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OAIS Skills docs

Reusable capabilities
for AI agents.

OAIS indexes the open ecosystem without changing a skill's source, format, or installation flow.

01

Overview

Agent Skills are portable directories of instructions and resources. Every skill contains a SKILL.md file and may include scripts, references, and assets that agents load progressively.

The role of OAIS

Discover, search, compare, and review reusable capabilities. Installation remains explicit and under user control.

02

Installation

The official skills CLI runs through npx and installs a selected skill from its source repository.

Terminal
$ npx skills add https://github.com/vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill vercel-react-best-practices

Essential commands

skills addInstall a skill or collection.
skills findSearch the registry.
skills listList installed skills.
skills updateUpdate installed skills.
skills removeRemove an installed skill.
skills initCreate the initial skill structure.
03

SKILL.md format

name and description are required. License, compatibility, metadata, and allowed tools may also be declared.

SKILL.md
---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it
license: MIT
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent to follow.
my-skill/├── SKILL.md├── scripts/├── references/└── assets/
Open the official specification ↗
04

Locks and updates

The CLI compares local hashes and upstream references. OAIS stores source versions separately so catalog changes remain traceable.

  • skills-lock.json records project locks.
  • .agents/.skill-lock.json records global installations.
  • Skills removed upstream are not silently deleted from local environments.