ask

README

ASK: Agent Skills Kit for Enterprise AI

The Missing Package Manager for Agent Skills

Just ask, the agents are ready!

English | 中文

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🚀 Quick Start • ✨ Features • 📋 Commands • 📚 Documentation

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ASK (Agent Skills Kit) is the package manager for AI Agent skills. Just like brew manages macOS packages, pip manages Python packages, or npm manages Node.js dependencies, ask helps you discover, install, and lock skills for your agents (Claude, Cursor, Codex, etc.).

graph LR
    User[User/Agent] -->|ask skill search| Sources[GitHub/Community]
    Sources -->|Discover| Skills{Skills}
    User -->|ask skill install| Skills
    Skills -->|Download & Lock| Agent[.agent/skills/]
    
    style User fill:#4a9eff,color:white
    style Sources fill:#ff6b6b,color:white
    style Agent fill:#90ee90,color:black

✨ Key Features

Feature	Description
📦 Smart Management	Install, update, and remove skills with ease. Includes ask.lock for reproducible builds.
🔍 Multi-Source	Unified search across GitHub and official repos (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.). You can add more skill sources.
🤖 Agent Agnostic	Works with any agent. Auto-detects configuration for Claude, Cursor, Codex, and adapts to your custom agents.
⚡ Blazing Fast	Written in Go. Parallel downloads, sparse checkouts, and zero runtime dependencies.
🔌 Offline Mode	Full offline support with --offline. Perfect for air-gapped or secure environments.
🌎 Global & Local	Manage project-specific skills (.agent/skills) or user-wide tools (~/.ask/skills).
🛡️ Security Audit	Built-in security scanner checks skills for secrets, dangerous commands, and malware using entropy analysis.

🖥️ Web UI

ASK involves a local web interface for easy skill discovery and management.

Run ask serve to start it. Features include:

• Visual Dashboard: View installed skills, repositories, and system stats.
• Skill Browser: Search and filter skills with rich metadata and emoji icons.
• Repository Manager: Add and sync skill sources (GitHub, etc.).
• Security Audit: View generated safety reports.

Explore the Web UI Documentation →

1. Install

Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew tap yeasy/ask
brew install ask

Go Install:

go install github.com/yeasy/ask@latest

Binary / Manual Install (Windows / Linux): Download the latest pre-compiled binary for your system from Releases.

2. Initialize

Enter your project directory and run:

ask init

This creates an ask.yaml configuration file.

3. Use

# Search for skills
ask search mcp

# Install a skill (by name or repo, `ask add` is an alias for `ask install`)
ask install anthropics/mcp-builder
ask install superpowers

# Install specific version
ask install mcp-builder@v1.0.0

# Install for specific agent
ask install mcp-builder --agent claude
ask install mcp-builder --agent claude cursor

# Security Check
ask check .
ask check anthropics/mcp-builder -o report.html

# Start Web UI
ask serve

📋 Commands

Skill Management

Command	Description
ask skill search <keyword>	Search across all sources
ask skill install <name>	Install skill(s)
ask skill list	List installed skills
ask skill uninstall <name>	Remove a skill
ask skill update	Update skills to latest version
ask skill outdated	Check for newer versions
ask skill check <path>	Security scan (Secrets, Dangerous Commands)

Repository Management

Command	Description
ask repo list	Show configured repositories
ask repo add <url>	Add a custom skill source (run ask repo sync after to download)
ask repo sync	Download/update repos to local cache (~/.ask/repos)

System Commands

Command	Description
ask doctor	Diagnose and report on ASK health (config, skills, cache, system)
ask serve	Start web UI for visual skill management

🌐 Skill Sources

ASK comes pre-configured with trusted sources:

Source	Description
Anthropic	Official anthropics/skills
Community	Top-rated community skills (GitHub agent-skill and agent-skills topics)
Composio	ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills collection
OpenAI	Official openai/skills
Vercel	vercel-labs/agent-skills AI SDK skills

Optional Repositories

For specific needs, you can add these additional sources:

Repository	Command to Add	Description
Scientific	ask repo add K-Dense-AI/claude-scientific-skills	Data science & research skills
MATLAB	ask repo add matlab/skills	Official MATLAB integration
Superpowers	ask repo add obra/superpowers	Full dev workflow with sub-agents
Planning	ask repo add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files	File-based persistent planning
UI/UX Pro	ask repo add nextlevelbuilder/ui-ux-pro-max-skill	57 UI styles, 95 color schemes
NotebookLM	ask repo add PleasePrompto/notebooklm-skill	Auto-upload to NotebookLM
AI DrawIO	ask repo add GBSOSS/ai-drawio	Flowchart & diagram generation
PPT Skills	ask repo add op7418/NanoBanana-PPT-Skills	Dynamic PPT generation

📂 Installation Layout

Default structure after installation:

my-project/
├── ask.yaml          # Project config
├── ask.lock          # Lockfile (commit hashes)
└── .agent/           
    └── skills/       # Default install location
        ├── mcp-builder/
        └── writing-plans/

Ask will automatically discover Agent-Specific Paths:

• Claude: .claude/skills/
• Cursor: .cursor/skills/
• Codex: .codex/skills/

🐞 Debugging

To see detailed operational logs (scanning, updating, searching), set ASK_LOG=debug:

export ASK_LOG=debug
ask skill install browser-use

⌨️ Shell Completion

ASK supports intelligent tab completion for skill names, repository names, and agent flags.

Setup (one-time):

# Bash
ask completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/ask

# Zsh
ask completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_ask"

# Fish
ask completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/ask.fish

Features:

• ask skill install <TAB> - Complete from cached skills
• ask skill uninstall <TAB> - Complete from installed skills
• ask repo sync <TAB> - Complete from configured repositories
• ask install --agent <TAB> - Complete agent names (claude, cursor, codex, etc.)

📊 Security Audit Reports

See detailed security audit reports generated for top skill repositories:

• 🛡️ Anthropic Security Audit Report
• 🛡️ OpenAI Security Audit Report
• 🛡️ Composio Security Audit Report
• 🛡️ Vercel Security Audit Report
• 🛡️ Superpowers Security Audit Report

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

📄 License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Documentation

Overview

Package main is the entry point for the ask CLI.