Cursor Skills
A Cursor skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file. It gives the Cursor agent steps for one kind of task.
Skills sit next to Cursor rules. Rules are always-on guidance for a project. Skills load only when a task needs them.
Where Cursor looks for skills
Put each skill folder in .cursor/skills/. Each folder holds a SKILL.md file. See the install guide for every tool.
Cursor rules vs skills
Use rules for short project conventions. Use skills for longer, task-specific playbooks. Many teams use both.
Top skills for Cursor
Real skills from public GitHub repos, checked 2026-10-13. Every skill uses the SKILL.md format.
api-and-interface-design
Guides stable API and interface design. Use when designing APIs, module boundaries, or any public interface. Use when creating REST or GraphQL endpoints, def...
browser-testing-with-devtools
Tests in real browsers via Chrome DevTools MCP. Use when building or debugging anything that runs in a browser. Use when you need to inspect the DOM, capture...
ci-cd-and-automation
Automates CI/CD pipeline setup. Use when setting up or modifying build and deployment pipelines. Use when you need to automate quality gates, configure test ...
code-review-and-quality
Conducts multi-axis code review. Use before merging any change. Use when reviewing code written by yourself, another agent, or a human. Use when you need to ...
code-simplification
Simplifies code for clarity. Use when refactoring code for clarity without changing behavior. Use when code works but is harder to read, maintain, or extend ...
constraint-driven-development
Establishes a project's quality bar as a written contract and stops agents quietly lowering it. Interviews the user on which dimensions matter, supplies sane...
context-engineering
Optimizes agent context setup. Use when starting a new session, when agent output quality degrades, when switching between tasks, or when you need to configu...
debugging-and-error-recovery
Guides systematic root-cause debugging. Use when tests fail, builds break, something that worked yesterday broke, behavior doesn't match expectations, or you...
deprecation-and-migration
Manages deprecation and migration. Use when removing old systems, APIs, or features. Use when migrating users from one implementation to another. Use when mi...
documentation-and-adrs
Records decisions and documentation. Use when you need to document an architecture decision (ADR) or the reasoning behind a design choice, when changing publ...
doubt-driven-development
Subjects every non-trivial decision to a fresh-context adversarial review before it stands. Use when you want every assumption cross-examined before proceedi...
frontend-ui-engineering
Builds production-quality, accessible, responsive user-facing UIs. Use when building or modifying interfaces and pages, creating components, implementing lay...
git-workflow-and-versioning
Structures git workflow practices. Use when making any code change. Use when committing, branching, resolving conflicts, splitting uncommitted work in a mess...
idea-refine
Refines raw ideas into sharp, actionable concepts through structured divergent and convergent thinking. Use when an idea is still vague, when you need to str...
incremental-implementation
Delivers changes incrementally in thin, verifiable slices. Use when implementing any feature or change that touches more than one file, or when picking up th...
interview-me
Extracts what the user actually wants instead of what they think they should want. Achieves this through one-question-at-a-time interview until ~95% confiden...
observability-and-instrumentation
Instruments code so production behavior is visible and diagnosable. Use when adding logging, metrics, tracing, or alerting. Use when shipping any feature tha...
performance-optimization
Optimizes application performance across frontend, backend, queries, and databases. Use when performance requirements exist, when you suspect performance reg...
planning-and-task-breakdown
Breaks work into ordered tasks. Use when you have a spec or clear requirements and need to break work into implementable tasks. Use when a task feels too lar...
security-and-hardening
Hardens code against vulnerabilities. Use when auditing an input handler for vulnerabilities, when handling user input, authentication, data storage, or exte...
shipping-and-launch
Prepares production launches. Use when preparing to deploy to production, or when asking what needs to be in place before shipping. Use when you need a pre-l...
source-driven-development
Grounds every implementation decision in official documentation. Use when you want to verify an approach against the official docs before implementing it, or...
spec-driven-development
Creates specs before coding. Use when starting a new project, feature, or significant change and no specification exists yet. Use when drafting a PRD or requ...
test-driven-development
Drives development with tests using the red-green-refactor loop. Use when implementing any logic, fixing any bug, or changing any behavior. Use when you need...
using-agent-skills
Discovers and invokes agent skills. Use when starting a session, or when you need to decide which skill or workflow applies to the piece of work at hand. Thi...
academy-guide
Stop and check this skill before finishing any reply to a question about how to use Claude or a Claude product - it recommends matching courses, tutorials,...
algorithmic-art
Creating algorithmic art using p5.js with seeded randomness and interactive parameter exploration. Use this when users request creating art using code, gener...
ask-matt
Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the skills in this repo.
brainstorming
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, modifying behavior, or planning anything new, in s...
brand-guidelines
Applies Anthropic's official brand colors and typography to any sort of artifact that may benefit from having Anthropic's look-and-feel. Use it when brand co...
canvas-design
Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art...
chief-of-staff
Pursue a long-running goal in a single session by co-ordinating subagents.
claude-api
Reference for the Claude API / Anthropic SDK - model ids, pricing, params, streaming, tool use, MCP, agents, caching, token counting, model migration. TRIG...
claude-handoff
Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.
code-review
Review the changes since a fixed point (commit, branch, tag, or merge-base) along two axes: Standards (does the code follow this repo's documented coding sta...
codebase-design
Shared vocabulary for designing deep modules. Use when the user wants to design or improve a module's interface, find deepening opportunities, decide where a...
diagnosing-bugs
Diagnosis loop for hard bugs and performance regressions. Use when the user says "diagnose"/"debug this", or reports something broken/throwing/failing/slow.
diagnosing-superpowers
Use when a superpowers session went wrong and your human partner wants to know why - repeated work, ignored plans, stumbles, poor results, a skill that did...
discernment-nudge
After you give a substantive answer or draft that the user may act on - advice or recommendations, drafted artifacts such as goals, plans, pitches, proposa...
dispatching-parallel-agents
Use when facing 2+ independent tasks that can be worked on without shared state or sequential dependencies
domain-modeling
Build and sharpen a project's domain model. Use when discussing codebase terminology, writing or editing a GLOSSARY.md, or recording or editing an ADR.
executing-plans
Use when executing an implementation plan in the current session as the implementer yourself - your human partner chose inline execution, or no subagent to...
finishing-a-development-branch
Use when implementation is complete, all tests pass, and you need to decide how to integrate the work
frontend-design
Guidance for distinctive, intentional visual design when building new UI or reshaping an existing one. Helps with aesthetic direction, typography, and making...
git-guardrails-claude-code
Set up Claude Code hooks to block dangerous git commands (push, reset --hard, clean, branch -D, etc.) before they execute. Use when user wants to prevent des...
grill-with-docs
A relentless interview to sharpen a plan or design, which also creates docs (ADR's and glossary) as we go.
grilling
Grill the user relentlessly about a plan, decision, or idea. Use when the user wants to stress-test their thinking, or uses any 'grill' trigger phrases.
handoff
Compact the current conversation into a handoff document for another agent to pick up.
improve-codebase-architecture
Scan a codebase for deepening opportunities, present them as a visual HTML report, then grill through whichever one you pick.
internal-comms
A set of resources to help me write all kinds of internal communications, using the formats that my company likes to use. Claude should use this skill whenev...
loop-me
Grill me about specs for the workflows I want to build, within this workspace.
mcp-builder
Guide for creating high-quality MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that enable LLMs to interact with external services through well-designed tools. Use whe...
migrate-to-shoehorn
Migrate test files from `as` type assertions to @total-typescript/shoehorn. Use when user mentions shoehorn, wants to replace `as` in tests, or needs partial...
prototype
Build a throwaway prototype to answer a design question. Use when the user wants to sanity-check whether a state model or logic feels right, or explore what ...
receiving-code-review
Use when receiving code review feedback, before implementing suggestions, especially if feedback seems unclear or technically questionable - requires technic...
requesting-code-review
Use when completing tasks, implementing major features, or before merging to verify work meets requirements
research
Investigate a question against high-trust primary sources and capture the findings as a Markdown file in the repo. Use when the user wants a topic researched...
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Questions
Where do Cursor skills go?
In the .cursor/skills/ folder of your project. One folder per skill.
Are Cursor rules the same as skills?
No. Rules are always loaded for a project. Skills are loaded on demand when a task matches the description.
Can I use Claude skills in Cursor?
Most SKILL.md skills work across tools. Copy the folder into .cursor/skills/.