search

Search for skills in your local installations or in the marketplaces.

Marketplace search covers skills.sh and agentskill.sh. Both are queried, and the combined results are deduplicated by name and source, preferring the entry with more installs and a longer description.

Synopsis

aiskills search [search-query] [options]

Interactive Mode (Recommended)

When run without flags (or with only a search query), an interactive prompt guides you through choosing where to search and entering a query. This is the easiest way to use this command - no flags to remember:

aiskills search                   # Pick where to search, then enter query
aiskills search pdf               # Pick where to search, query is pre-filled

The interactive flow is:

1. Search from - marketplace or local
2. Enter search query - free-text query (skipped if already provided as an argument)
3. Select skill(s) - multi-select prompt of matching skills
4. Choose an action - read, install (marketplace only), list, or finish

Example:

$ aiskills search
✔ Search from  … marketplace
✔ Enter search query … pdf
Searching marketplaces for: pdf

   ✔ Found 39 skill(s)

? Select skill(s) ›
Tab to toggle, Shift+Tab to toggle all, Enter to submit.
 ◯ pdf                       anthropics/skills              51.2K installs [skills.sh]
 ◯ pdftk-server              github/awesome-copilot         6.5K installs [skills.sh]
 ◯ nano-pdf                  steipete/clawdis               1.6K installs [skills.sh]
 ◯ view-pdf                  anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins 354 installs [skills.sh]

Tip

In any multi-select prompt, press Shift+Tab to toggle select/deselect all.

Non-Interactive Mode

Provide the search query and exactly one of --marketplace or --local:

aiskills search <search-query> --marketplace   # Search the marketplace
aiskills search <search-query> --local         # Search local skills (all agents, both scopes)

Invalid Combinations

aiskills search <search-query> --local --marketplace   # ERROR: choose one
aiskills search --local                                # ERROR: <search-query> is required
aiskills search --marketplace                          # ERROR: <search-query> is required

Query Length

The search query must be at least 2 characters. A shorter query is rejected:

Error: Search query must be at least 2 characters.

Options

Flag	Short	Description
--marketplace	-m	Search the skills.sh and agentskill.sh marketplaces
--local	-l	Search local skills (all agents, both global and project)

--marketplace and --local are mutually exclusive.

Search Results - Marketplace

Marketplace results include each skill's source metadata, install count, and the marketplace it came from:

Search Results:

  pdf               anthropics/skills
      sourceType: git
          source: anthropics/skills
         subpath: skills/pdf
            name: pdf
    Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files.
    Installs: 51.2K installs  Marketplace: skills.sh

  pdf-tools         someone/pdf-tools
      sourceType: git
          source: someone/pdf-tools
         subpath: skills/pdf-tools
            name: pdf-tools
    Split, merge, and inspect PDF documents.
    Installs: 1.2K installs  Marketplace: agentskill.sh

2 skill(s) shown

Marketplace: names which marketplace the entry came from, either skills.sh or agentskill.sh.

Search Results - Local

Local results include each skill's scope, agent, base directory, and source metadata:

Found 1 matching skill(s) for 'pdf':

  pdf-converter             (project, Cursor): .cursor/skills
  Base directory: ~/git/username/path/to/project/.cursor/skills/pdf-converter
      sourceType: git
          source: claude-office-skills/skills
         subpath: pdf-converter
          commit: 0a7d3e9c5b1f8a2d6e4c0b9f3a7e1d5c8b2f6a4e
      sourceHash: e1c3a5b7d9f1e3c5a7b9d1f3e5c7a9b1d3f5e7a9
            name: PDF Converter
    Convert PDFs to other formats and back.

The metadata block is the same one read shows, so commit, sourceHash and checkedAt appear when they are recorded.

Post-Search Actions

After you select skills from the results, ai-skills asks what you want to do with them:

• read - Print the selected skills' content to stdout, then return to the action menu.
• list - List the selected skills with their metadata, then return to the action menu.
• install - (Marketplace only) Install the selected skills, then finish.
• finish - End the search session.

read and list loop back to the action menu so you can perform multiple actions on the same selection. install and finish end the flow. For local results, install is not offered because the skills are already installed.

The install action clones through the same Git authentication fallback chain that install uses. Like install, it copies the skill without .git and records its version, so update can skip it while its source is unchanged.