Managing Skills with local-skills CLI

local-skills is a CLI tool for extracting and managing Claude Code skills from plugin marketplaces. It installs skills into .claude/skills/ with version tracking, modification detection, and update management.

Prerequisites

The tool must be installed from npm before use:

npm install -g local-skills

Or you can install per-project:

npm install --save-dev local-skills

Verify installation:

local-skills --help

Commands

Add a skill

local-skills add <specifier>

The specifier format is <plugin>@<marketplace>/<skill>[:<version>]:

Examples:

# Add a single skill from a GitHub marketplace
local-skills add superpowers@anthropics/claude-code/tdd

# Pinned to a specific tag
local-skills add superpowers@anthropics/claude-code/tdd:v2.0

# All skills from a plugin
local-skills add superpowers@anthropics/claude-code/*

# From a full git URL
local-skills add my-plugin@https://gitlab.com/team/repo.git/my-skill

List skills

local-skills ls [source]

Options:

• --long, -l — Show descriptions
• --installed — Only installed skills
• --not-installed — Only non-installed skills

Examples:

# List all installed skills
local-skills ls --installed

# List skills from a remote marketplace with descriptions
local-skills ls anthropics/claude-code --long

# List skills not yet installed from a marketplace
local-skills ls anthropics/claude-code --not-installed

Show skill details

local-skills info <skill>

Displays source, version, and content information for an installed skill.

Update a skill

local-skills update <skill-name>

Options:

• --force, -f — Overwrite locally modified files

Update behavior:

• Skills pinned to a specific commit SHA (40-char hex) are skipped automatically
• If skill files were modified locally, update is refused unless --force is passed
• If the state file is missing, modification check is skipped

Remove a skill

local-skills remove <skill-name>

Removes the skill directory from .claude/skills/ and cleans up tracking files.

Tracked Files

Both files should be committed to version control:

• .claude/local-skills.json — Manifest declaring what skills are installed and from where (source, ref, SHA)
• .claude/local-skills-state.json — Content hashes for installed skill files, used to detect local modifications

How It Works

1. Parses the specifier to identify the plugin, marketplace, skill, and optional version
2. Shallow-clones the marketplace git repo
3. Reads .claude-plugin/marketplace.json to find the plugin
4. Copies the skill directory to .claude/skills/<skill-name>/
5. Records the source, ref, and commit SHA in the manifest
6. Computes a content hash and stores it in the state file

Workflow Guidance

When a user asks to add skills from a marketplace:

1. Check if local-skills is installed: local-skills --help
2. If not installed, install it: npm install -g local-skills
3. If the user knows the marketplace, use local-skills ls <marketplace> --long to show available skills
4. Use local-skills add with the appropriate specifier
5. Verify installation with local-skills ls --installed

When a user asks to update skills:

1. Check current state: local-skills ls --installed
2. Run local-skills update <skill-name> for each skill
3. If update fails due to local modifications, inform the user and suggest --force only if they confirm

When a user asks about available skills:

1. Use local-skills ls <marketplace> --long to browse a marketplace
2. Use local-skills info <skill> for details on an installed skill