Mother Skills

The npm for AI agent skills. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that automatically provisions the right skills for your project — across Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, and Vercel v0.

Just like npm discovers and installs the packages you need, Mother MCP discovers and installs the AI skills your project needs.

How It Works

Mother MCP is a consumer of the agent_skills_directory — the central catalog of AI skills from providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub, Vercel, and the community.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   agent_skills_directory                        │
│  The canonical source of AI skills (112+ skills, 6 providers)   │
│  • GitHub stars, downloads, verification status                 │
│  • Skill metadata, provider info, compatibility                 │
└────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                             │ fetches catalog
                             ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Mother MCP                               │
│  Consumer & Reporter - detects your stack, installs skills      │
│  • Reads quality signals from registry (not generates them)     │
│  • Downloads skills to .github/skills, .claude/skills, etc.     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Mother MCP does NOT:

• Generate download counts or star ratings
• Host or maintain the skill registry
• Track usage analytics

Mother MCP DOES:

• Consume the catalog and display skill metadata
• Match skills to your detected tech stack
• Install skills to the right location for your AI agent

Demo

Coming Soon: Interactive demo showing automatic skill detection and installation in seconds.

Resources

📄 Full Documentation — Complete setup guide and feature walkthrough
📊 Visual Overview (PDF) — One-page infographic explaining the architecture
🎬 Video Demo — Coming soon

Supported Agents

Agent	Status	Detection
Claude Code	✅ Full Support	Auto-detected via CLAUDE_CODE env var
Claude Desktop	✅ Full Support	Auto-detected via MCP client info
GitHub Copilot	✅ Full Support	Auto-detected via VS Code environment
OpenAI Codex	✅ Full Support	Auto-detected via CODEX_HOME env var
Vercel v0	✅ Full Support	Auto-detected via project structure
Other MCP Clients	✅ Generic Support	Falls back to generic profile

Why Reusable Skills Matter

"If you'll do roughly the same thing 10+ times, encode it as a reusable skill. Under 3 times? Just tell Sonnet."

The Problem with "Just Ask the AI"

You can ask Claude to help with any task ad-hoc. But for teams and repeated workflows, this approach breaks down:

Pain Point	What Happens	How Mother Solves It
Prompt Tax	Re-typing similar prompts wastes hours weekly	Skills encode best practices once, reuse forever
Prompt Drift	Small phrasing changes alter behavior unpredictably	Versioned skills deliver consistent results
Discoverability	"What was that good prompt you used last month?"	Named skills with descriptions, searchable registry
Onboarding	New devs spend days configuring AI context	setup → perfect context in seconds
House Style	Everyone crafts prompts differently	Shared skills encode team standards

Where Skills Add Real Value

✅ High-value (use skills)

• Repeated SDLC steps: PR reviews, security checks, test generation, docs
• Org-specific knowledge: architecture rules, domain models, compliance
• Cross-project utilities: dependency upgrades, migrations, repo analysis

❌ Low-value (just prompt)

• Quick throwaway scripts or spikes
• Highly unique one-off tasks

The Before/After

Without Mother (prompt tax every time):

Hey Claude, review this PR for security issues. Check for SQL injection, 
XSS, also we use React so watch for dangerouslySetInnerHTML, and our 
team prefers early returns, and don't forget we have a custom auth 
middleware pattern, and...

With Mother (skill already knows your stack):

/review

The skill knows your framework, your patterns, your team's standards — because it was installed based on your actual project context.

What It Does

Mother MCP automatically:

1. Detects your project's tech stack using a 3-tier strategy:
   • GitHub SBOM API for accurate dependency data (340+ packages)
   • Specfy analyser for 700+ technologies including infrastructure & SaaS
   • Local scanning as offline fallback
2. Matches detected technologies to available skills from trusted registries
3. Downloads relevant skills to the appropriate location (.github/skills, .claude/skills, or .codex/skills)
4. Adapts to whichever AI agent you're using (Claude, Copilot, or Codex)

Installation

Claude Code Plugin (Easiest)

Install via Claude Code's plugin marketplace:

# Add the marketplace
/plugin marketplace add dmgrok/mcp_mother_skills

# Install the plugin
/plugin install mother-mcp@mother-mcp-marketplace

Or install directly from GitHub:

/plugin install dmgrok/mcp_mother_skills

Once installed, the Mother MCP server will be available in Claude Code.

Quick Install via npm

# Install globally
npm install -g mcp-mother-skills

# Or use with npx (no install needed)
npx mcp-mother-skills

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/dmgrok/mcp-mother-skills.git
cd mcp-mother-skills

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

Configuration

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json or global config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mother-skills": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-mother-skills"],
      "env": {
        "MOTHER_PROJECT_PATH": "."
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if installed globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mother-skills": {
      "command": "mcp-mother-skills",
      "env": {
        "MOTHER_PROJECT_PATH": "."
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mother-skills": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-mother-skills"],
      "env": {
        "MOTHER_PROJECT_PATH": "/path/to/your/project"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if installed globally:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mother-skills": {
      "command": "mcp-mother-skills",
      "env": {
        "MOTHER_PROJECT_PATH": "/path/to/your/project"
      }
    }
  }
}

VS Code with Copilot

Add to your VS Code settings or .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "mother-skills": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-mother-skills"],
      "env": {
        "MOTHER_PROJECT_PATH": "${workspaceFolder}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or if installed globally:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "mother-skills": {
      "command": "mcp-mother-skills",
      "env": {
        "MOTHER_PROJECT_PATH": "${workspaceFolder}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage

Setup (First-Time Onboarding)

When first using Mother MCP, call setup to get started:

Setup my Mother MCP

This will:

• Scan your project to detect technologies (languages, frameworks, databases, tools)
• Fetch the skill registry and find matching skills
• Show recommended skills with match explanations
• Let you choose which skills to install

Sync Skills (Ongoing Updates)

Call sync_skills at the start of each conversation:

Use sync_skills to ensure I have the right skills for this project

This will:

• Detect your project's technologies
• Download matching skills from the registry
• Report what was added/updated/removed

Reset Skills (Start Fresh)

If you need to start over or troubleshoot issues, use reset_skills:

Reset all my Mother MCP skills with confirm=true

Important: You must set confirm=true to proceed with the reset.

Options:

• confirm (required): Set to true to confirm the reset action
• all_agents: Remove skills for all agents (Claude, Copilot, Codex), not just the detected one
• clear_config: Also remove Mother configuration files (.mcp/mother/)
• clear_cache: Clear the skill registry cache

Examples:

# Reset only the current agent's skills
reset_skills with confirm=true

# Reset all agents and clear config
reset_skills with confirm=true, all_agents=true, clear_config=true

# Full reset including cache
reset_skills with confirm=true, all_agents=true, clear_config=true, clear_cache=true

This will permanently delete all installed skills. After resetting, run setup to reinstall skills.

Other Commands

Command	Description
setup	Start here! Initialize Mother MCP and get skill recommendations
sync_skills	Synchronize skills based on detected technologies
get_project_context	View detected stack and installed skills
get_agent_info	See which agent is detected (Claude/Copilot/Codex)
search_skills	Search for available skills
list_bundles	NEW List curated skill bundles by use case
install_bundle	NEW Install a complete skill bundle at once
install_skill	Manually install a skill
uninstall_skill	Remove a skill
check_updates	Check for skill updates
set_agent_preference	Set preferred agent (auto/claude/copilot/codex/both)
redetect	Re-scan project files
reset_skills	Reset all skills - Remove all installed skills and optionally clear config

Skill Bundles

Bundles are curated collections of skills for common development use cases. Instead of installing skills one by one, get a complete stack with one command:

> list_bundles

📦 Available Bundles:
⚛️  frontend-react      - Modern React development with TypeScript and testing
🚀 fullstack-nextjs    - Complete Next.js stack with database and deployment
🐍 api-python          - FastAPI with async patterns and PostgreSQL
🐳 devops-docker       - Containerization with GitHub Actions deployment
🧪 testing-frontend    - Unit, integration, and E2E testing for web apps

> install_bundle fullstack-nextjs

🚀 Full-Stack Next.js: 7 installed, 0 already present
   ✅ nextjs, react, typescript, prisma, postgresql, docker, github-actions

Project Configuration

Mother MCP creates a .mcp/mother/ directory in your project:

.mcp/mother/
├── config.yaml           # Mother configuration
├── project-context.yaml  # Detected context (auto-generated)
└── cache/               # Registry cache

config.yaml

version: "1.0"

agent:
  mode: auto          # auto, claude, copilot, codex
  sync_both: false    # Install to both .github/skills and .claude/skills

registry:
  - url: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/dmgrok/agent_skills_directory@main/catalog.json"
    priority: 1

cache:
  refresh_interval_days: 7

skills:
  always_include: []  # Skills to always install
  always_exclude: []  # Skills to never install

sync:
  auto_remove: false  # Remove skills when no longer detected

Skills Registry

Mother MCP fetches skills from the Agent Skills Directory, an automatically updated catalog aggregating skills from multiple providers:

Provider	Repository	Skills
Anthropic	anthropics/skills	16
GitHub	github/awesome-copilot	26
OpenAI	openai/skills	12
HuggingFace	huggingface/skills	8
Vercel	vercel-labs/agent-skills	3
SkillCreator.ai	skillcreatorai/Ai-Agent-Skills	47

Total: 112 skills across documents, creative, development, data, enterprise, integrations, and other categories.

Bring Your Own Registry

Want skills tailored for your organization? The registry URL is fully configurable. Just point to your own catalog:

# .mcp/mother/config.yaml
registry:
  # Use your company's private registry
  - url: "https://skills.yourcompany.com/catalog.json"
    priority: 1
  
  # Optionally keep the public registry as fallback
  - url: "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/dmgrok/agent_skills_directory@main/catalog.json"
    priority: 2

This lets you:

• Curate skills for your organization's specific tech stack and standards
• Add proprietary skills that encode internal knowledge and patterns
• Control what skills are available to your engineering teams
• Version and audit skills through your own infrastructure

Your private registry just needs to serve a JSON catalog in the same format as the public catalog.

Registry Catalog Format

The registry catalog supports community quality signals - metadata that helps users discover and trust skills:

skills:
  - name: react
    path: skills/react
    version: "1.5.0"
    description: "React patterns, hooks, and component architecture"
    triggers:
      packages: ["react", "react-dom"]
    tags: [framework, frontend]
    
    # Community Quality Signals (all optional)
    downloads: 28500           # Install count
    stars: 523                 # GitHub stars
    verified: true             # Publisher verified badge
    publisher:
      name: "Mother Skills Team"
      url: "https://github.com/mother-mcp"
      verified: true
    compatibility:             # Agent compatibility matrix
      claude: true
      copilot: true
      codex: true
      v0: true
    repository: "https://github.com/mother-mcp/skills"

Field	Description
downloads	Number of installs (updated by registry maintainer)
stars	GitHub stars passthrough from source repo
verified	Quick verified badge flag
publisher	Publisher info with optional verification
compatibility	Which AI agents this skill works with
repository	Source repository URL

These signals are displayed in search results and recommendations to help users choose quality skills.

Available Skills

Documents & Data: pdf, docx, pptx, xlsx, doc-coauthoring

Creative & Design: frontend-design, canvas-design, theme-factory, brand-guidelines, algorithmic-art, web-artifacts-builder

Development: mcp-builder, skill-creator, webapp-testing, internal-comms, create-plan, gh-fix-ci, gh-address-comments

Enterprise: linear, slack-gif-creator, notion-spec-to-implementation, notion-meeting-intelligence, notion-knowledge-capture, notion-research-documentation

Infrastructure: azure-role-selector, snowflake-semanticview

The catalog is refreshed automatically. See catalog.json for the full list.

How Skills Are Matched

Mother MCP uses a tiered detection strategy for comprehensive tech stack analysis:

Tier 1: GitHub SBOM API (Most Accurate)

When connected to a GitHub repository, Mother fetches the Software Bill of Materials directly from GitHub's dependency graph:

• Automatic repo detection from local .git/config remote URL
• Parses SPDX-formatted dependency data with 340+ packages
• PURL parsing for ecosystem detection (npm, pip, cargo, maven, etc.)
• Requires GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable

Tier 2: Specfy Stack Analyser

Comprehensive detection of 700+ technologies:

• Languages, frameworks, databases, infrastructure
• SaaS tools, cloud services, CI/CD systems
• Works offline with local file analysis

Tier 3: Local Detection (Fallback)

Traditional file scanning for offline environments:

Source	What It Detects
package.json	npm dependencies (react, next, typescript, etc.)
requirements.txt	Python packages (fastapi, django, etc.)
pyproject.toml	Python project dependencies
Config files	tsconfig.json → TypeScript, Dockerfile → Docker, etc.
README.md	Technology mentions with lower confidence

Git Remote Auto-Detection

Mother automatically detects your GitHub repository from local git configuration:

# Supported URL formats:
[email protected]:owner/repo.git      # SSH
https://github.com/owner/repo.git  # HTTPS
ssh://[email protected]/owner/repo    # SSH URL

Skill Locations

Skills are installed based on detected agent:

Agent	Primary Path	Fallback
Claude	.claude/skills/	.github/skills/
Copilot	.github/skills/	.claude/skills/
Codex	.codex/skills/	.github/skills/
Both	Both locations	-

Agent Detection

Mother MCP auto-detects which agent is using it through multiple methods:

Priority	Method	Claude	Copilot	Codex
1	Config override	agent.force: claude	agent.force: copilot	agent.force: codex
2	Environment vars	CLAUDE_CODE=1	GITHUB_COPILOT	CODEX_HOME
3	MCP client info	Contains "claude"	Contains "copilot"/"vscode"	Contains "codex"/"openai"
4	Project structure	.claude/ or CLAUDE.md	.github/copilot-instructions.md	.codex/skills/ or AGENTS.md
5	Home directory	~/.claude/skills/	~/.copilot/skills/	~/.codex/skills/

Note: Codex skills follow the Open Agent Skills Standard specification.

Architecture: Static Instructions vs Dynamic Skills

Mother MCP separates concerns between static project documentation and dynamic skill provisioning:

Component	Purpose	Managed By
.github/copilot-instructions.md	Project-specific AI guidance (Copilot)	Developer (static)
CLAUDE.md	Claude-specific project instructions	Developer (static)
AGENTS.md	Codex/OpenAI project instructions	Developer (static)
.mcp/mother/config.yaml	Mother configuration & preferences	Mother MCP
.mcp/mother/project-context.yaml	Detected tech stack (auto-generated)	Mother MCP
.github/skills/ or .claude/skills/	Auto-installed skill files	Mother MCP

Key principle: Mother MCP never modifies your instruction files. It only manages:

• Its own config in .mcp/mother/
• Skill files in the appropriate skills directory

Recommended Workflow

Add this to your project's CLAUDE.md or .github/copilot-instructions.md:

## Startup

At the start of each conversation, call `sync_skills` to ensure project-relevant skills are loaded.

This connects your static instructions to Mother's dynamic skill system.

Development

# Run in development mode
npm run dev

# Build
npm run build

# Watch mode
npm run watch

Community & Roadmap

Mother MCP is evolving into a community-driven skill ecosystem — the npm for AI skills. Here's what we're building:

Quality Signals (Coming Soon)

Feature	Description	Status
⭐ Skill ratings	Community upvotes/downvotes on skill quality	Planned
📊 Download counts	See how many developers use each skill	Planned
✓ Verified publishers	Trust badges for official sources (Anthropic, GitHub, etc.)	Planned
💬 Reviews & use cases	"Worked great for React 19 + TypeScript"	Planned
🏷️ Compatibility matrix	Works with: Claude ✓, Copilot ✓, Codex ✓	Planned

Contribution Tools (Coming Soon)

Feature	Description	Status
📤 mother publish	CLI to publish skills to the registry	Planned
📦 Skill templates	Starter templates for common skill types	Planned
🔀 Fork & customize	Base your skill on existing ones	Planned
📚 Skill collections	Curated bundles ("Enterprise Security Pack")	Planned

How You Can Help

1. Star skills you find useful — helps surface quality
2. Report issues with skills that have outdated advice
3. Contribute skills via PR to agent_skills_directory
4. Share your use cases — what skills would help your workflow?

Join the discussion: GitHub Issues

License

MIT