GitHub Trending: anthropics/skills — the agent skills spec, from the source

anthropics/skills is Anthropic's public repository for Agent Skills — the SKILL.md format that teaches agents *how* to do things instead of re-deriving it every time. 187,566 stars, 3,003 this week. If the other trending repos are building on skills, this is the factory the skills come from — and the reference implementation everyone else copies.

What it actually is

• A curated public collection of Agent Skills — SKILL.md folders with front matter (name, description) plus instructions, references and scripts.
• The canonical example of the format: official skills like frontend-design (where hallmark and impeccable got their lineage), document handling and more.
• Works with Claude Code and any agent that reads the SKILL.md spec — the format is the standard, portable across harnesses.

Why it's trending this week

The whole ecosystem noticed something real this month: skills are the packaging format of agent expertise. Every repo on this trending page — hallmark, impeccable, superpowers, jakubkrehel/skills — is either built on or inspired by this spec. When the reference repo itself trends, it means everyone is reading the source right now.

Who it's for

• Anyone building or shipping agent skills — this is the style guide from the people who wrote the spec.
• Claude Code users who want official, vetted skills instead of random community ones.
• Tooling authors deciding how to distribute their own expertise as skills.

What to check

• Browse the repo tree and read 2–3 SKILL.md files cover to cover — the format only 'clicks' by reading real examples.
• Prefer skills installed from official or reputable sources: a skill is an instruction file your agent will execute — review it like you would a shell script.
• The repo is the reference, not necessarily the latest released plugin — check docs.claude.com for the supported install flow for your harness.

Read this repo before you write your first SKILL.md — it's the difference between a prompt and a skill. Repository: github.com/anthropics/skills.