CLI · Nia Skills

npx niaskills <command> [options]

Zero dependencies, Node 22+. Install it globally with npm i -g niaskills if you use it often.

The CLI is built and tested but not yet published to npm, so npx niaskills will not resolve until it is. The API endpoints it depends on are live and documented in the API reference.

Commands

`add <owner/skill>`

Downloads a skill and extracts it into the right directory for the project.

npx niaskills add nia/html-to-figma
npx niaskills add nia/html-to-figma -g            # install globally
npx niaskills add nia/html-to-figma --agent cursor
npx niaskills add nia/html-to-figma@57769b5      # pin a version

A version is the short commit SHA the skill was indexed at — the same value list prints — so pinning gets you that exact tree, not an approximation of it.

The file list and its hashes come from /api/v1/skills/{owner}/{name}/manifest. Only the paths that manifest names are extracted, each verified against its git blob SHA, and nothing is written until every one of them checks out — so a failed install leaves the previous copy untouched rather than half-overwritten.

The target directory is found by walking up from the current directory to the project root, stopping at a .git boundary so it never escapes into a parent repository.

`list`

Shows installed skills and whether each is current.

`search <query>`

Searches the registry by name, description, and topic.

`update [name]`

Updates one skill, or every installed skill when the name is omitted. Skills you have edited locally are reported and skipped unless you pass --force.

`remove <name>`

Deletes an installed skill. Refuses if you have edited it, or if it is installed in more than one place, unless you pass --force.

Options

Flag	Meaning
`-g`, `--global`	Install into the home directory instead of the project
`-a`, `--agent <id>`	Skip auto-detection — see the agent table for every id
`-d`, `--dir <path>`	Install into an explicit directory
`-f`, `--force`	Overwrite locally modified files
`--json`	Machine-readable output
`-n`, `--limit <n>`	Result count for `search` (default 20)
`-h`, `--help`	Show help
`-v`, `--version`	Print the CLI version

Environment

Variable	Meaning
`NIASKILLS_REGISTRY_URL`	Point at a different registry (default `https://niaskills.com`)
`NIASKILLS_NO_TELEMETRY`	Set to `1` to stop reporting anonymous installs

Telemetry

add reports an anonymous install — skill, version, agent, CLI version. No paths, no project names, no IP stored beyond a salted daily hash used to deduplicate. It powers the install counts on the site and nothing else.

Opt out permanently:

export NIASKILLS_NO_TELEMETRY=1

The CLI prints that it sends this on first run.