Getting Started

August 21, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

SkillRoute is a local CLI and MCP server for routing agent requests to the right skills.

Install

One-line SkillRoute installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erichare/skillroute/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

The installer confirms each step before it clones or updates SkillRoute, installs dependencies, builds the MCP server and Skill Atlas web UI, indexes starter skills, detects supported agent clients, and offers setup for each detected client. It installs to ~/.skillroute/skillroute by default, reusing an existing skill-route checkout if one is present.

For unattended local/dev use:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erichare/skillroute/main/scripts/install.sh | bash -s -- --yes

Already in a checkout:

./scripts/bootstrap.sh

That installs the Python environment, installs and builds the MCP server, indexes the example skills, builds the Skill Atlas UI, and prints copy-paste setup commands for supported clients.

Manual setup is also supported:

uv sync --extra dev   # dev includes the `ui` extra
npm --prefix mcp ci
npm --prefix mcp run build
npm --prefix web ci
npm --prefix web run build

The web build is required before skillroute ui can serve the Skill Atlas.

Index Example Skills

uv run skillroute index --root examples/skills

This creates ~/.skillroute/catalog.db unless a .skillroute/catalog.db already exists in the current directory, in which case that one is used. Override with --catalog or set SKILLROUTE_CATALOG_PATH.

Every bundle is checked against the Agent Skills specification as it is indexed; run the validator on its own for the full report, or pass --strict to refuse non-compliant bundles:

uv run skillroute validate examples/skills

Route A Request

uv run skillroute route "Build an MCP server that exposes routing tools"

The response includes ranked skills, confidence, reasons, evidence snippets, score components, suggested order, and clarification questions when needed.

Explore The Skill Atlas

uv run skillroute ui

Skill Atlas opens a local read-only graph for browsing domains, relationships, evidence, backend refs, and route previews.

Search And Inspect

uv run skillroute search "Astra vector backend"
uv run skillroute inspect astra-vector-backend

Search is useful for catalog exploration. Inspect shows reviewed metadata, relationships, excerpts, source paths, and backend refs.

Dogfood Local Skills

uv run skillroute dogfood roots
uv run skillroute dogfood index
uv run skillroute route "Review a GitHub PR with exact file and line evidence"

Dogfood discovery checks:

  • ~/.codex/skills
  • ~/.agents/skills
  • ~/.codex/plugins/cache

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