Skill Deployer

Determine the URL type and extract owner, repo, branch, and path from the URL mentally — no Bash call required.

• Tree: https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/tree/{branch}/{path}
• Blob: https://github.com/{owner}/{repo}/blob/{branch}/{path} — walk up to the directory containing SKILL.md
• .skill file — a zip archive to download and extract

Step 2: Deploy in a single Bash command

Combine discovery, directory creation, downloading, and validation into one chained shell command. Wrap everything in bash -c '...' to avoid zsh compatibility issues.

For GitHub URLs, use the recursive tree API to discover all files in one API call, then download each:

bash -c 'OWNER="owner" REPO="repo" BRANCH="main" SPATH="skills/my-skill" DEST="$HOME/.claude/skills/my-skill" && mkdir -p "$DEST" && gh api "repos/$OWNER/$REPO/git/trees/$BRANCH?recursive=1" --jq ".tree[] | select(.path | startswith(\"$SPATH/\")) | select(.type==\"blob\") | .path" | while read -r fpath; do rel="${fpath#$SPATH/}"; dir="$(dirname "$rel")"; [ "$dir" != "." ] && mkdir -p "$DEST/$dir"; gh api "repos/$OWNER/$REPO/contents/$fpath" --jq ".content" | base64 -d > "$DEST/$rel" && echo "  $rel"; done && if [ -f "$DEST/SKILL.md" ] && head -1 "$DEST/SKILL.md" | grep -q "^---"; then echo "Installed: my-skill → $DEST ($(find "$DEST" -type f | wc -l | tr -d " ") files)"; else echo "Warning: SKILL.md missing or invalid frontmatter"; fi'

Key details about this pattern:

• bash -c '...' ensures bash compatibility regardless of the user's shell
• The recursive tree API (git/trees/BRANCH?recursive=1) discovers ALL files in a single API call — no need to recurse into subdirectories manually
• Filter with select(.path | startswith(...)) to get only files under the skill's path
• dirname + mkdir -p creates subdirectories as needed
• Validation checks SKILL.md exists and has frontmatter

For .skill zip files:

bash -c 'curl -L -o /tmp/skill.zip "{url}" && unzip -o /tmp/skill.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/ && echo "Installed"'

Install location

Install to: ~/.claude/skills/{skill-name}/

The skill name comes from the directory name in the source repo (for GitHub URLs) or the top-level directory inside the zip (for .skill files).

If the skill already exists at that location, tell the user and ask whether to overwrite before proceeding — this is the only question you should ever ask.

Validate and report

After the single command completes, report:

• The skill name and where it was installed
• A one-line summary of what the skill does (from the description)
• That it's ready to use immediately

Keep the output concise. The whole point of this skill is speed and minimal friction.

Edge cases

• URL points to a single SKILL.md file: Walk up one directory level to get the full skill folder, or if that's not possible, create a skill directory with just the SKILL.md.
• URL is a GitHub repo root with no skill subdirectory: Look for SKILL.md at the repo root. If found, use the repo name as the skill name.
• Branch isn't main: The URL parser handles any branch name in the tree/blob URL format.
• gh CLI not available: Fall back to curl with the GitHub raw content API (raw.githubusercontent.com). This won't need authentication for public repos.
• Private repos: The gh CLI handles auth automatically if the user is logged in. If it fails, suggest gh auth login.

What NOT to do

• Don't modify the skill contents during installation — install exactly what's in the source
• Don't create extra files (READMEs, configs) that weren't in the source
• Don't prompt the user for anything beyond the overwrite confirmation (if needed)
• Don't run any scripts from the skill during installation