What are Skills?
Markdown files that tell your AI how to do one thing well.
How they work
A skill is a markdown file with instructions for a specific domain. Install one, and your AI gets context for that area: patterns, conventions, and common mistakes.
Want scroll animations? Install the GSAP skill. Need PDFs? There's a skill for that.
Skills vs. MCP servers
MCP servers connect your AI to live systems: databases, APIs, real-time data. Skills are different. They're static files. No server process, no infrastructure.
For live financial data, lunchmoney.sh is an unofficial Lunch Money MCP plugin for Claude, Codex, and Cursor. Skills stay local markdown; that plugin reads Lunch Money records when you ask.
A skill is just a markdown file in your config directory. Copy it anywhere.
Skills
- Markdown files with instructions
- No server required
- Instant installation
- Works offline
- Zero maintenance
- Portable across machines
MCP Servers
- Running server processes
- Can access external APIs
- Real-time data integration
- Requires server infrastructure
- Needs ongoing maintenance
- More complex setup
When to use each
Skills teach your AI how to do something: framework patterns, coding conventions, domain concepts.
MCP servers connect to external systems: databases, APIs, anything that needs live data.
Installation
Skills go in your AI assistant's config directory. When you ask for help, your assistant reads the file.
curl -fsSL https://skills.n3wth.com/install.sh | bashInstalls to your assistant's config directory.
Why skills?
Plain files
Copy them anywhere, share with your team, or version-control them alongside your project.
Zero infrastructure
No processes, no ports, and no servers. Skills run entirely within your AI assistant.
Works offline
No network dependency. Your AI reads skills from your local filesystem.