Ask HN: How do you manage skills files? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#271

Post by tstrimple » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC

fallinditch wrote: post #201

I read somewhere that Boris (created Claude Code) recommends deleting skills, and hooks every so often and then observe how the LLM performs without them. Maybe better to periodically prune: tweak some skills, shorten some, delete some.

I have CC do a review / audit of my entire CC stack and architecture every major model / harness release for recommended changes. What goes into my CLAUDE.md files has been shrinking over time. There is a skill review tool as well which helps determine how effective they are.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#272

Post by itubaj » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

I've put mine inside `~/.agents/skills` and `ln`ed all `skills` folders that I could to point to them. It only doesn't work for Claude Desktop. But it works for grok, antigravity and cc CLIs (for some, at least partially).

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#273

Post by dolmen » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:43 PM UTC

mathgeek wrote: post #226

listingbott wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you actually measure the token savings? Do you compare the same task with and without the skill, or is it more of a noticeable difference over time?

Both, in a way. In order to be sure it's the skill reducing token usage, you measure it with and without the skill, and then you do that periodically to account for all the other variables. Alternatively, you pick a belief based on prior evidence from either approach you mentioned, which is the natural thing that many of us do.

You say: "you measure", "you do that", "you pick".

But what about "I"?

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#274

Post by yehyal » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

I asked that question myself a couple of times, which is why I created a side project to answer it.

I built Skill Grill, an open-source directory and community trust layer for AI agent skills.

Its live now at https://skillgrill.dev

I'm not sure about posting links in threads but this project needs community backing in order to work and its free :)

Its still in MVP stage, but feedback is welcome

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#275

Post by blackhaj7 » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

Anyone got a good flow for sharing their skills across their various repos and apps?

I ideally want to have a single place I store my skills with an easy way to make them available to my repos, Amp and ChatGPT desktop/iOS, Grok web but can’t see a way

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#276

Post by yokuze » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:57 PM UTC

I commit my standard set of agent configuration (including Skills) to this repo, similar to how many people have a "dotfiles" repo: https://github.com/yokuze/aix-config

Then, I use this tool:

https://github.com/a1st-dev/aix

to keep my Claude, Codex, and OpenCode in sync with my config.

The major benefits are that my adoption/deletion of skills, rules, hooks, MCP servers, etc. are deliberate, versioned, and shareable.

And since aix allows you to create extensible configs, that aix-config public GitHub repo is my base set of rules, and my internal/employer-specific rules are just a small layer on top of that.

It also makes trying out different subscriptions easy: you define your config in one place (one source of truth), and write to Claude, Codex, Devin, etc. with one command.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#277

Post by devolving-dev » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

Like you said, I think skills are quickly subsumed by model abilities. I leave relevant notes about my own projects in agents.md and local comments around tricky bits of code that need them, but otherwise I just use vanilla codex.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#278

Post by yokuze » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

blackhaj7 wrote: post #275

Anyone got a good flow for sharing their skills across their various repos and apps? I ideally want to have a single place I store my skills with an easy way to make them available to my repos, Amp and ChatGPT desktop/iOS, Grok web but can’t see a way

Yes! See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49601053

Though it does not support ChatGPT (just the Codex part inside of the ChatGPT app), or Grok web (yet).

But it does encourage you to keep versioned config in one spot. You can also commit repo-specific config to any project that has specific needs, and translate that config into . That can be helpful when working with a team or an open source project that needs to support a variety of agents/tools.

It currently supports 8 editors/agents: https://aix.a1st.dev/editors/supported-editors/

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#279

Post by yokuze » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

itubaj wrote: post #272

I've put mine inside `~/.agents/skills` and `ln`ed all `skills` folders that I could to point to them. It only doesn't work for Claude Desktop. But it works for grok, antigravity and cc CLIs (for some, at least partially).

It's a bit of a shameless plug, but I do hope it is helpful to you:

I've been using this heavily the past 6 months to solve exactly this problem: https://github.com/a1st-dev/aix It doesn't support Grok (yet) though.

Re: Ask HN: How do you manage skills files?

#280

Post by veb » Mon, Sep 07, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

yokuze wrote: post #276

I commit my standard set of agent configuration (including Skills) to this repo, similar to how many people have a "dotfiles" repo: https://github.com/yokuze/aix-config Then, I use this tool: https://github.com/a1st-dev/aix to keep my Claude, Codex, and OpenCode in sync with my config. The major benefits are that my adoption/deletion of skills, rules, hooks, MCP servers, etc. are deliberate, versioned, and shareable.…

interesting project mate. I have struggled with this as I built my workflow to rely on Claude, but when I put Codex into the mix it became a bit of a hassle, will check it out.