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Skills are reusable knowledge packages that AI coding agents can discover and use to perform tasks more accurately. Unlike commands (which you invoke explicitly) or standards (which apply automatically), skills are agent-discovered—the AI automatically loads relevant skills based on the task at hand.
Looking for inspiration? Check out the awesome-claude-skills repository for a curated list of community skills you can use as examples or starting points.
Learn more about how skills work in the Skills Management section.

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Prerequisites

  • The CLI must be installed: see CLI Installation
  • You must be authenticated: run packmind-cli login

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Understanding the Skill Format

Skills follow the Agent Skills specification, an open format for giving agents new capabilities and expertise. A skill is a folder containing at minimum a SKILL.md file, plus optional supporting files like templates, scripts, and resources. For details on the SKILL.md format, frontmatter fields, and best practices, refer to the Agent Skills specification.

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Create a Skill Using the AI Agent

The easiest way to create a skill is using the /packmind-update-playbook skill with your AI coding assistant.

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Create Your Skill

Invoke the /packmind-update-playbook skill in your AI coding assistant:
The assistant will guide you through:
  1. Defining the skill purpose — Describe what capability you want to provide
  2. Identifying triggers — Specify when the AI should activate this skill
  3. Planning resources — Determine if you need scripts, templates, or references
  4. Generating the skill — Create the SKILL.md and supporting files
  5. Validating — Check the skill follows the specification
After the assistant generates your skill, you can test it locally before uploading.

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What Makes a Folder Importable

Packmind treats any folder that directly contains a SKILL.md file as a skill. Supporting files and subfolders — templates, scripts, references — come along with it and keep their place inside the skill. For a skill to be accepted, its SKILL.md needs frontmatter with:
  • a name in lowercase, using hyphens instead of spaces (for example code-review)
  • a description saying what the skill does

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How to Import Skills from the Web App

You can import skills without leaving your browser:
  1. Navigate to Skills in the main menu
  2. Open Create and choose Import skills (on an empty Skills page, use the Import button on the “Import your skills” card)
  3. Drag a folder onto the panel, or choose one with Choose folder
Packmind lists every skill it finds in the folder. If you point it at a parent folder such as .claude/skills, all the skills inside are listed at once.
  1. Review the list — any skill that cannot be imported says why on its own line
  2. Select Import
Skills are imported one at a time, and each row shows its own result. A skill that fails does not stop the others: when the import finishes, you get a summary such as “3 imported, 1 failed”, and the failed skill keeps its explanation so you can fix it and try again.
Importing from the web creates the skills directly. It does not go through change proposals.

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Why a Skill Might Be Refused

  • A skill with that name already exists — rename your folder, or edit the existing skill instead
  • SKILL.md is missing — the folder is not a skill; check you selected the right one
  • The frontmatter is invalid — the name or description does not meet the requirements above
  • A file is too large — single files and whole skills are both capped at 10 MB

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How to Upload a Skill to Packmind

Once you have a skill folder ready, upload it to Packmind using the CLI:
Use --no-review to trigger a direct update. Omit --no-review to use the change proposals system and get validation of your changes.
The CLI will upload the skill to your Packmind organization and display a confirmation.

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Uploading Multiple Skills at Once

playbook add takes as many folders as you like, so a collection of skills goes up in one pair of commands:
If one of the folders cannot be staged, the others still are: the command reports which one failed and how many were staged, so you can fix that one and add it on its own. The same applies when submitting. If a skill’s name is already taken, it is skipped and stays staged while the rest are submitted — rename it and run packmind-cli playbook submit --no-review again to finish the job.

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View Your Skill

After uploading, your skill appears in the Packmind web app:
  1. Navigate to Skills in the main menu
  2. Find your skill in the list
  3. Click to view details, including files and version history

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Distribute Your Skill

Once created, add your skill to a package to distribute it to repositories:
  1. Go to Packages in the web app
  2. Edit an existing package or create a new one
  3. Add your skill to the package
  4. Distribute the package to your repositories
After distribution, the skill appears in:
  • .claude/skills/{skill-slug}/SKILL.md for Claude Code and Cursor
  • .github/skills/{skill-slug}/SKILL.md for GitHub Copilot
See Understanding Where Your Artifacts Appear for details.

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Tips

  • Keep skills focused — Each skill should address a specific capability or workflow
  • Write clear triggers — Describe precisely when the AI should activate the skill
  • Include examples — Show expected inputs and outputs where applicable
  • Test locally first — Verify your SKILL.md renders correctly before uploading
  • Browse community skills — Explore awesome-claude-skills for real-world examples and inspiration
  • Read the specification — Check the Agent Skills specification for the complete format details