Skill Definition

A skill is a folder that an AI agent can load to gain new capabilities. skillup installs these folders from GitHub repositories onto your local machine.

What makes a valid skill

A folder is recognized as a skill when it meets both conditions:

1. It lives inside a skills/ directory at the root of the GitHub repository.
2. It contains a SKILL.md file.

my-skills-repo/
└── skills/
    ├── code-review/       ← valid skill
    │   └── SKILL.md
    ├── pdf/               ← valid skill
    │   ├── SKILL.md
    │   └── tool.py
    └── draft/             ← NOT a skill (no SKILL.md)
        └── notes.txt

Where skills are installed

skillup copies each selected skill folder to two locations:

Both locations are always populated — no configuration required.

Publishing skills

To make your own skills installable via skillup:

1. Create a skills/ directory at your repo root.
2. Add one sub-folder per skill, each containing at least a SKILL.md.
3. Cut a GitHub release (or let users install from a branch with --branch).

skillup will discover all valid skill folders from the release zip automatically.