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ralph-starter skill

Manage agent skills — reusable instructions and best practices that enhance your AI coding agent's capabilities.

Synopsis​

ralph-starter skill <action> [name]

Description​

The skill command manages agent skills for ralph-starter. Skills are markdown files containing specialized instructions, best practices, and domain knowledge that are injected into your coding agent's context. They help the agent write better code by following established patterns for specific frameworks and tools.

Skills are installed using the add-skill CLI and stored as markdown files in either a global directory (~/.claude/skills/) or a project-level directory (.claude/skills/).

Actions​

ActionAliasesDescription
add <repo>install, iInstall a skill from a git repository
listlsList popular skills from the registry
search <term>-Search for skills by keyword
browse-Interactive skill browser with selection

Options​

OptionDescriptionDefault
-g, --globalInstall the skill globally (all projects)false

Examples​

Install a Skill​

# Install a skill repository
ralph-starter skill add vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Short alias
ralph-starter skill i vercel-labs/agent-skills

# Install globally
ralph-starter skill add vercel-labs/agent-skills --global
ralph-starter skill list

Output:

Popular Skills

  vercel-labs/agent-skills
  React, Next.js, and Vercel best practices
  Skills: react-best-practices, nextjs-best-practices,
          vercel-best-practices, web-design-review

Install with: ralph-starter skill add <repo>
Browse more: https://github.com/topics/agent-skills

Search for Skills​

ralph-starter skill search react

Output:

Searching for: react

  vercel-labs/agent-skills
  React, Next.js, and Vercel best practices

Interactive Browse​

ralph-starter skill browse

This opens an interactive menu where you can select a skill to install from the curated registry.

? Select a skill to install:
  > vercel-labs/agent-skills - React, Next.js, Vercel
    ──────────────
    Cancel

Skill Detection​

When ralph-starter runs a task, it automatically detects installed skills from three locations:

  1. Global skills — ~/.claude/skills/*.md
  2. Project skills — .claude/skills/*.md in the project
  3. Skills script — skills.sh files in the project or global Claude directory

Detected skills are matched against the project's tech stack and included in the agent's prompt context when relevant.

Behavior​

  • The add action uses npx add-skill under the hood. If add-skill is not installed, it runs via npx.
  • The list action shows a curated registry of popular skill repositories. It does not scan local installations.
  • The search action filters the curated registry by matching repository names, descriptions, and skill names.
  • The browse action presents an interactive list using Inquirer prompts.

See Also​