skillsmcp

MCP server that exposes Agent Skills to AI agents via the Model Context Protocol.

Agent Skills are reusable, portable instruction sets that guide AI coding agents. This server makes them discoverable and activatable as MCP tools, following the progressive disclosure pattern from the Agent Skills specification.

Prerequisites

• uv — fast Python package manager

Install with Homebrew:

brew install uv

Install

uv tool install git+https://github.com/aviddiviner/skillsmcp.git

This installs skillsmcp as a command on your PATH. To update later:

uv tool upgrade skillsmcp

Configure

Zed

Add to your settings (~/.config/zed/settings.json):

{
  "context_servers": {
    "skillsmcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["skillsmcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skillsmcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["skillsmcp"]
    }
  }
}

Other MCP Clients

Any client that supports MCP's stdio transport can use this server. Run it directly:

uvx skillsmcp

Tools

The server exposes three MCP tools:

Tool	Description
list_skills	Discover all available skills with names and descriptions
activate_skill	Load a skill's full instructions by name
read_skill_file	Read supporting files from a skill's directory

All tools accept an optional project_roots parameter — a list of project directories to scan for project-level skills. User-level skills (~/.agents/skills/, ~/.claude/skills/) are always included. When project_roots is not provided, the server falls back to its working directory.

Adding Skills

Skills are directories containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter:

~/.agents/skills/
└── my-skill/
    ├── SKILL.md
    ├── scripts/
    │   └── helper.py
    └── references/
        └── REFERENCE.md

Example SKILL.md:

---
name: my-skill
description: A short description of what this skill does and when to use it.
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the AI agent go here...

Skill Directories

The server scans the following directories in precedence order (first-found wins for name collisions):

1. Project-level (highest priority):
   • <project>/.agents/skills/
   • <project>/.claude/skills/
2. User-level:
   • ~/.agents/skills/
   • ~/.claude/skills/

Project-level skills override user-level skills with the same name.

Development

git clone https://github.com/aviddiviner/skillsmcp.git
cd skillsmcp

# Install in development mode
uv sync

# Run the server directly
uv run skillsmcp

Learn More

• Agent Skills specification — the full format spec
• Example skills — official skill examples
• skills.sh — browse and install community skills
• FastMCP — the Python MCP framework powering this server

License

MIT