How to use the Find Skills agent skill: search and install skills

What does the Find Skills skill make the agent do?

Find Skills turns the agent into a guide for extending itself. When you ask something like "how do I do X", "is there a skill that can..." or say you wish you had help with a specific area such as testing or deployment, the agent searches the open agent skills ecosystem for a matching skill.

The skill is built around the Skills CLI (npx skills), which the source describes as the package manager for that ecosystem. The agent can show you the matching skills with their install commands and links to skills.sh, and install one you choose.

How do you install the find-skills skill?

You can install the skill in either of two ways. For a personal setup, download the ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/. To add it to one project only, unzip it into that project's .claude/skills/ folder.

In the Claude apps you can instead upload the skill under Settings → Capabilities → Skills.

• Personal: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
• Single project: unzip into the project's .claude/skills/ folder
• Claude apps: Settings → Capabilities → Skills, then upload

How do you trigger the skill with natural requests?

You do not need a special command. The skill is meant to be used when you ask for functionality that might already exist as an installable skill. The source lists these kinds of requests: asking "how do I do X" for a common task, saying "find a skill for X" or "is there a skill for X", asking "can you do X" for a specialized capability, or saying you want to search for tools, templates or workflows.

The agent turns your request into a search query. For example, "how do I make my React app faster?" becomes a search for react performance.

• "Is there a skill that can review pull requests?"
• "Find a skill for writing end-to-end tests."
• "How do I make my React app faster?"
• "I need to create a changelog."

What happens when the agent searches for skills?

The agent first works out the domain, the specific task, and whether a skill is likely to exist. It then runs the find command with a relevant query. The source gives this form:

The results list an install command and a skills.sh link for each match. The agent then presents the skill name, what it does, the install command and the link, so you can read about it before anything is installed.

• Search: npx skills find [query]
• Other Skills CLI commands from the source: npx skills check (check for updates) and npx skills update (update all installed skills)

How do you install a skill the agent found?

If you decide to proceed, the agent runs the bundled install-skill.sh script with a skill identifier in the form owner/repo@skill-name. The script installs the skill globally to skills/custom/ and links it into the DeerFlow project. The source notes that the script uses the deer-flow.code-workspace file to find the project root, so run it from a DeerFlow project folder that contains that file.

• Requires a Bash shell to run install-skill.sh
• Identifier format: owner/repo@skill-name

What do you need before using it?

The skill needs Node.js with npx available, because the script runs the Skills CLI. It also needs network access to the skills registry at skills.sh and to package sources such as GitHub. A Bash shell is needed to run the install script, and the DeerFlow project folder containing deer-flow.code-workspace is needed for the script to locate the project root.

The skill runs scripts and uses the network, so it is not suitable for offline or locked-down environments.

• Node.js with npx
• Network access to skills.sh and sources such as GitHub
• A Bash shell
• The DeerFlow project folder containing deer-flow.code-workspace

What are the safety considerations?

Installing a skill runs npx and downloads a skill package from a third party. The content of that skill is not reviewed by this page. If you do not want the agent to install third-party code, do not use this skill or do not approve the install step.

Read the skill description and its skills.sh page before you install, and check the source repository. Searching is less risky than installing, so you can use the search step alone to browse options.

• Installing runs npx and downloads third-party code
• Skill contents are not reviewed here
• Check the skills.sh page and source repository before approving an install

Tips for better skill searches

Specific keywords get better results than broad ones. If a search finds nothing, try alternative terms. Some skills come from popular sources such as vercel-labs/agent-skills and ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills.

• Use specific keywords: "react testing" works better than "testing"
• Try alternatives: if "deploy" fails, try "deployment" or "ci-cd"
• Common query areas include web development, testing, DevOps, documentation, code quality, design and productivity

What if no skill is found?

The agent should say that no matching skill was found, then offer to help with the task directly using its general abilities. If the task is one you repeat often, the source suggests creating your own skill with npx skills init.