skill-manager

Skill Manager exposes its skill operations as MCP tools so Claude Code and Codex can discover, search, deploy, and read skills programmatically during a session. With the MCP server running, other tools can query the canonical skill store, browse available skills, read skill metadata, and perform deployment actions to the supported targets. The server coordinates with the canonical store at ~/.skill-manager/skills and provides programmatic access to import, sync, and manage dependencies, as well as read back version histories and health statuses. Expect to use commands exposed by MCP like searching by name or tags, requesting detailed skill info, and deploying or removing skills to the Claude Code or Codex environments via automated scripts or IDE integrations.

Prerequisites:

• Node.js 20+ installed on macOS or Linux
• Git installed
• Access to a shell with npm/bin in PATH

Install steps:

1. Clone the repository and install dependencies

git clone <repo-url> && cd skill-manager
npm install

2. Build the project (if applicable) and link for global usage

npm run build
npm link

This makes the sm command available globally and prepares the MCP server payload for runtime. 3) Start the MCP server (example)

node dist/server.js

If you have a package-based start script, you can replace the above with:

npm run start-mcp

4. Verify the MCP server is responding (example: HTTP health endpoint or MCP discovery call depending on your setup).

Tips and notes:

• The Skill Manager maintains a canonical store at ~/.skill-manager/skills. MCP clients can query this store to discover skills, their metadata, and deployment status.
• Ensure the MCP server has read/write access to the canonical store and the local tool directories where symlinks are deployed.
• Use the provided health/check commands via MCP to validate symlinks and dependency integrity in real time.
• If you customize environments or deployment targets, document the environment variables and mounts you use for reliable MCP client integration.
• For debugging MCP interactions, consider enabling verbose logs in the server and testing with small, known-skill queries before broader automation.
• If you see path or permission issues, verify user permissions on ~/.skill-manager and the tool directories (e.g., ~/.claude/commands, ~/.codex/prompts, ~/.agents/skills).