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Install a Skill from GitHub

Your Bankr agent can install skills directly from any public GitHub repository. This is the fastest way to add a new capability — point your agent at a repo, and it pulls the skill in.

Install in one message​

Tell your agent the GitHub URL of the skill you want:

install the skill at https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/skill
install the bankr skill from https://github.com/BankrBot/skills/tree/main/bankr/bankr
install the botchan skill from https://github.com/BankrBot/skills/tree/main/botchan/botchan
install the skill at https://github.com/your-org/your-repo/tree/main/your-skill

Your agent will:

  1. Fetch the SKILL.md file from the URL.
  2. Pull in any files in the skill's references/ folder.
  3. Save the skill to your agent so it's available in future conversations.

If a skill with the same name already exists, the new version replaces it — that's how updates work.

What URLs work​

The URL should point to a folder in a public GitHub repo that contains a SKILL.md at its root. Both the tree/<branch>/<path> form and a plain https://github.com/owner/repo (when the skill is at the repo root) are accepted.

The skill folder can also include a references/ subfolder of supporting markdown — those files are pulled in alongside SKILL.md and become available to your agent on demand.

For the full file format, see the SKILL.md format reference.

After installation​

Once installed, your agent will use the skill automatically when a request matches what the skill describes. You can also list, review, or remove installed skills from the Skills tab in your agent's terminal — see Create a skill manually for the same UI from the create-side.

Limits​

  • Each skill file is capped at 100 KB. If a SKILL.md or any reference file exceeds this, the install will fail with a clear message — split or trim the content and try again.
  • Each user has a maximum number of installed skills. If you hit it, remove an unused skill from the Skills tab and retry.

Troubleshooting​

"Couldn't find SKILL.md at that URL"​

Confirm the URL points to a folder that has a SKILL.md file at its root. GitHub URLs that point to a single file (or a blob/ URL) won't work — you need the folder URL.

"Repository is private"​

The skill repo must be publicly accessible. Private repos aren't supported via the GitHub install flow — copy the contents into your agent manually instead. See Create a skill manually.

The skill installed but my agent isn't using it​

Skills are loaded by description match. If the skill's description frontmatter doesn't mention the kind of request you're making, your agent may not pick it up. Tell it explicitly:

use the <skill-name> skill to ...

If that works, consider rewriting the skill's description field so it triggers automatically next time.

Next steps​