Agent Skills defines an open, portable folder format for giving AI agents reusable capabilities. Each skill centers on a required SKILL.md file and can include scripts, references, and assets, letting compatible clients discover a concise skill description before loading detailed instructions and resources only when needed. The specification describes this progressive-disclosure flow as discovery, activation, and execution, and its official showcase currently lists 46 clients, including Claude Code, ChatGPT and Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, VS Code, Goose, and OpenCode. Originally developed by Anthropic and released as an open standard, the project accepts community contributions while Anthropic reviews client showcase submissions. The repository's code and specification use Apache-2.0, while its documentation uses CC BY 4.0. Agent Skills is the format itself: Anthropic Agent Skills is an example-skills collection, Awesome Agent Skills is a curated directory, and AGENTS.md is a separate repository-guidance convention. The project has no hosted SaaS tier or tagged release. The format itself does not add telemetry, but data handling and execution permissions depend on the client that loads a skill.
Agent Skills
Open standard for portable skills across AI agents
Agent Skills is the open SKILL.md folder specification for packaging reusable instructions, scripts, references, and assets that compatible AI agents load through progressive disclosure. Originally developed by Anthropic and released as an open standard, it defines the portable format itself—not an example library, marketplace, or hosted agent product.
About Agent Skills
Pricing & Platform Specs
Pricing Summary
No paid product or SaaS tier: the Agent Skills specification and code are free under Apache-2.0 (docs under CC BY 4.0). Compatible clients manage their own pricing.
Supported Platforms
Portable SKILL.md directories with optional scripts, references, and assets; documented for local, cloud, and sandboxed agents. The pinned official client showcase lists 46 compatible clients.
Explore categories, tags & use cases
Tags
Alternatives
Official Claude Agent Skills examples, spec, and plugin marketplace for reusable agent capabilities
Anthropic Agent Skills is Anthropic's official reference repo and Claude Code plugin marketplace for reusable Skill folders. It packages example SKILL.md workflows, document skills, a Claude API skill, templates, and the Agent Skills spec so teams can turn repeatable instructions, scripts, and resources into on-demand Claude capabilities instead of copying prompts across sessions.
Curated collection of agent skills and capabilities
Awesome Agent Skills is VoltAgent's MIT-licensed list of agent skills from official teams and the community for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Cursor.
Open standard for guiding AI coding agents at the repository level
AGENTS.md is an open standard format adopted by 60,000+ open-source projects for providing AI coding agents with repository-level instructions. With 20,000+ GitHub stars, it has been adopted by GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, Google Gemini CLI, and multiple IDEs as the de facto way to communicate project context and coding conventions to AI agents.
Community experience
Sources & verification
- Sources checked
- Content verified
Verification dates are editorial checks. Routine CMS saves and automatic updatedAt timestamps do not advance them.
FAQ
What is Agent Skills?
Agent Skills is the open SKILL.md folder specification for packaging reusable instructions, scripts, references, and assets that compatible AI agents load through progressive disclosure. Originally developed by Anthropic and released as an open standard, it defines the portable format itself—not an example library, marketplace, or hosted agent product.
Is Agent Skills free?
Yes — Agent Skills is open source and free to use. No paid product or SaaS tier: the Agent Skills specification and code are free under Apache-2.0 (docs under CC BY 4.0). Compatible clients manage their own pricing.
Is Agent Skills open source?
Yes — Agent Skills is open source.
Is Agent Skills still maintained?
Yes — Agent Skills is active. Its listing was last verified on August 26, 2026.
What are the best Agent Skills alternatives?
The first editor-selected Agent Skills alternatives are Anthropic Agent Skills, Awesome Agent Skills, AGENTS.md.
