Gemini CLI skills. Where they live and how to install them.

What skills are in Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI describes Agent Skills as on-demand expertise, as opposed to GEMINI.md, which gives persistent background context. At the start of a session the CLI scans its skill locations and puts the name and description of every enabled skill into the system prompt. When a task matches a description, Gemini calls an activate_skill tool. You then see a confirmation prompt naming the skill and the directory it will be able to read, and only after you approve does the full SKILL.md and the skill's folder get added to the conversation.

A skill is a directory containing SKILL.md with name and description frontmatter, and optionally scripts/, references/ and assets/.

Where Gemini CLI looks for skills

Locations are listed from lowest to highest precedence:

1. Built-in skills
2. Extension skills, bundled inside installed extensions
3. User skills: ~/.gemini/skills/ or the alias ~/.agents/skills/
4. Workspace skills: .gemini/skills/ or the alias .agents/skills/

When two skills share a name, the higher tier wins, and within a tier the .agents/skills/ folder beats .gemini/skills/. Workspace skills only load when the folder is marked as trusted. SKILL.md must be at the root of a skills folder or one directory below it; deeper nesting is not discovered.

Install a skill

The examples use frontend-design from anthropics/skills, located at skills/frontend-design.

Option 1: gemini skills install

gemini skills install https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git --path skills/frontend-design

--path names the sub-directory of the repository that holds the skill. The default scope is user; add --scope workspace to install into the current project. The CLI asks you to confirm the security risks first, and --consent skips that prompt, so use it only for sources you have already reviewed. The command also accepts a local directory.

Option 2: the skills CLI

npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design -a gemini-cli

This installs into .agents/skills/ in the current project. Add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.

Option 3: GitHub CLI

gh skill install anthropics/skills frontend-design --agent gemini-cli
gh skill install anthropics/skills frontend-design --agent gemini-cli --scope user

Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later, where gh skill is a public preview.

Option 4: copy the folder

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/skills.git skills-src
mkdir -p .gemini/skills
cp -r skills-src/skills/frontend-design .gemini/skills/frontend-design
rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.gemini/skills/ for a personal install. If Gemini CLI is already running, refresh with /skills reload.

Check that it loaded

Inside a session, run /skills list. Add all to include built-in skills, or nodesc to hide the descriptions. From the shell, gemini skills list --all prints the same information. If you just added files, /skills reload (or /skills refresh) rescans every tier without restarting. Then ask a question that matches the skill's description and watch for the consent prompt.

Update and remove

• Remove: gemini skills uninstall frontend-design --scope workspace (use --scope user for a user-level install).
• Disable without deleting: /skills disable frontend-design, and /skills enable frontend-design to turn it back on. These default to user scope; add --scope workspace for project settings.
• Update: the documentation lists install, uninstall and link but no separate update command, so uninstall the skill and install it again to get a newer version. If you use npx skills or gh skill, their own update commands apply to the skills they installed.
• Local development: /skills link <path> links a skill folder you are editing.

Troubleshooting

• A workspace skill does not show up: the folder may not be trusted. Run /trust and restart the session. User-level skills are not affected by trust.
• A skill is silently skipped: it needs both name: and description:, the file must be named exactly SKILL.md, and the opening --- must be the first thing in the file with no heading or blank line before it.
• The skill appears under a different name: Gemini takes the name from the name: field, not from the folder name.
• It was nested too deep: only the skills root and one folder below it are scanned.
• Account notice: Gemini CLI's site carries a banner saying unpaid-tier and Google One users were moved from Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI on June 18, 2026. Check that notice for your account type before you set things up.

Safety

Activating a skill gives Gemini access to the skill's whole directory, and bundled scripts run through the shell tool with your permissions. Read SKILL.md and scripts/ before you approve installation or activation. The consent prompts exist for this reason, so read them rather than reflexively approving, and avoid --consent for repositories you have not reviewed.