skill-cli

> A high-performance, open-source Rust AI Agent Skill Engine.

`skill-cli` is a single statically-linked binary that acts as a centralized skill store for AI agents and human developers. It provides:

• A CLI for syncing, searching, and managing skills stored in a local SQLite database.
• An MCP server (over `stdio`, JSON-RPC 2.0) that exposes clean, token-efficient tools for LLMs and agents to search, fetch, and update skills without clogging context windows.

Features

• ⚡ Millisecond FTS5 search — BM25-ranked full-text search powered by SQLite's built-in FTS5 engine, no external search infrastructure required.
• 🗄️ Embedded SQLite — Zero-config, single-file database (`~/.config/skills/skills.db`). Statically compiled, no system SQLite installation needed.
• 🤖 MCP-native — Implements the Model Context Protocol (`2024-11-05`) over `stdio`. Compatible with Claude Desktop, Antigravity, and any MCP host.
• 📁 Filesystem sync — Import any directory of `.md` files with YAML frontmatter in one command.
• 🦀 Pure Rust — Single binary, no runtime, no daemon, no network service to manage.

Quick Start

Install

Windows (PowerShell):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JohnnytheShark/skill-cli/main/install.ps1 | iex

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JohnnytheShark/skill-cli/main/install.sh | bash

The binary is installed to `~/.skill-cli/bin/` and added to your `PATH` automatically. Restart your terminal after installing, then verify:

skill-cli --version

> Build from Source (advanced): Requires the Rust toolchain.

> ```bash

> git clone https://github.com/JohnnytheShark/skill-cli.git

> cd skill-cli

> cargo build --release

> ```

Sync skills from a directory

skill-cli sync --dir ./my-skills

Each `.md` file becomes a skill. Frontmatter provides the name and description:

---
name: Git Bisect
description: Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
---

# Git Bisect
...

Search from the terminal

skill-cli search "async runtime"
skill-cli list

Run the MCP server

skill-cli serve

Point any MCP-compatible agent at this binary and it will expose three tool groups: `skills_*`, `agents_*`, and `collections_*`.

CLI Reference

MCP Tools

Connecting to an Agent

Add to your `mcp_config.json`:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "skill-engine": {
      "command": "skill-cli",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Documentation

Full Diátaxis documentation is in the `docs/` directory:

Development

cargo check      # Verify compilation
cargo clippy     # Lint
cargo test       # Run unit tests
cargo build --release  # Optimised build

License

Copyright 2026 Johnny Orellana

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

See NOTICE for required attribution notices.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.