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Connect agents

Access keys for direct MCP clients, OAuth for hosted connectors.

Agents see granted Ready versions by default. An author may explicitly open and test only their own current Draft; it is marked Unreviewed, remains private to that author, and never includes a trusted security report. Versions under review are not available for installation.

Every newly released Ready version is bound to a trusted package scan. See Skill security for how validation, risk gates, human review and signed installation fit together.

The Installskills MCP URL

Use this exact production address whenever a client asks for an MCP server URL:

https://installskills.com/mcp

Do not add another path or a trailing slash. There are two connection methods:

ChatGPT or Claude: connect with your Installskills account through OAuth. Do not create or paste an access key. One Claude connector covers Claude on the web, Claude Desktop, Cowork and mobile.
Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf and Antigravity: create an access key for that machine or environment.

Connect with your account

From ChatGPT

These steps follow OpenAI's current developer mode and MCP apps guide. Custom MCP app availability, who can create one and who can use a published app depend on your ChatGPT plan and workspace administration.

Confirm that your plan supports custom MCP apps and that a workspace admin has allowed Developer mode. Business admins/owners can begin from Workspace settings → Apps → Create; authorized Enterprise/Edu users can enable it under Settings → Apps → Advanced Settings.
Open Settings → Apps → Create. Admins/owners can instead use Workspace settings → Apps → Create.
Name the app Installskills, paste https://installskills.com/mcp, choose OAuth authentication and select Scan Tools.
Sign in to Installskills, review the permissions and choose one vault. After the scan finishes, select Create.
Start a new chat and enable the Installskills app from the tools menu. A workspace admin must publish the draft before other members can use it.

Check it: ask “List my Installskills skills.” Only granted Ready skills from the selected vault should appear.

From Claude

The same remote connector works across Claude web, Desktop, Cowork and mobile. Add it once for your Claude account; Desktop is not a second Installskills connection. See Claude's official custom connector guide for current plan and organization availability.

For an individual plan, open Customize → Connectors, select + → Add custom connector, and enter https://installskills.com/mcp.
Name it Installskills and select Add.
Select Connect, sign in to Installskills and choose one vault.
In a new conversation, open + → Connectors and enable Installskills.

You do not need to edit claude_desktop_config.json for this account connector.

For Team or Enterprise, an Owner must first open Organization settings → Connectors → Add → Custom → Web and register the Installskills URL. Members then open Customize → Connectors and select Connect beside Installskills.

Check it: ask “List my Installskills skills.” If the connector is connected but no tools appear, enable Installskills for that conversation.

Each connected account app can be pinned to a specific vault from Agents in Installskills. During consent, Installskills shows the capabilities it is enabling: reading/installing granted skills, requesting access, submitting your own Drafts for review, and deciding requests only where your live vault role or reviewer assignment already allows it. Connector permissions never turn a normal member into an admin or grant access to a private skill.

Connect with an access key

Open Connections → Access key in Installskills, choose your client and create one key for the machine or environment you are configuring. Installskills shows only that client's setup. The full key is shown once; keep the page open until setup is complete and never commit the key to a repository. Keys are scoped to skills:read plus Draft-only skills:write.

See Access keys for expiry and rotation.

From Claude Code

Copy the generated command from Installskills. Its shape is:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user installskills \
  https://installskills.com/mcp \
  --header "X-API-Key: isk_key_..."

Open Claude Code and run /mcp. Installskills should appear as connected. See Claude's official Claude Code MCP documentation for client commands and scopes.

From Codex

Add the generated block to ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.installskills]
url = "https://installskills.com/mcp"
http_headers = { "X-API-Key" = "isk_key_..." }

Restart the ChatGPT desktop app, Codex CLI or Codex IDE extension after saving; they share this configuration. Run /mcp or codex mcp list to verify it. See the official Codex MCP documentation for the shared config format.

From Cursor

Open or create ~/.cursor/mcp.json for a global, machine-only connection:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "installskills": {
      "url": "https://installskills.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "isk_key_..." }
    }
  }
}

Open Cursor Settings → MCP and confirm Installskills is enabled. Use .cursor/mcp.json only when a project-scoped connection is intentional; do not commit a real key. See the official Cursor MCP documentation.

From VS Code

Run MCP: Open User Configuration from the Command Palette and paste:

{
  "inputs": [
    {
      "id": "installskills-key",
      "type": "promptString",
      "description": "Installskills access key",
      "password": true
    }
  ],
  "servers": {
    "installskills": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://installskills.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "${input:installskills-key}" }
    }
  }
}

Run MCP: List Servers, start Installskills and paste the one-time key when VS Code prompts for it. The user configuration avoids placing a secret in a shared .vscode/mcp.json file. See the official VS Code MCP configuration reference.

From Windsurf

Open Windsurf Settings → Cascade → MCP Servers, or edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "installskills": {
      "serverUrl": "https://installskills.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "isk_key_..." }
    }
  }
}

Save the file and refresh the MCP server list. See the official Windsurf MCP documentation.

From Antigravity

Open MCP Servers → Manage MCP Servers → View raw config, or edit ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "installskills": {
      "serverUrl": "https://installskills.com/mcp",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "isk_key_..." }
    }
  }
}

Save the file, then open Settings → Customizations and refresh MCP servers. See Google's Antigravity getting-started codelab.

If the connection fails

Check these in order:

The URL is exactly https://installskills.com/mcp.
Direct clients send the key in the X-API-Key header, including the full isk_key_ prefix.
The key is active and has not expired or been replaced.
The client was restarted or its MCP server list was refreshed after saving.
For hosted Team or Enterprise accounts, an organization Owner has allowed the custom connector.

Interactive views in ChatGPT and Claude

Lists and governance results open as a compact interactive Installskills view inside the conversation. Depending on your permissions, you can:

search and inspect Ready skills and collections;
save a complete AI-authored package as a new skill Draft or version Draft;
open Drafts, search your authored Drafts, inspect the package and select Test draft before scanning it;
switch the connector's active vault;
request access and review your request status;
inspect the trusted package security report;
approve or reject access and version reviews with an audit note;
watch a background package scan until the review is submitted; and
download an available update as a signed ZIP through the host's download confirmation.

Lists and queues include compact navigation between related vault sections. Skill details, security reports, scan progress, downloads and completed actions open as focused views without repeating a full app shell. Completed actions put the skill name and outcome first; request ids remain available only under technical details.

The view follows the host's light/dark theme and does not contact the internet directly. Every action goes back through the authenticated MCP connection, so the same grants, role checks, review rules and audit trail apply as in the web app.

If a paid organization passes its billing grace period, or an Enterprise trial ends without payment, OAuth connectors also pause privilege-increasing governance actions such as new requests, submissions and approvals. Rejecting/cancelling work and runtime read/install access to already-approved skills remain available; see Billing & seats.

For review cancellation/decisions and access decisions, the connector confirms the request id, skill slug and latest request timestamp together. If the item changed or the skill name does not match, Installskills stops the action and asks the agent to refresh instead of changing a different request. A failed action keeps the confirmation and audit note open, with a short recovery message instead of internal validation details.

What agents can do

Through MCP, connected agents can discover the skills and collections they are allowed to see, read each skill's SKILL.md and file listing, and install approved packages. Access follows the vault's rules: your role, group memberships and per-skill grants decide what each agent can list and pull.

Draft testing is a separate author-only path. It requires Draft write plus the connection's normal install permission and uses the version's author, not the specific key or connector, as identity. Another connection belonging to the same author can test it; another member, owner or admin cannot execute it just because of their role. Drafts are never added to collection installs or update checks.

Every authenticated MCP connection can call save_skill_draft. For example: “Create a skill for reviewing incident reports and save it to my Installskills.” The agent sends the expanded package, and Installskills returns a Draft receipt. Direct access-key clients may save and test the Draft but cannot scan or submit it; hosted OAuth connectors may also request access, submit the Draft for its required scan/review, and act on governance queues when authorized. Both direct keys and eligible OAuth connectors can select Test draft for that author's current Draft.

Checking for skill updates

Update checks happen from the connected client, not from the Installskills web app. The client sends the skill versions installed on that machine, and the vault compares them with the current Ready versions you can access.

When an update is available, the interactive view shows Download update. The next states are Preparing update package… and Update package ready, followed by Download ZIP. This creates a signed download that expires after 15 minutes; it does not replace the installed skill automatically. Your client still downloads, verifies and installs the ZIP.

Installing skills from an agent

Agents install full packages — SKILL.md plus any bundled references, scripts and assets — through a signed download:

The agent calls create_install_session with a skill slug (or a collection slug to install a whole collection at once).
The vault returns a download link that stays valid for 15 minutes, plus a checksum_sha256 for the ZIP and suggested install locations per client.
The agent downloads the ZIP with a plain GET (no key needed on that link), verifies the checksum, and unzips it into its skills directory — for example ~/.claude/skills/<slug>/ for Claude Code.

Collection installs come as one ZIP with a folder per skill. Only Ready skills you have access to are included; anything skipped is listed in the response so the agent can tell you why. If a version is pulled from the vault after the link was created, the download stops working immediately — create a new install session to pick up the current state.

To test an authored Draft, the same tool uses target: "my_draft" with a skill_slug. The result is explicitly labelled draft, author_only and unreviewed; collections are rejected. The link is also bound to the exact Draft snapshot: changing or deleting it, submitting it for review, or releasing it as Ready makes the 15-minute link return 410 Gone. Create a new session after every Draft change. A ZIP already downloaded to your machine is not remotely revoked.