Install a Shared Skill Safely

Skills are easy to share (a folder with a SKILL.md is the whole format), and that is exactly why installation deserves a habit. Installing a skill you have not read is running code you have not reviewed. The vetting takes five minutes.

Before it touches your skills directory

1. Read the entire SKILL.md, not the README. This is the text your agent will follow. If anything in it surprises you, stop and resolve the surprise first.
2. Inventory the extras. List every bundled file: scripts, templates, reference files. Open each script and understand what it touches (files, network, credentials).
3. Check the trigger breadth. Read the description and ask: what requests will this catch? A description broader than the skill’s real job will hijack unrelated requests once installed.
4. Look for hidden assumptions: hard-coded paths, expected credentials, services it presumes are running. A skill that names its prerequisites is a good sign; one that hides them fails on your machine in confusing ways.

Install deliberately

• Scope it: personal directory if it is for you everywhere, project directory if the team should get it with the repo, plugin if the author distributes it that way.
• Record the source and version: where it came from and which revision you reviewed. A one-line note in the folder is enough.
• Verify it landed: ask a fresh session what skills are available, then run one request that should trigger it and one that should not.

# after installing: one positive test, one negative control
> "Turn this changelog note into a release line: …"   # should fire
> "Summarize this meeting transcript"                  # should NOT fire