PaperClipAI/docs/guides/agent-developer/skills-store.md

title, summary

title	summary
The Skills Store	Browse, install, import, fork, and share the reusable skills your agents use

The Skills Store is Paperclip's library of reusable skills. A skill is a markdown playbook that teaches an agent how to do a specific kind of work — triage an issue, write a wireframe, run QA acceptance, draft a release announcement. The Store is where people (and agents) discover those skills, install them into a company, and manage them over time.

If you want to author a skill, read Writing a Skill. This page is about the store around skills: where they come from, how they get into your company, and how you keep them current.

Two layers: the catalog and your company library

There are two distinct things people loosely call "the skills store":

Layer	What it is	Lives in
The catalog	A curated, read-only set of skills that ships with Paperclip	The @paperclipai/skills-catalog package
Your company library	The skills actually installed in your company, which agents can run	The company_skills database table

The catalog is the shelf you browse. Your company library is the cart you've checked out. Installing a catalog skill copies it into your company library, where you can edit, version, fork, and share it independently of the original.

The bundled catalog

The catalog is built from markdown under packages/skills-catalog/catalog/ and compiled into a manifest (generated/catalog.json) at build time. Each catalog skill is one directory containing a SKILL.md plus any supporting references/, scripts/, or assets/ files.

The catalog splits skills into two kinds:

• bundled — first-party Paperclip skills (e.g. issue-triage, task-planning, qa-acceptance, wireframe, github-pr-workflow, doc-maintenance). These carry the reserved paperclipai/paperclip/... key namespace.
• optional — additional curated skills you opt into (e.g. agent-browser, design-critique, release-announcement, last30days, ramp).

Every catalog skill carries metadata used for discovery and safety:

• category — grouping such as software-development, quality, product, research, content, browser, paperclip-operations, docs.
• recommendedForRoles — agent roles the skill suits (engineer, qa, designer, product, researcher, …), used to suggest skills when staffing a company.
• trustLevel — see Trust levels.
• compatibility — compatible, unknown, or invalid, derived during the build validation pass.
• contentHash — a hash of the skill's files, used later to detect updates and drift.

Trust levels: what a skill is allowed to carry

Because a skill can bundle more than prose, every skill is classified by how much trust its contents require. The level is derived from the files, not self-declared:

Trust level	Contains	Notes
markdown_only	Only .md files	Safest — pure instructions
assets	Markdown plus images/PDFs/other static files	No executable code
scripts_executables	Any script (.sh, .js, .py, .ts, …)	Highest scrutiny

GitHub sources support scripts after the existing content audit passes. Importing never executes scripts, hooks, dependency installers, or builds. Raw URL and skills.sh imports retain their existing script restrictions. Unsafe content, secrets, invalid paths, and oversized files are still rejected.

Where skills come from (source types)

A skill in your company library records where it originated. The Store shows this as a source badge:

Source type	Badge	Meaning
catalog	Paperclip / catalog	Installed from the bundled catalog
github	GitHub	Imported from a GitHub repo (pinned to a commit)
skills_sh	skills.sh	Imported via the skills.sh registry (resolves to GitHub)
url	URL	Imported from a raw markdown URL
local_path	Local	Created in-app or scanned from a project workspace on disk

Git-backed sources must resolve to a pinned 40-character commit SHA before import. A moving branch cannot change what agents run until you refresh its source. GitHub originals are read-only; use Make a copy to edit an independent local skill.

Thin wrappers for external live playbooks

Some optional catalog skills intentionally do not vendor a third-party playbook. The ramp skill is the model: Paperclip ships the stable governance wrapper, source allowlist, and approval gates, then tells the agent to fetch Ramp's current published instructions from agents.ramp.com when the task starts.

Use this pattern only when the external provider's setup flow changes often enough that a vendored snapshot would go stale, and when Paperclip can keep the safety boundary in the wrapper. For financial, legal, or account-control domains, the wrapper must require Paperclip approvals before spend, incorporation, account authorization, card issuance, data sharing, or other irreversible actions. The tradeoff should be documented in the skill or PR so reviewers can evaluate freshness against external-instruction risk. If the provider mixes official and community playbooks on the same host, the wrapper must fail closed on unclear provenance and require separate approval before using any third-party tool, connector, browser automation service, or credential flow introduced by a fetched playbook.

Getting skills into your company

The Store offers several paths, all of which land a skill in your company library.

Install from the catalog

Browse the catalog's discovery grid, pick a skill, and install it. Installing copies the catalog skill's files into your company library and stamps provenance metadata (the catalog key, content hash, and package version) so the Store can later tell you when the upstream catalog skill has changed.

• API: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/install-catalog
• Re-installing an already-installed catalog skill updates it in place rather than creating a duplicate.

Sync skills from GitHub

Open Skills → Sources → Import from GitHub (also in the New menu), choose a connected repository or click … or add public repo by URL to paste a GitHub.com repository URL, then choose Find skills. The searchable list combines repositories from all GitHub connections you can access, with duplicates removed. Paperclip automatically uses an authorized connection for the chosen repository. Pasted URLs also use your authorized connections when available, including public repositories outside the list. Public repositories can use anonymous access when no connection succeeds; private repositories require access.

A repository URL uses the default branch. Paste a branch URL such as https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/feature/new-skills to track another branch, including branches whose names contain slashes. Add repos opens the standard setup in Apps. Completing or cancelling setup returns you to the importer with your draft retained; the repository list refreshes automatically. Use the refresh button beside the repository count to reload accessible repositories.

New imports keep repository files together. View files opens the included repository inventory. The skill tree stays open, with every discovered skill selected. Containing folders start expanded; individual package files start collapsed. Folder checkboxes select descendant skills. Uncheck skills that should not appear in the library; their files still accompany the selected skills as repository support content. Supporting files cannot be deselected individually. Existing sources retain their saved import mode.

Use the inspection button or click an included file to open a read-only preview. The inspector shows the repository path, scanned commit, byte sizes, executable flags, and any compatibility requirements declared by the author. Text previews show up to 64 KiB; binary assets show metadata and a link to GitHub for viewing or download. Preview reads use the current caller's GitHub access and re-audit the package at that exact commit. Preview failures do not alter selection or installed content. Existing sources gain inspection metadata on their next successful refresh.

Shared files present in the repository are included automatically. Missing references, omitted files, and setup problems appear in one expandable warnings list. The same warnings remain on the saved source after import and refresh. Reference detection is a best-effort check, not a complete dependency analysis. Declared runtime requirements appear in the file inspector.

Warnings do not require a repair choice or confirmation. Import saves available content and registers usable selected skills. A malformed entrypoint stays selected with a Needs setup warning; its supported original files remain repository content. Unsupported links, oversized files, and files rejected by execution or secret-disclosure checks are omitted with path-specific warnings. Importing never runs scripts, hooks, dependency installation, or builds.

Scans support up to 1,000 skill packages and 10,000 package files, counting repeated file copies, with a 100 MiB scan budget. The repository path index supports up to 100,000 paths, each at most 4,096 characters and 64 levels deep. Discovery returns manifests without retaining every package's content.

Keep repository files together

This is the default for new imports, including skills that share agents, scripts, policies, or sibling skills. Paperclip saves supported repository files at the scanned commit. The skill checkboxes control which entrypoints appear in the company library; unselected helper skills remain available as supporting files. Add the imported skills to an agent to use that repository in its runtime. View files shows exactly what will be copied, including root license and credit files.

Repository packages support regular files up to 1 MiB each, 9,990 files, and 61 MiB of content. Omitted files produce warnings; they do not block the remaining repository. Source-access or download failures retain all previously installed versions. Changes to shared files create a new version for each selected entrypoint; pinned versions retain their original repository.

Authors can optionally add paperclip.skills.json at the repository root:

{
  "version": 1,
  "skills": ["skills/review/SKILL.md", "skills/research/SKILL.md"],
  "requirements": "Requires Python 3.11, Git, and GitHub access for code reviews."
}

The listed paths must identify existing skill entrypoints. They do not change the all-selected import default, remove other files, or prevent users from selecting other entrypoints. The manifest only supplies declarative metadata: it never runs setup commands. Dependencies, credentials, subagent tools, and scheduled jobs still need to be configured in the agent's environment.

At runtime, each selected skill contains a generated discovery SKILL.md that points to the untouched original in .paperclip-repository/. Relative references resolve from that original directory. Original file bytes and executable flags are preserved; discovery policy in agents/openai.yaml is also copied beside the entrypoint. Existing adapters copy this self-contained package to their runtime. Multiple enabled entrypoints currently repeat the repository files in the runtime, while the company database stores each immutable repository snapshot once.

Repeated scans resolve the branch's current commit and reuse the caller's cached snapshot when it is unchanged. Each server process allows one active scan per caller and two per company. Per minute, callers can open 30 snapshots and download 6 repositories; companies can open 60 snapshots and download 12 repositories. Cached scans do not consume the download quota. A limit returns a retry message; installed skills remain available.

Skills → Sources shows repositories, installed skill links, and connection errors. Click a repository title to open it on GitHub. Its three-dot menu contains Refresh, Select skills, and Disconnect source. Refresh applies valid updates immediately. New skills wait for Select skills → Save selection before import. Previously declined skills stay unchecked, including additions beneath excluded folders.

Unchecking an installed skill stops future syncing and keeps its content and agent assignments. Disconnect source does the same for the whole repository. Remove an installed skill separately if you want it gone from the library. Upstream deletion shows Removed from source and retains the installed version; a moved path is a new skill, not an inferred rename.

Installed content is stored locally, so viewing, testing, and agent execution work without GitHub access. Updates preserve skill identity, organization, assignments, and history. New versions are created only when package bytes or executable modes change; active runs and pinned versions keep their existing content. Skill Studio can view and test originals. Make a copy creates an independent editable skill.

Older imports with no saved tracking branch resolve the repository’s default branch on their first successful refresh. If an explicit source already tracks that branch, the adopted source keeps a Default branch alias so both sets of installed skill identities and selections remain intact. Explicit branch and commit pins are preserved.

Recognizable older GitHub imports are adopted into Sources without refetching or changing content; the first successful refresh completes their local snapshots. Bundled/catalog, project/local, unsupported-host, and skills.sh imports keep their existing behavior. Sync is manual and GitHub.com-only; upstream editing and pull requests are not part of this milestone.

While finding skills, the dialog shows the scan stages, the current file, and recently checked skills as their local packages are validated. Large repositories show real package and file counts; you can cancel and retry without importing partial results. Selection opens only after the full scan completes. Importing displays an animated saving state while complete local packages are prepared. Animations respect reduced-motion preferences.

Paperclip fetches one shallow Git snapshot, preserving committed bytes and executable permissions without checking out or running repository code. Download progress shows Git's measured receiving and preparing percentages before discovery begins. The server requires Git. Downloads are limited to 128 MiB and three minutes; at most two downloads run concurrently. Up to four temporary snapshots (including active downloads) are kept for ten minutes, scoped to the company and caller's authorization. Preview and import can reuse the exact scanned commit after checking access again. Installed skills remain local and independent of this temporary cache. GitHub's API is still used for repository identity and the connection picker, so metadata requests can still encounter rate limits.

The discovery API keeps its normal JSON response. Clients requesting Accept: application/x-ndjson receive progress and candidate events followed by complete (containing the discovery response), or a terminal error. A stream ending without complete is unsuccessful; partial candidates are not importable. Progress contains metadata only, never package file contents.

Source APIs live beneath /api/companies/:companyId/skill-sources:

Method/path	Purpose
GET / and GET /:sourceId	List sources and entries
GET /repositories	Browse repositories through existing GitHub grants
POST /discover	Discover and validate packages at one commit
POST /preview	Preview an audited package file at an immutable commit using current caller access
POST /	Import selected packages at the discovered commit
PATCH /:sourceId	Save selection/exclusions and optional connection, with revision check
POST /:sourceId/refresh	Refresh selected skills; discover new ones for review
DELETE /:sourceId	Disconnect while retaining installed skills

Import from an external source

Paste a source and Paperclip fetches and imports it. Accepted forms include:

• A GitHub repo or subfolder URL (https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/<ref>/skills/foo)
• A short owner/repo or owner/repo/skill reference
• A skills.sh URL or an npx skills add … command (both resolve to the GitHub source)
• A raw markdown URL pointing directly at a SKILL.md

A repo can contain many skills; the importer discovers every SKILL.md under the path (optionally filtered to a single --skill slug).

• API: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/import

Create a local skill

Author a skill directly in the company library without any external source. This is the "new skill" path — you provide the name, description, and markdown body and it's stored as a local_path / managed-local skill.

• API: POST /companies/:companyId/skills

Scan a project workspace

Agents and projects often already keep skills on disk under conventional folders (skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/, and many other tool-specific roots). The project scan walks a workspace, finds those SKILL.md directories, and offers to import them into the company library, reporting any conflicts or skips.

• API: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/scan-projects

Living with installed skills

Once a skill is in your library, the Store treats it like a small product with a lifecycle.

Versions

Each skill keeps a revision history. Saving a new version snapshots the full file inventory (with content) and bumps the revision number, so you can review history and roll back.

• List: GET /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/versions
• Create: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/versions

Updates, drift, and reset

For skills installed from the catalog or an external source, the Store tracks the origin. The update status endpoint compares your installed copy against the latest upstream and reports whether an update is available, whether you have locally modified the skill (drift), and any hold reason that should block an automatic update.

• Check: GET /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/update-status
• Install the upstream update: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/install-update (with force to override local drift)
• Discard local changes and return to the pristine origin: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/reset

Audit

A skill can be audited to compare its installed content hash against its recorded origin hash and flag tampering or unexpected drift. The audit returns a verdict and a set of codes that the Store surfaces as a health signal.

• API: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/audit

Fork

Forking copies an existing skill into a new, independent library entry (optionally with a new name, slug, and sharing scope). The fork records what it was forked from, and the original's forkCount increments. Use this to customize a catalog or community skill without losing the ability to see the upstream it came from.

• API: POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/fork

Stars and comments

Skills are social objects inside the Store. Members can star a skill (a per-actor toggle that drives the starCount) and leave threaded comments for discussion and review.

• Star / unstar: POST / DELETE /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/star
• Comments: GET / POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/comments, plus PATCH and DELETE for editing and removing.

Sharing scope

Every company skill has a sharing scope that controls who can see it:

Scope	Visibility
private	Only the author/owner
company	Everyone in the company
public_link	Anyone with the generated public share token

Scope is set when creating, updating, or forking a skill, and the Store's discovery view can filter by it.

How agents actually use installed skills

Installing a skill is not the same as an agent running it. At runtime, a company's installed skills are materialized into the agent's workspace as SKILL.md directories, and the agent's harness loads the frontmatter name + description of each skill as routing logic. The agent reads those one-line descriptions to decide whether a skill is relevant to the current task, and only then loads the full body. (This is why a skill's description should read as "what this does and when to use it" — it is the index the agent searches.)

Skill sync into agent workspaces is governed by a per-instance preference, so an operator can control whether and how the company library is pushed down to running agents.

Reference: API surface

All endpoints are under the company-skills router.

Catalog (read-only)

• GET /skills/catalog — list the bundled catalog
• GET /skills/catalog/:catalogId — one catalog skill
• GET /skills/catalog/:catalogId/files — its file inventory + content

Company library

• GET /companies/:companyId/skills — list (supports q, sort, categories, scope)
• GET /companies/:companyId/skills/categories — category counts
• GET /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId — detail
• GET /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/files — file inventory + content
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills — create a local skill
• PATCH /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId — edit metadata / sharing scope
• DELETE /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId — remove from the library
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/install-catalog — install a catalog skill
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/import — import from GitHub / skills.sh / URL
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/scan-projects — scan workspaces for skills
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/fork — fork a skill
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/versions · GET …/versions · GET …/versions/:versionId
• GET /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/update-status
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/install-update
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/reset
• POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/audit
• POST / DELETE /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/star
• GET / POST /companies/:companyId/skills/:skillId/comments · PATCH / DELETE …/comments/:commentId

All mutating endpoints require permission to manage the company's skills and are recorded in the company activity log.

Reference: the catalog package

The catalog is its own publishable package, @paperclipai/skills-catalog:

• catalog/bundled/** and catalog/optional/** — the source skill directories
• scripts/build-catalog-manifest.ts — compiles the directories into generated/catalog.json
• scripts/validate-catalog.ts — validates frontmatter, keys, and trust classification
• src/index.ts — exports catalogManifest, catalogSkills, getCatalogSkill(id), and resolveCatalogSkillRef(ref) for resolving a skill by id, key, or slug

To add a skill to the bundled catalog, create the directory with a SKILL.md, then run the package's build:manifest (and validate) scripts to regenerate and check the manifest.

See also

• Writing a Skill — the SKILL.md format and authoring best practices
• How Agents Work — how skills fit into a heartbeat

         (o)___(o)
        /         \
       |  o     o  |
       |     <     |
        \  \___/  /
         \_______/
        /         \
   ~~~ ribbit ~~~  skills! ~~~