Junie skills. Where they live and how to install them.

What skills are in Junie

JetBrains describes agent skills as folders with instructions, templates, scripts and reference material that give Junie task-specific context. They follow the open Agent Skills format. Unlike guidelines, which apply to every prompt, a skill is only used when it matches the task at hand. Junie follows the instructions and loads referenced materials or runs bundled scripts as needed.

JetBrains says skills work in both Junie CLI and Junie in JetBrains IDEs, and that Junie is included with a JetBrains AI subscription. The folder rules and commands below are the ones JetBrains documents for Junie CLI.

Where Junie looks for skills

By default Junie CLI loads two locations:

• Project scope: <projectRoot>/.junie/skills/<skill-name>/, which you can commit and share with your team.
• User scope: ~/.junie/skills/<skill-name>/ on macOS and Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.junie\skills\<skill-name>\ on Windows.

It also loads .agents/skills/ in a trusted project and ~/.agents/skills/, skills bundled with installed extensions, built-in skills, and any folders you add with the --skill-location option or the skill-locations field in config.json. Turn the default folders off with --skill-default-locations false. If you have skill folders from other agents in a project (.cursor/skills/, .claude/skills/ or .codex/skills/), Junie CLI detects them and offers to import them into .junie/skills/. When a project skill and a user skill share a name, the project-level one takes precedence.

Install a skill

JetBrains' own instructions for third-party skills are to copy them from a Git repository into your skills folder. The examples use frontend-design from anthropics/skills, located at skills/frontend-design.

Option 1: copy the folder

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

Copy into ~/.junie/skills/ for a skill that applies to all your projects. On Windows PowerShell, use git clone and Copy-Item -Recurse -Force, as JetBrains' page shows.

Option 2: the skills CLI

npx skills add anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design -a junie

This installs into .junie/skills/ in the project. Add -g for ~/.junie/skills/.

Option 3: GitHub CLI

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

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

Option 4: ask Junie to write one

JetBrains' simplest route is to describe the skill you want in a prompt, and Junie generates the folder, SKILL.md and supporting files. That creates a new skill rather than installing an existing one.

Check that it loaded

Run /skills in Junie CLI. In the interactive terminal UI it opens a management screen where you can search skills and press Enter or Space to enable or disable one. In ACP clients, /skills re-scans the folders and prints Enabled, Disabled and Errors groups, with the reason for any skill that failed to load. Every enabled skill also becomes a /<skill-name> command, and typing $ in a prompt suggests matching skills.

Update and remove

• Remove: delete the skill's folder, or run npx skills remove frontend-design.
• Update: copy over a newer version of the folder, or use npx skills update or gh skill update for skills those tools installed.
• Turn off without deleting: use /skills. In ACP clients, /skills frontend-design disable persists across sessions, and /skills frontend-design enable reverses it.

Troubleshooting

• Junie does not use the skill: the description may be too vague for the task. Try asking for it explicitly, for example "Use the frontend-design skill to ...", or run /frontend-design.
• A skill folder is not recognised: it needs a file named SKILL.md. Frontmatter must start with ---, use spaces rather than tabs, include name, and end with ---.
• A skill fails to load: description is optional, but if it is missing and the body is empty or only headings, the skill fails. Give it an explicit description.
• Name conflicts: JetBrains' page says the project-level skill wins over a user-level one with the same name, so rename one if you want both.
• File errors: check permissions and that the files are UTF-8.

Safety

JetBrains warns that Junie modifies your code and executes scripts, so you should treat third-party skills like any third-party code. Only use skills from sources you trust, read SKILL.md and all supporting files, and prefer pinning to a specific commit or tag rather than pulling from a branch that may change.