How to Share SKILL.md Skills Across AI Agents

SKILL.md is a cross-agent standard. A skill written for one agent works in any other compatible agent. Here's how to move skills between Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex CLI, Cursor, and Gemini CLI — and how to set up a shared skills workflow for teams using multiple agents.

Quick Answer: Copy the skill folder from one agent's directory to another. No modification needed. cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer ~/.openclaw/skills/ — done. The SKILL.md format is identical across all compatible agents. For teams, commit skills to a shared git repo or use symlinks.

How do I copy skills between agents?

Each agent reads from its own directory, but they all use the same SKILL.md format. Moving a skill is just copying a folder:

# Claude Code → OpenClaw
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer ~/.openclaw/skills/

# OpenClaw → Codex CLI
cp -r ~/.openclaw/skills/test-generator ~/.codex/skills/

# Claude Code → Cursor (project-level)
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/code-reviewer .cursor/skills/

# Any agent → Gemini CLI
cp -r ~/.claude/skills/env-doctor ~/.gemini/skills/

No file modifications needed. The SKILL.md file works identically in all agents.

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What transfers and what doesn't?

What transfers: The SKILL.md file with its frontmatter (name, description) and instruction body. Supporting files (scripts, references) also transfer. This covers 95% of what a skill does.

What might not transfer: Agent-specific frontmatter fields. Claude Code's context: fork runs skills as isolated subagents — other agents may handle this differently. Codex CLI's openai.yaml is ignored by other agents. These are edge cases; most skills work identically everywhere.

How do I manage skills across multiple agents?

If you regularly switch between agents, maintaining separate copies gets tedious. Three approaches:

Symlinks. Point all agent directories at the same source:

# Use Claude Code's directory as the source of truth
ln -s ~/.claude/skills ~/.openclaw/skills
ln -s ~/.claude/skills ~/.codex/skills
ln -s ~/.claude/skills ~/.gemini/skills

Now any skill you install in ~/.claude/skills/ is automatically available in all agents.

Shared git repo. Keep all your skills in a single repository and symlink or clone into each agent's directory:

git clone https://github.com/your-org/team-skills.git ~/team-skills
ln -s ~/team-skills ~/.claude/skills
ln -s ~/team-skills ~/.openclaw/skills

Agensi one-liner installer. Install any Agensi skill into any agent's skills directory with a single curl command — curl -sL https://www.agensi.io/api/install/<slug> | tar xz -C <agent-skills-dir>/. The same archive works in Claude Code, OpenClaw, Codex CLI, and Cursor.

How do teams share skills across agents?

Teams where different developers use different agents need a shared skills strategy:

Project-level skills. Commit skills to your project repo in each agent's directory:

your-project/
├── .claude/skills/
│   └── team-review/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── .openclaw/skills/
│   └── team-review/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── .cursor/skills/
│   └── team-review/
│       └── SKILL.md

This looks redundant, but it means every developer gets the team's skills regardless of which agent they use. The SKILL.md file is identical in each directory — you can use a build script or Makefile to copy from a single source.

Centralized skills repo. Maintain one repo with all team skills. Each developer clones it and symlinks to their preferred agent's personal directory. Changes propagate via git pull.

How do I verify a skill works in a new agent?

After copying to a new agent:

1. Start a new session in that agent
2. Ask the agent to do something that matches the skill's description
3. Check that the output follows the skill's instructions (structured format, correct conventions)
4. If the skill doesn't activate, check that the directory path is correct for that agent

For path references across all agents, read Every AI Agent That Supports SKILL.md.

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