AI Skills & Installation

MCP is the integration that actually runs search tools (search, search_collection, and related capabilities). You do not need any skill package for that — configure MCP and the tools work.

Agent skills (this page) are an optional layer: a SKILL.md distributed via skills.sh and installed with npx skills so agents get consistent instructions about when and how to call those tools. That is separate from whatever workflow labels your MCP client shows when Indexed is connected (for example Claude Code may surface its own “skills” UI for indexing workflows). npx skills only copies markdown instruction files into each agent’s skills directory; it does not install or replace the MCP server.

Install only after Indexed is wired as an MCP server (MCP Integration, MCP Setup). The skills.sh package id is indexed-so/skills; npx skills add copies its SKILL.md to each detected agent.

How Skills Work

A skill is a SKILL.md file — a markdown document with YAML frontmatter that the agent reads into context when a task matches its description. It is not an MCP server or a background process; it is a set of instructions your agent follows.

When you install the Indexed skill:

1. The skill file is written to each detected agent's skills directory (~/.claude/skills/, ~/.cursor/skills/, etc.)
2. When you ask a question that requires searching docs or code, the agent activates the skill and follows its instructions to call the search or search_collection MCP tools
3. The skill guides the agent on query phrasing, score interpretation, and when to scope a search to a specific collection

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed (for npx)
• Indexed installed and at least one collection created
• Indexed connected as an MCP server in your agent(s)

Install the Indexed Skill

npx skills add indexed-so/skills

The CLI detects installed agents and writes the skill to each one:

Detecting installed agents...
  ✓ Claude Code found
  ✓ Cursor found
  ✓ GitHub Copilot (VS Code) found

Installing indexed skill...
  ✓ Claude Code → ~/.claude/skills/indexed/SKILL.md
  ✓ Cursor → ~/.cursor/skills/indexed/SKILL.md
  ✓ GitHub Copilot → ~/.vscode/skills/indexed/SKILL.md

✓ indexed installed (3 agents)

No restart required — agents pick up new skill files automatically on the next conversation.

Verify the Installation

Ask your agent to search without explicit instructions:

A working response means the agent independently decided to call search, formed a natural-language query, and returned results from your collection — without you prompting it to "use Indexed."

You can also list installed skills:

npx skills list

Update the Skill

npx skills update indexed-so/skills

Remove the Skill

npx skills remove indexed-so/skills

What the Skill Instructs

The Indexed skill gives your agent guidance such as:

• Search your indexed collections before answering questions about internal processes, past decisions, or codebase specifics
• Prefer natural-language queries over keyword phrases
• Use search_collection when the user refers to a specific project, team, or source
• Scores above 0.75 indicate strong matches; below 0.50 may be tangential
• When results are sparse, rephrase and retry before concluding the topic isn't indexed

These instructions are the same context you would give an agent manually — packaged once and applied consistently across every session and every compatible tool.

What's Next