Team Skills: sharing coding-agent skills with your team
A skill is a folder of instructions, a SKILL.md and any files beside it, that Claude Code, Codex and Cursor read to do a task your team’s way: how you deploy, how you review, how you write a migration. Team Skills lets one person’s good skill reach everyone’s agent, with a manager checking it first and each person deciding what goes on their own computer.
How it works, in three steps
- A member shares a skill from the Colabio desktop app: ⋯ menu → Team Skills → Share yours. They see exactly which files will be sent before anything leaves their computer.
- An organization manager approves it under Activity → Team Skills → Approvals in the dashboard, after reading every file. A manager’s own skills are published straight away.
- Members install it. An optional skill is installed only when a member chooses Install in the desktop app. A required one is installed for them, and they’re told when it is.
Team Skills is part of every paid plan. Members need the latest Colabio desktop app, which checks for new and updated skills when it starts and every 30 minutes after that.
For members: what lands on your computer
Open Team Skills from the desktop app’s ⋯ menu or the tray icon. Each skill shows its version, whether it’s required, and where it stands on your computer.
- Install shows you every file first. Installing puts the skill in each coding agent on your computer, named
colabio-<name>so it never replaces a skill of your own. New agent sessions pick it up; restart one that was already open. - Required skills are installed for you, and you get a notification saying so. You can still Turn off one and tell your manager why; they see your note, nothing else.
- Skills with scripts (any file that isn’t Markdown or text) are never installed until you’ve read them and chosen Install, even when they’re required, and again for each new version.
- Your edits are kept. If you change an installed skill, a new version waits until you choose Update anyway, which replaces your changes. Copy the folder first to keep them.
- Remove takes an optional skill off your computer. A skill your organization removes, or every skill of an organization you leave, is taken off on the next sync.
Sharing one of your skills
Share yours lists the skills in your own agents’ skills folders. Choose one, read what will be sent, add a note for the reviewer, and share. Before it’s sent the app checks it:
- No credentials. A file containing something shaped like an API key, token or private key is refused, because a skill is copied to every member’s computer. Refer to an environment variable instead.
- A proper SKILL.md. It needs a frontmatter
name:anddescription:. The description is how an agent decides when to use the skill, so make it say when. - Text files within size. Up to 50 files and 256 KB in all. Hidden files and links are left out.
The Share list then shows where each skill stands: Waiting for review, In your library, or Sent back, with the reviewer’s reason on the skill’s History tab in the dashboard. To update a skill, change your copy and share it again: it becomes the next version. Keep its name: the same; that’s how everyone’s agents know it.
For organization managers: approving and distributing
- Approvals lists what members shared, oldest first. Read every file: it’s exactly what their agents will follow. Approve and publish, or Send back with what to change. Members who have the skill get an approved update on their next sync.
- Optional or Required is set on each skill’s page. Optional skills wait for members to choose them. Required ones install on every member’s computer on its next sync; members are told and can turn one off with a reason. Making a skill optional again doesn’t take it away from anyone who has it.
- Removing a skill takes it out of the library and off every computer on the next sync.
- Product managers and team leaders read the library like everyone else. Approving, distributing and rollout are for organization managers, because what’s decided there lands on everyone’s computer.
Rollout: what each status means
A skill’s Rollout tab lists every member with where they stand, from what their desktop app last reported; nothing is guessed. Members who need someone to act come first. With several computers, a member shows the most pressing status among the ones that synced in the last week.
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Installed | The current version is on their computer. | Nothing. |
| Update pending | Their desktop hasn't synced since this version was approved. It does within half an hour of running. | Nothing. It updates within half an hour of their desktop app running. |
| Awaiting review | This version includes scripts. It installs once they've read and accepted them in the desktop app. | Ask them to open Team Skills and select Review. |
| Edited locally | They changed their installed copy, so the update waits until they choose to replace their edits. | Nothing, unless the update matters now. They choose Update anyway when they're ready. |
| Install failed | Their desktop app couldn't write the skill to disk. It tries again on every sync. | Ask them to open Team Skills in the desktop app: the error is shown there, with Try again. |
| Turned off | They turned this skill off on their computer. | Read their note. Talk to them if the skill matters for their work. |
| Not installed | They haven't installed it. | For a required skill, ask them to update the Colabio desktop app. |
| No coding agent | Their computer has no Claude Code, Codex or Cursor to install into. | Nothing, unless they should be using a coding agent. |
| Not synced | No Colabio desktop of theirs has synced skills in the last week. | Ask them to install or update the Colabio desktop app, and keep it running. |
Needs action counts members a manager may want to follow up with: an install that failed, an update or review waiting on them, and, for a required skill, anyone who doesn’t have it yet. Right after you make a skill required, expect members on an older desktop app to show as Not synced until they update.
What is shared, and what isn't
- Nothing on your computer is uploaded unless you choose a skill and select Share.
- Your own skills are never listed to your organization. Only what you share is.
- Each desktop reports its name, which coding agents it found, its app version, and for each team skill its status, with the error if an install failed or your note if you turned one off. It doesn’t report anything else in your skills folders.
- The app only writes and removes folders named
colabio-<name>, and only in the skills folder of an agent you have installed.
Where the files go
| Operating system | Claude Code | Codex | Cursor |
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS and Linux | ~/.claude/skills | ~/.codex/skills | ~/.cursor/skills |
| Windows | %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills | %USERPROFILE%\.codex\skills | %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\skills |
Each team skill is a folder colabio-<name> inside those. An agent that isn’t installed doesn’t get a folder.
Reading skills from an AI assistant
If you’ve connected an AI assistant to Colabio, it can list your organization’s skills and read any approved one, so it can follow a skill even on a computer without the desktop app.
Something isn't right
- “No coding agent found”. Install Claude Code, Codex or Cursor and open it once, then restart Colabio.
- “Couldn’t install”. The message says why, usually a folder that can’t be written. Fix it and choose Try again.
- An agent doesn’t use the skill. Start a new agent session, and check the skill’s description says when to use it.
- Team Skills says it’s not on your plan. An organization manager can upgrade from the dashboard.
Still stuck? Email support@colabio.org.