Join as a developer

Joining takes one command. After it, skills follow the registry with no action from you.

Join your organization

$ skillcrew init github.com/acme/skills --team backend
Cloning https://github.com/acme/skills.git...
Joined organization acme (registry https://github.com/acme/skills.git, branch main).
  ✓ claude-code: session-start hook installed
  ✓ codex: session-start hook installed
  ✓ copilot-cli: session-start hook installed
  ✓ cursor: session-start hook installed
  ✓ gemini-cli: session-start hook installed
  ✓ fallback timer installed (every 1h0m0s)
Synced registry 7f396e1a9c2d:
  + db-migrations (installed)
  + commit-msgs (installed)
  + review (installed)
Start a new agent session to load the skills. "skillcrew list --available" shows the skills you can add.

The registry can be any Git URL (git@github.com:acme/skills.git), a local path, or the host/owner/repo shorthand, which becomes an HTTPS URL. Private registries work with your existing Git credentials: see Private registries.

Not sure which team to join? Skip --team, then list them:

$ skillcrew team list
TEAM      MEMBER
backend   joined
frontend  -
$ skillcrew team join frontend

init is idempotent: run it again to repair hooks or the timer.

What init sets up

• A clone of the registry in ~/.skillcrew/registry.git.
• A session-start hook in each agent it detects (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI and VS Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI). The hook runs skillcrew sync --hook, which returns immediately and prints nothing. When the last sync is older than the debounce window (60 seconds by default), it starts a sync in the background, so an agent never waits on the network.
• A user-level timer (launchd on macOS, systemd user units on Linux) that runs skillcrew sync --quiet every hour, for agents without hooks.
• The skills themselves: real copies in ~/.agents/skills/<skill>, and symlinks in ~/.claude/skills/<skill> for Claude Code.

No daemon, no admin rights. Flags: --no-hooks, --no-timer, --ref <branch> (branch to follow instead of the default branch). See the CLI reference.

Check what you have

$ skillcrew status
Organization  acme
Registry      https://github.com/acme/skills.git (main @ 7f396e1a9c2d)
Teams         backend
Last sync     2026-10-11 13:52

SKILL          ID                  STATUS       STATE  VERSION
db-migrations  data:db-migrations  required     ok     7f396e1a9c2d
commit-msgs    git:commit-msgs     recommended  ok     7f396e1a9c2d
review         security:review     required     ok     7f396e1a9c2d

Choose your optional skills

$ skillcrew list --available
SKILL        ID                   STATUS     STATE  VERSION
pdf          docs:pdf             available  -      -
hello-world  example:hello-world  available  -      -
$ skillcrew install pdf
Installed docs:pdf.
Synced registry 7f396e1a9c2d:
  + pdf (installed)

• skillcrew install / skillcrew remove add or remove an available skill.
• skillcrew disable / skillcrew enable turn a recommended or deprecated skill off or back on.
• required skills cannot be turned off, and blocked skills cannot be installed.

Your choices are stored in ~/.skillcrew/config.yaml and respected by every sync.

Your own skills

Skillcrew only touches the directories it installed. Personal skills in ~/.agents/skills or ~/.claude/skills stay yours, unless one has the same name as a team skill: it is then backed up, replaced by the team skill, and restored by skillcrew uninstall when the name is free.

If you edit a team skill, the next sync backs up your version and restores the team one. To share your change, propose it.