skills.md

Skills & Plugins

Kode supports the Agent Skills open format for extending agent capabilities with reusable instruction sets.

• Agent Skills (directories containing SKILL.md - see specification)
• Marketplace compatibility (.kode-plugin/marketplace.json, legacy .claude-plugin/marketplace.json)
• Plugin packs installed via kode plugin install ...
• Install from any repository using add-skill CLI

This doc is a compact reference for installing/using/creating/distributing skills.

Quick Install with add-skill

Install skills from any git repository:

# Install from GitHub
npx add-skill vercel-labs/agent-skills -a kode

# Install to global directory
npx add-skill vercel-labs/agent-skills -a kode -g

# Install specific skills
npx add-skill vercel-labs/agent-skills -a kode -s pdf -s xlsx

Install skills (marketplace → plugin pack)

Add a marketplace:

# Local marketplace repo/directory
kode plugin marketplace add ./path/to/marketplace-repo

# GitHub shorthand (downloads a zip)
kode plugin marketplace add owner/repo

# List configured marketplaces
kode plugin marketplace list

Install a plugin pack from a marketplace:

# User scope: writes to ~/.kode/...
kode plugin install <plugin>@<marketplace> --scope user

# Project scope: writes to ./.kode/...
kode plugin install <plugin>@<marketplace> --scope project

# Disable/enable installed plugin
kode plugin disable <plugin>@<marketplace> --scope user
kode plugin enable <plugin>@<marketplace> --scope user

Interactive equivalents:

/plugin marketplace add owner/repo
/plugin install <plugin>@<marketplace> --scope user

Use skills

In interactive mode, run a skill as a slash command:

/pdf
/xlsx

Kode can also invoke skills automatically via the Skill tool when relevant.

Create a skill (Agent Skills format)

Directory layout:

./.kode/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md

Minimal SKILL.md:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does and when to use it.
allowed-tools: Read Bash(git:*) Bash(jq:*)
---

Step-by-step instructions here…

Rules:

• name must match the parent directory name
• Lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only (a-z0-9-), 1–64 chars

Compatibility:

• Kode also discovers .claude/skills and .claude/commands for legacy compatibility.

Distribute skills

Marketplace (.kode-plugin/marketplace.json)

A marketplace is a repo/directory that contains:

.kode-plugin/marketplace.json

Example (skill pack plugins):

{
  "name": "my-marketplace",
  "metadata": { "description": "Example skills", "version": "1.0.0" },
  "plugins": [
    {
      "name": "document-skills",
      "source": "./",
      "skills": ["./skills/pdf", "./skills/xlsx"]
    }
  ]
}

Plugin (.kode-plugin/plugin.json)

For full plugins (beyond simple skill packs), place:

.kode-plugin/plugin.json

Key rules (per upstream spec):

• name must be kebab-case and unique
• All component paths must be relative and start with ./
• No ../ segments; forward slashes only

Recommended publishing workflow

• Put skill packs in a GitHub repo with .kode-plugin/marketplace.json (legacy .claude-plugin/marketplace.json is also supported).
• Users add it via kode plugin marketplace add owner/repo.
• Keep skill/plugin versions semver in your manifests (and tags/releases in GitHub).