Copy Skill

Downloads and installs Claude Code skills from GitHub repositories to your local .claude/skills directory.

Quick Start

bash

node scripts/copy-skill.js <github-url> [--target <path>]

Instructions

Step 1: Parse the GitHub URL

Accept URLs in these formats:

•https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/branch/path/to/skill
•https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/skills/skill-name

Step 2: Run the copy script

bash

# Copy to project .claude/skills (default)
node scripts/copy-skill.js https://github.com/user/repo/tree/main/skills/my-skill

# Copy to user home ~/.claude/skills
node scripts/copy-skill.js https://github.com/user/repo/tree/main/skills/my-skill --target ~/.claude/skills

Step 3: Verify installation

The script will:

•Fetch the directory listing from GitHub API
•Recursively download all files (SKILL.md, scripts/, references/, etc.)
•Create the local directory structure
•Write all files preserving the structure

Usage Examples

Copy a skill from a public repository:

bash

node scripts/copy-skill.js https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/skills/my-skill

Copy to a custom location:

bash

node scripts/copy-skill.js https://github.com/user/skills/tree/main/my-skill --target /path/to/.claude/skills

Copy to home directory skills:

bash

node scripts/copy-skill.js https://github.com/user/repo/tree/main/skill-name --target ~/.claude/skills

Script Options

Option	Description	Default
`--target`, `-t`	Target directory for skill installation	`.claude/skills`
`--name`, `-n`	Override skill directory name	Extracted from URL
`--verbose`, `-v`	Enable verbose output	`false`

Requirements

•Node.js 18+ (for native fetch support)
•Internet connection to access GitHub API

How It Works

•URL Parsing: Extracts owner, repo, branch, and path from GitHub URL
•API Fetching: Uses GitHub Contents API to list all files recursively
•Content Download: Fetches raw content for each file
•Directory Creation: Creates local directory structure mirroring the source
•File Writing: Writes all files to the target location

Error Handling

The script handles:

•Invalid GitHub URLs
•Non-existent repositories or paths
•Network failures with retry logic
•Rate limiting (suggests using GITHUB_TOKEN)

Troubleshooting

Rate limit exceeded:

bash

export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token_here
node scripts/copy-skill.js <url>

Permission denied:

•Check write permissions on target directory
•Try with sudo or change target path

Skill not found after install:

•Restart Claude Code to reload skills
•Verify SKILL.md exists in the installed directory