Cursor Agent Skills

Install Cursor skills, choose the right scope, invoke a workflow once or keep it active for a full session, and know when a rule or command fits better.

Install one skill or the full library

Install one workflow globally:

$npx skills add tushaarmehtaa/tushar-skills --skill remove-ai-slop -g -a cursor -y

Or install every catalog skill globally:

$npx skills add tushaarmehtaa/tushar-skills -g -a cursor -y

Choose global or project scope

Global skills are available across projects from ~/.agents/skills. Project skills live in .agents/skills and can be reviewed with the repository.

These are the runtime-facing destinations observed from the generated npx skills commands: skills CLI 1.5.23 installed the project and global package into the shared .agents/skills location on August 28, 2026.

Omit -g for project scope:

$npx skills add tushaarmehtaa/tushar-skills --skill remove-ai-slop -a cursor -y

Cursor also reads project skills from .cursor/skills and global skills from ~/.cursor/skills. Slashskills uses .agents/skills so the same package can serve multiple compatible runtimes.

Local global skills are not copied to Cloud Agents, remote SSH sessions, or managed workers. Commit a project-scoped skill to the repository when remote agents need it.

Invoke the workflow

Explicit invocation: /remove-ai-slop

Natural-language requests can also trigger a skill when its description matches. Use explicit invocation when you want deterministic selection.

Keep a skill active with Custom Mode

A slash-menu invocation attaches the skill to one message. For a workflow that should guide the whole session, select the skill and choose Use as Mode.

The shortcut is Option+Enter on Mac or Alt+Enter on Windows. Cursor keeps the skill in context until you leave the mode.

Use one-message invocation for a bounded task. Use Custom Mode for a working method—such as TDD, code review, or UI polish—that should survive every turn of a longer feature.

Cursor documents Custom Modes for both the Agents Window and CLI in its prompting guide.

Choose a skill, rule, command, or plugin

These tools overlap, but they solve different jobs. Pick the smallest mechanism that matches how the instruction should load.

Swipe horizontally to compare all three columns.

Use	Best for	How it loads
Skill	Portable, multi-step knowledge or a workflow with scripts and references.	Agent selects it by relevance, or you invoke it with `/skill-name`.
Rule	Project constraints such as code style, architecture, or file-specific guidance.	Always, by relevance, by file pattern, or when you `@`-mention it.
Command	A Cursor-specific prompt or action that should run only when requested.	Explicitly from the `/` menu.
Plugin	Distribution that bundles skills with MCP servers, rules, hooks, or other components.	Installed through Customize or a team marketplace.

Slashskills installs direct Agent Skills. Use Cursor Rules for persistent project constraints and plugins when the package needs more than a skill.

Keep portable fields separate from Cursor extensions

The open Agent Skills format defines name, description, license, compatibility, metadata, and experimental allowed-tools.

Cursor additionally accepts paths, disable-model-invocation, icon, and color. Those fields can improve Cursor behavior, but another runtime may ignore or reject them.

Keep the shared SKILL.md on the portable core unless the package is intentionally Cursor-only. Compare Cursor's skill reference with the open specification before adding extensions.

Building a new portable workflow? Start with the skill-creator package and verify runtime differences on compatibility.

Update and remove

Update the global copy:

$npx skills update -g remove-ai-slop

Remove it only from Cursor:

$npx skills remove remove-ai-slop -g -a cursor -y

Reload after changes

Cursor discovers skills when Agent starts. Start a new Agent conversation if a newly installed skill does not appear.

If discovery still looks stale, verify the folder contains SKILL.md at its top level before restarting the runtime.

Known runtime limits

Agent Skills require Cursor 2.4 or newer. Use Agent mode when a workflow needs files, commands, or browser tools.
A skill can describe required tools but cannot bypass Cursor approvals or workspace trust.
Cursor also supports .cursor/skills and compatibility locations, but the generated Slashskills installer currently targets the shared .agents/skills path.

Official Cursor skill docs ↗

Primary references: Agent Skills, Custom Modes, Rules, and the Agent Skills specification.