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Install agent skills in Cursor

Add a skill to Cursor with one npx line or a premium ZIP, find it under Customize › Skills, and run it with / in Agent chat. Project and user folders.

By Recaply EditorsBeginner5 min6 stepsUpdated

A hand presses the last piece into a small jigsaw puzzle

Cursor finds skills in .agents/skills or .cursor/skills in a project, and in ~/.agents/skills or ~/.cursor/skills for all your projects. It also reads the folders Claude Code and Codex use.

Short answer: run the skill's npx line with -a cursor in your project, restart Cursor, check Customize › Skills, then type / in Agent chat and pick the skill.

What you need

  1. Step 1: Choose a project or user skill

    1 min

    Cursor loads skills from a few folders in your project and in your home folder.

    1. Project: .agents/skills/ or .cursor/skills/. Skills in nested project folders count too.
    2. User: ~/.agents/skills/ or ~/.cursor/skills/, for every project on this computer.
    3. Cursor also loads .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/, ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.codex/skills/, so skills you set up for Claude Code or Codex work here.

    You can group skills in subfolders inside a skills folder. Cursor searches down through them for every SKILL.md.

  2. Step 2: Install a free skill with one line

    1 min

    The skills CLI copies the skill from its maker's GitHub repo into .agents/skills/.

    1. Open a terminal in your project folder.
    2. Paste the line from the skill's Recaply page. It ends in -a cursor.
    3. To install it for all your projects instead, add -g. It then goes to ~/.agents/skills/.
    The install line
    npx skills add <owner>/<repo> --skill <skill-name> -a cursor

    You should see a new .agents/skills/<skill-name>/ folder with SKILL.md inside.

    The CLI asks which agents to install to?

    The line is missing its -a value. Pick your agent in the list, or run the line again with it. Add -y to skip the questions.

  3. Step 3: Or install a premium skill from its ZIP

    2 min

    A premium skill comes as one ZIP that holds a single folder named after the skill.

    1. On the skill's Recaply page, sign in, buy it (or use the plan), then click Download ZIP.
    2. Move the ZIP into your project folder and open a terminal there.
    3. Run the line below. It unzips the folder, then installs it for your agent.
    4. When it's done, you can delete the ZIP and the unzipped folder: the CLI made its own copy.
    Your line
    unzip <slug>.zip && npx skills add ./<slug> -a cursor

    You should see .agents/skills/<slug>/SKILL.md, with the skill's other files beside it.

    On Windows, there's no unzip?

    Right-click the ZIP, choose Extract All, and move the extracted folder into .agents/skills/ in your project.

    Unzipping straight into a skills folder works too: unzip <slug>.zip -d .cursor/skills/.

  4. Step 4: Check that Cursor sees it

    1 min

    Cursor looks for skills when it starts.

    1. Quit Cursor and open it again, so it finds the new skill.
    2. Open Customize in the sidebar and go to Skills.
    3. Skills from your project or from plugins also appear with your rules, in the Agent Decides section.

    You should see the skill's name in the list.

    Still not in the list after a restart?

    Check that the folder is in one of the places from step 1, and that it holds a file named exactly SKILL.md.

  5. Step 5: Run the skill

    1 min

    The agent picks a skill when it fits, or you call it from Agent chat.

    1. In Agent chat, type / and search for the skill's name. Press Enter to attach it to that one message.
    2. To keep it on for the whole session, press Option+Enter on a Mac or Alt+Enter on Windows. That runs it as a Custom Mode.
    3. Or just ask. The agent sees your skills and decides when one is relevant.
    4. In the Cursor CLI, /skill-name works too, even in -p print mode.
    Your prompt
    /<skill-name> <what you want it to do>

    You should see the agent follow the skill's steps for your request.

    The agent never picks the skill by itself?

    Check its SKILL.md for disable-model-invocation: true. With that set, the skill runs only when you call it with /skill-name.

  6. Step 6: Not working? Check these

    2 min

    Most problems come from the folder's place, its name or a missed restart.

    1. The path is .agents/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md (or one of the other folders from step 1).
    2. You restarted Cursor after adding the skill. It looks for skills when it starts.
    3. The skill's folder name doesn't start with a dot. The Cursor CLI skips hidden folders when it scans for skills.
    4. The name in SKILL.md matches the folder name, in lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens.

You get

A skill in Cursor, listed under Customize › Skills and ready from /

Try next

Install an agent skill in any AI coding agent6 steps · 5 minInstall agent skills in OpenCode6 steps · 5 minInstall agent skills in GitHub Copilot6 steps · 5 min

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