How to Install Skills in Gemini CLI (2026 Guide)

Gemini CLI supports SKILL.md skills for customizing its behavior. If you've already used skills with Claude Code or Codex CLI, the process is familiar — drop SKILL.md files into the right directory and Gemini CLI picks them up automatically.

Where Gemini CLI looks for skills

Gemini CLI checks two locations for skills:

Project skills: .gemini/skills/ in your project root. These skills only activate when you're working in that specific project. Use project skills for framework-specific conventions, team standards, and project-specific patterns.

Global skills: ~/.gemini/skills/ in your home directory. These skills activate for every project. Use global skills for personal coding preferences, language-specific patterns, and tools you use everywhere.

Project skills take precedence over global skills when there's a conflict.

Installing a skill

From Agensi

Browse Agensi and download a skill. Unzip it into your skills directory:

# Project-level
mkdir -p .gemini/skills/code-reviewer
unzip code-reviewer.zip -d .gemini/skills/code-reviewer/

# Global
mkdir -p ~/.gemini/skills/code-reviewer
unzip code-reviewer.zip -d ~/.gemini/skills/code-reviewer/

The key file is SKILL.md — Gemini CLI reads this to understand what the skill does and when to activate it.

From GitHub

Clone or download the skill repository and copy the SKILL.md file (and any supporting files) into your skills directory:

git clone https://github.com/user/skill-name.git /tmp/skill-name
cp -r /tmp/skill-name/.  .gemini/skills/skill-name/

Manual creation

Create a SKILL.md file directly in your skills directory. The file needs YAML frontmatter with at minimum a name and description, followed by markdown instructions. See how to create a SKILL.md from scratch.

Cross-agent compatibility

SKILL.md is an open standard. A skill installed in Gemini CLI works the same way in Claude Code (~/.claude/skills/), Codex CLI, Cursor, and every other compatible agent. The only difference is the directory path.

If you use multiple agents, install the same skills in each agent's directory. The behavior will be consistent across all of them.

Verifying installation

After adding a skill, start a new Gemini CLI session and ask it to do something the skill covers. If the skill is a code review skill, ask for a code review. If it's activating correctly, the output will follow the patterns defined in the skill's instructions.

If a skill isn't loading, check that the SKILL.md file is in the correct directory, the frontmatter has a valid description field (this is what triggers activation), and there are no YAML syntax errors in the frontmatter.

For more Gemini CLI setup details, see Where Are Gemini CLI Skills Stored?.