List a skill from your repository - Claude Code Templates

If your skill lives in your own repository, you can list it instead of copying it. Its catalog folder holds only a source.json, and the CLI downloads the files from your repository at the pinned commit.

python3 scripts/external_skills.py add OWNER/REPO path/to/skill CATEGORY [--requires category/name ...] [--author NAME]

The script resolves your repository’s current commit, checks the license and writes cli-tool/components/skills/{category}/{name}/source.json:

Field	Required	Meaning
`repo`	yes	`owner/name` on GitHub
`path`	yes	Folder of the skill inside the repository
`commit`	yes	Full 40-character sha. Never a branch or tag
`license`	yes	SPDX id; must match the repository’s LICENSE at that commit
`author`	no	Shown on aitmpl.com
`requires`	no	Other catalog skills to install with it
`include`	no	Files or folders under `path` to keep, when the folder also holds demos or tests. Must list `SKILL.md`

Limits after filtering: 200 files and 5 MB.

Updating

A new commit in your repository does not reach users on its own. Open a pull request that moves commit. A weekly job opens an issue listing skills whose upstream has newer commits.

Whole plugins

A source.json can also point at a complete Claude Code plugin (a folder with .claude-plugin/plugin.json). Those live under cli-tool/components/plugins/ and are published in the aitmpl marketplace. See Plugins.