-extraction.md
    │   └── table-extraction.md
    └── scripts/
        └── extract-pdf.js

Key Files Explanation:

File	Purpose
`SKILL.md`	Main content and instructions for the skill
`.openskills.json`	Installation metadata (records source, used for updates)
`references/`	Reference documents and detailed explanations
`scripts/`	Executable scripts

View skill metadata:

bash

cat .claude/skills/pdf/.openskills.json

What You Should See:

json

{
  "source": "anthropics/skills",
  "sourceType": "git",
  "repoUrl": "https://github.com/anthropics/skills",
  "subpath": "pdf",
  "installedAt": "2026-01-24T10:30:00.000Z"
}

This metadata file records the source information of the skill, which will be used when running openskills update later.

Checklist ✅

After completing the above steps, please confirm:

[ ] Command line displayed the interactive selection interface
[ ] Successfully selected at least one skill (marked with ◉)
[ ] Installation succeeded, showing ✅ Installed: message
[ ] .claude/skills/ directory has been created
[ ] Skill directory contains SKILL.md file
[ ] Skill directory contains .openskills.json metadata file

If all the above checks pass, congratulations! Your first skill has been successfully installed.

Common Pitfalls

Problem 1: Failed to clone repository

Error Message:

✗ Failed to clone repository
fatal: repository 'https://github.com/anthropics/skills' not found

Cause:

Network connection issues
Incorrect GitHub repository address

Solution:

Check network connection: ping github.com
Confirm repository address is correct (in owner/repo format)

Problem 2: No interactive selection interface

Symptom:

Command installed all skills directly without showing a selection interface.

Cause:

There's only one SKILL.md file in the repository (single-skill repository)
Used -y or --yes flag (skips selection)

Solution:

If it's a single-skill repository, this is normal behavior
If you need selection, remove the -y flag

Problem 3: Permission error

Error Message:

Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '.claude/skills'

Cause:

Current directory lacks write permission

Solution:

Check directory permissions: ls -la
Use sudo or switch to a directory with proper permissions

Problem 4: SKILL.md not found

Error Message:

Error: No SKILL.md files found in repository

Cause:

Repository doesn't contain properly formatted skill files

Solution:

Confirm if the repository is a skill repository
Check the directory structure of the repository

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned:

Use openskills install anthropics/skills to install skills from the official repository
Select skills in interactive interface, using spacebar to select and Enter to confirm
Skills are installed to .claude/skills/ directory, including SKILL.md and metadata
Verify successful installation by checking directory structure and file contents

Core Commands:

Command	Purpose
`npx openskills install anthropics/skills`	Install skills from official repository
`ls .claude/skills/`	View installed skills
`cat .claude/skills/<name>/.openskills.json`	View skill metadata

Up Next

In the next lesson, we'll learn Using Skills.
You will learn:
Use openskills read command to read skill content
Understand how AI agents load skills into context
Master the 4-level priority order for skill lookup

Installing skills is just the first step. Next, you need to understand how AI agents use these skills.

Appendix: Source Code Reference

Click to expand source code locations

Updated: 2026-01-24

Function	File Path	Line Numbers
Install command entry point	`src/commands/install.ts`	83-183
Installation location detection (project vs global)	`src/commands/install.ts`	84-92
GitHub shorthand parsing	`src/commands/install.ts`	131-143
Repository cloning	`src/commands/install.ts`	155-169
Recursive skill lookup	`src/commands/install.ts`	358-373
Interactive selection interface	`src/commands/install.ts`	427-455
Skill copying and installation	`src/commands/install.ts`	461-486
Official skills list (conflict warning)	`src/utils/marketplace-skills.ts`	1-25

Key Functions:

installFromRepo() - Install skills from repository, supports interactive selection
installSpecificSkill() - Install skill from specified subpath
installFromLocal() - Install skills from local path
warnIfConflict() - Check and warn about skill conflicts

Key Constants:

ANTHROPIC_MARKETPLACE_SKILLS - List of Anthropic Marketplace skills, used for conflict warnings

Getting Started

Platform Features

Advanced Features

FAQ

Appendix

Changelog

Install Your First Skill

What You'll Learn

Your Current Challenges

When to Use This Approach

🎒 Before You Start

Core Concept: Installing Skills from GitHub

Follow Along

Step 1: Navigate to Your Project Directory

Step 2: Install Skills

Step 3: Select Skills

Step 4: Verify Installation

Checklist ✅

Common Pitfalls

Problem 1: Failed to clone repository

Problem 2: No interactive selection interface

Problem 3: Permission error

Problem 4: SKILL.md not found

Lesson Summary

Up Next

Appendix: Source Code Reference

Install Your First Skill ​

What You'll Learn ​

Your Current Challenges ​

When to Use This Approach ​

🎒 Before You Start ​

Core Concept: Installing Skills from GitHub ​

Follow Along ​

Step 1: Navigate to Your Project Directory ​

Step 2: Install Skills ​

Step 3: Select Skills ​

Step 4: Verify Installation ​

Checklist ✅ ​

Common Pitfalls ​

Problem 1: Failed to clone repository ​

Problem 2: No interactive selection interface ​

Problem 3: Permission error ​

Problem 4: SKILL.md not found ​

Lesson Summary ​

Up Next ​

Appendix: Source Code Reference ​

Install Your First Skill

What You'll Learn

Your Current Challenges

When to Use This Approach

🎒 Before You Start

Core Concept: Installing Skills from GitHub

Follow Along

Step 1: Navigate to Your Project Directory

Step 2: Install Skills

Step 3: Select Skills

Step 4: Verify Installation

Checklist ✅

Common Pitfalls

Problem 1: Failed to clone repository

Problem 2: No interactive selection interface

Problem 3: Permission error

Problem 4: SKILL.md not found

Lesson Summary

Up Next

Appendix: Source Code Reference