381,784 Collected SKILL.md files

Explore AI Agent Skills & Claude Prompts

Discover open-source agent skills for Claude Code, Codex, ChatGPT, and any tool that uses SKILL.md.

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microsoft
Showing 12 of 549 skills
microsoft

anthropic-sdk-upgrader

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Use this agent when the user needs to upgrade Anthropic SDK packages. This includes: upgrading @anthropic-ai/sdk or @anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk to newer versions, migrating between SDK versions, resolving SDK-related dependency conflicts, updating SDK types and interfaces, or asking about SDK upgrade procedures. Examples: 'Upgrade the Anthropic SDK to the latest version', 'Help me migrate to the latest claude-agent-sdk', 'What's the process for upgrading Anthropic packages?'

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 3 months ago
microsoft

agent-customization

by microsoft
star 186.5k

**WORKFLOW SKILL** — Create, update, review, fix, or debug VS Code agent customization files (.instructions.md, .prompt.md, .agent.md, SKILL.md, copilot-instructions.md, AGENTS.md). USE FOR: saving coding preferences; troubleshooting why instructions/skills/agents are ignored or not invoked; configuring applyTo patterns; defining tool restrictions; creating custom agent modes or specialized workflows; packaging domain knowledge; fixing YAML frontmatter syntax. DO NOT USE FOR: general coding questions (use default agent); runtime debugging or error diagnosis; MCP server configuration (use MCP docs directly); VS Code extension development. INVOKES: file system tools (read/write customization files), ask-questions tool (interview user for requirements), subagents for codebase exploration. FOR SINGLE OPERATIONS: For quick YAML frontmatter fixes or creating a single file from a known pattern, edit the file directly — no skill needed.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 2 months ago
microsoft

accessibility

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Primary accessibility skill for VS Code. REQUIRED for new feature and contribution work, and also applies to updates of existing UI. Covers accessibility help dialogs, accessible views, verbosity settings, signals, ARIA announcements, keyboard navigation, and ARIA labels/roles.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 3 months ago
microsoft

add-policy

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Use when adding, modifying, or reviewing VS Code configuration policies. Covers the full policy lifecycle from registration to export to platform-specific artifacts. Run on ANY change that adds a `policy:` field to a configuration property.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 8 days ago
microsoft

act-on-feedback

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Act on user feedback attached to the current session. Use when the user submits feedback on the session's changes via the Submit Feedback button.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 12 days ago
microsoft

memory-leak-audit

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Audit code for memory leaks and disposable issues. Use when reviewing event listeners, DOM handlers, lifecycle callbacks, or fixing leak reports. Covers addDisposableListener, Event.once, MutableDisposable, DisposableStore, and onWillDispose patterns.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 26 days ago
microsoft

heap-snapshot-analysis

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Analyze V8 heap snapshots to investigate memory leaks and retention issues. Use when given .heapsnapshot files, asked to compare before/after snapshots, asked to find what retains objects, or investigating why objects survive GC. Provides snapshot parsing, comparison, retainer-path helpers, and scratchpad scripts.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 2 months ago
microsoft

cpu-profile-analysis

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Analyze V8/Chrome CPU profiles (.cpuprofile) and DevTools trace files (Trace-*.json). Use when: profiling performance, investigating slow functions, comparing code paths, finding bottlenecks, analyzing timeToRequest, understanding call trees from sampling profiler data, analyzing layout/paint/rendering, investigating user timing marks.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 2 months ago
microsoft

azure-pipelines

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Use when validating Azure DevOps pipeline changes for the VS Code build. Covers queueing builds, checking build status, viewing logs, and iterating on pipeline YAML changes without waiting for full CI runs.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 3 months ago
microsoft

auto-perf-optimize

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Run agent-driven VS Code performance or memory investigations. Use when asked to launch Code OSS, automate a VS Code scenario, run the Chat memory smoke runner, capture renderer heap snapshots, take workflow screenshots, compare run summaries, or drive a repeatable scenario before heap-snapshot analysis.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 1 month ago
microsoft

author-contributions

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Identify all files a specific author contributed to on a branch vs its upstream, tracing code through renames. Use when asked who edited what, what code an author contributed, or to audit authorship before a merge. This skill should be run as a subagent — it performs many git operations and returns a concise table.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 4 months ago
microsoft

commit

by microsoft
star 186.5k

Commit staged or unstaged changes with an AI-generated commit message that matches the repository's existing commit style. Use when the user asks to 'commit', 'commit changes', 'create a commit', 'save my work', or 'check in code'.

navigation main article SKILL.md
schedule Updated 3 months ago
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Browse Agent Skills by Occupation

23 major groups · 867 SOC occupations

Browse by Category

Explore agent skills organized by their primary use case

SKILLMD / CREATORS AND OCCUPATION CATEGORIES

Explore the agent skills ecosystem by occupation and creator

SkillMD is not just a keyword search box. It is an open map that organizes public skills by occupation, creator, and repository, helping you see which workflows, judgment criteria, and domain habits people are writing for AI agents.

Then follow creators and GitHub repositories back to the source: compare the skills a team maintains, whether the repo is active, and how the README frames the work before you open, install, or reuse anything.

Use it three ways: learn an unfamiliar field by occupation, study how creators organize skills, then use source context to decide what is worth opening or reusing.

01 Map a field

Browse 23 occupation groups and 867 SOC roles to learn what skills exist in adjacent domains and how they break down real work.

02 Follow creators

Use creator and repository pages to inspect maintained skill collections, recent updates, and source context before trusting a result.

03 Search with sources

Search 1.7M+ collected skills, then use occupation tags, creators, and GitHub source context to decide what is worth opening.

Start with the occupation map, then follow creators and repositories back to real code. SkillMD helps explain why a skill is worth opening, not only what it is named.

SEO KNOWLEDGE HUB & TECHNICAL OVERVIEW

Standardizing Agent Capabilities with SKILL.md and Model Context Protocol (MCP)

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, LLM agents (Large Language Model agents) have transitioned from simple text predictors to autonomous problem solvers. To orchestrate complex, multi-step agentic workflows, developers require a standardized format to specify agent capabilities, prompt instructions, system rules, and database bindings. This is where SKILL.md and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) have emerged as standard developer paradigms. SkillMD serves as the central directory for indexing, exploring, and sharing these critical agent configurations.

Our open-source registry currently tracks over 1.7 million collected SKILL.md configurations and system prompts. By compiling agent configurations from active developers on GitHub, we bridge the gap between prompt engineering research and production execution. Whether you are building agents with Anthropic's Claude Code, OpenAI's GPT-4, Google's Gemini, or local models using Ollama and LlamaIndex, standardized skill definitions ensure your agents behave predictably across different runtime environments.

What is the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?

The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open-source standard designed to connect LLMs to data sources, developer tools, and external environments. MCP establishes a bidirectional communication channel between client applications (like Cursor, Claude Desktop, or custom agent systems) and servers hosting data or capabilities. Standardizing instructions via SKILL.md enables LLMs to query databases, read local files, execute terminal commands, and integrate third-party APIs. SkillMD allows you to find ready-to-run MCP servers and prompt instructions for various occupations and technical tasks.

The Structure of a Professional SKILL.md File

A valid SKILL.md configuration is designed to be easily read by humans and parsed by LLMs. It contains precise system instructions, trigger conditions, required parameters, and execution examples. Below is the typical architectural blueprint of a professional agent skill:

  • Metadata & Core Scope: Declares the name of the skill, author details, target models, and a description of the capability.
  • Triggers & Intent Detection: Details semantic triggers that help the agent decide when to invoke this skill.
  • System Prompts: Explicit system-level instructions that direct the agent's behavior, personality, safety guardrails, and formatting preferences.
  • Capabilities & Tools: Lists the files, databases, or APIs the agent must access to complete the tasks.
  • Few-Shot Examples: Demonstrates real inputs and outputs, helping the model generalize behavior through in-context learning.

Optimizing Agent Workflows for Modern LLMs

Writing effective agent skills requires deep knowledge of prompt engineering. With the release of advanced reasoning models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet, ChatGPT o1, and DeepSeek-V3, prompt templates must focus on structured thinking. Developers are encouraged to use XML tags (e.g., <thought>, <context>, and <rules>) to isolate execution boundaries. Standardized prompts prevent agents from suffering from context drift, ensuring that long-running tasks remain aligned with the initial system parameters.

Exploring by SOC Occupations and Creator Profiles

What makes SkillMD unique is its taxonomy. Instead of simple text search, we parse and organize files according to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. This means you can discover skills written for Computer and Mathematical roles, Business and Financial operations, Legal, Design, and and Educational Instruction fields. By tracking creator profiles, developers can study how different teams organize their custom instructions, compare version updates, and fork public configs for specialized enterprise use cases.

SkillMD operates as a high-performance index running on a fast Go backend and a highly responsive Astro SSR frontend. All search queries execute in milliseconds, featuring smart debouncing to prevent multiple API requests while keeping user data secure. Join our community of developers to standardize your AI agent instructions and optimize your LLM prompting workflows today.

8 QUESTIONS

Frequently Asked Questions

A practical guide to agent skills: what they are, how to inspect them, and how SkillMD helps you explore the ecosystem.