Guides · 2026-10-15
Using Agent Skills in Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor and Copilot
Agent Skills started at Anthropic and is now an open standard (agentskills.io). The same SKILL.md folder works across many coding agents.
Where to put skills
| Tool | Project | Global |
|---|---|---|
| Shared standard | .agents/skills/ | ~/.agents/skills/ |
| Codex (and ChatGPT desktop) | .agents/skills/ | ~/.agents/skills/ |
| Cursor | .cursor/skills/ or .agents/skills/ | ~/.cursor/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/ |
| Gemini CLI | .gemini/skills/ or .agents/skills/ | ~/.gemini/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/ |
| GitHub Copilot | .github/skills/, .claude/skills/ or .agents/skills/ | ~/.copilot/skills/ or ~/.agents/skills/ |
| Claude Code | .claude/skills/ | ~/.claude/skills/ |
One skill, every tool
Put skills in .agents/skills/ in your repo and commit them: Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot and OpenCode pick them up natively. Add a symlink in .claude/skills/ for Claude Code.
Installing community skills
GitHub CLI's gh skill install owner/repo installs skills from a repository into the right folder for Copilot, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and others (they share .agents/skills/ at project scope). Codex also has a built-in $skill-installer.
Portability tips
Stick to the standard frontmatter (name, description, plus optional license, compatibility, metadata, allowed-tools), avoid tool-specific paths in instructions, and keep scripts cross-platform.