How to Add Skills to Claude Code CLI

Everything about managing Claude Code skills can be done from the command line. Here's a quick reference for adding, verifying, and managing skills without leaving your terminal.

Adding a skill from a zip file

# Download and install in one command
curl -L https://www.agensi.io/download/code-reviewer -o skill.zip && \
  unzip skill.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/ && \
  rm skill.zip

Adding a skill from GitHub

# Clone and copy
git clone https://github.com/author/skill-name.git /tmp/skill-name
cp -r /tmp/skill-name ~/.claude/skills/skill-name
rm -rf /tmp/skill-name

Adding a skill from scratch

# Create the skill directory and file
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/my-skill
cat > ~/.claude/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md << 'EOF'
---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to trigger it.
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent.
EOF

Verifying installation

# List all installed skills
ls ~/.claude/skills/

# Check a skill's frontmatter
head -10 ~/.claude/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md

# Verify file structure
find ~/.claude/skills/my-skill -type f

Managing skills

# Remove a skill
rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/skill-name

# Disable temporarily (rename)
mv ~/.claude/skills/skill-name ~/.claude/skills/_skill-name

# Re-enable
mv ~/.claude/skills/_skill-name ~/.claude/skills/skill-name

# Backup all skills
tar -czf ~/skills-backup.tar.gz ~/.claude/skills/

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf ~/skills-backup.tar.gz -C /

Installing for other agents

The same skill works across agents. Just copy to the right directory:

# Install for OpenClaw too
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer ~/.openclaw/skills/code-reviewer

# Install for Codex CLI
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer ~/.codex/skills/code-reviewer

# Install for all agents at once
for dir in ~/.claude/skills ~/.openclaw/skills ~/.codex/skills; do
  mkdir -p "$dir"
  cp -r ~/downloaded-skill "$dir/skill-name"
done

Batch installing multiple skills

If you have multiple skills to install:

# From a directory of zip files
for zip in ~/downloads/skills/*.zip; do
  unzip "$zip" -d ~/.claude/skills/
done

# From a list of GitHub repos
repos=(
  "author1/code-reviewer"
  "author2/git-commit-writer"
  "author3/env-doctor"
)
for repo in "${repos[@]}"; do
  name=$(basename "$repo")
  git clone "https://github.com/$repo.git" "/tmp/$name"
  cp -r "/tmp/$name" ~/.claude/skills/
  rm -rf "/tmp/$name"
done

Quick test

After installing, start a new session and test:

claude
# Then type: /skill-name
# Or ask something that matches the skill's description

If the skill loads, you'll see Claude following its instructions. If not, check the troubleshooting section in our complete installation guide.

---

Download ready-to-install skills from Agensi.