---
title: "Skills"
description: "Install Trigger.dev skills to teach any AI coding assistant best practices for writing tasks, agents, and workflows."
sidebarTitle: "Skills"
tag: "new"
---

## What are agent skills?

Skills are portable instruction sets that teach AI coding assistants how to use Trigger.dev effectively. Unlike vendor-specific config files (`.cursor/rules`, `CLAUDE.md`), skills use an open standard that works across all major AI assistants. For example, Cursor users and Claude Code users can get the same knowledge from a single install.

<Note>
  Skills are one of three AI tools we provide. You can also install [Agent Rules](/mcp-agent-rules) for client-specific rule sets or the [MCP Server](/mcp-introduction) for live project interaction. See the [comparison table](/building-with-ai#skills-vs-agent-rules-vs-mcp) for details.
</Note>

Skills are installed as directories containing a `SKILL.md` file. Each `SKILL.md` includes YAML frontmatter (name, description) and markdown instructions with patterns, examples, and best practices that AI assistants automatically discover and follow.

## Installation

When you run `npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills`, the CLI detects your installed AI tools and copies the appropriate files to each tool's expected location. For example, `.claude/skills/`, `.cursor/skills/`, `.github/skills/`, etc.

```bash
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills
```

<Note>`skills` is an open-source CLI by Vercel. Learn more at [skills.sh](https://skills.sh).</Note>

The result: your AI assistant understands Trigger.dev's specific patterns for exports, schema validation, error handling, retries, and more.


## Available skills

Install all skills at once, or pick the ones relevant to your current work:

```bash
# Install all Trigger.dev skills
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills

# Or install individual skills
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills --skill trigger-tasks
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills --skill trigger-agents
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills --skill trigger-config
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills --skill trigger-realtime
npx skills add triggerdotdev/skills --skill trigger-setup
```

| Skill | Use for | Covers |
|-------|---------|--------|
| `trigger-setup` | First time setup, new projects | SDK install, `npx trigger init`, project structure |
| `trigger-tasks` | Writing background tasks, async workflows, scheduled tasks | Triggering, waits, queues, retries, cron, metadata |
| `trigger-agents` | LLM workflows, orchestration, multi-step AI agents | Prompt chaining, routing, parallelization, human-in-the-loop |
| `trigger-realtime` | Live updates, progress indicators, streaming | React hooks, progress bars, streaming AI responses |
| `trigger-config` | Project setup, build configuration | `trigger.config.ts`, extensions (Prisma, FFmpeg, Playwright) |

Not sure which skill to install? Install `trigger-tasks`; it covers the most common patterns for writing Trigger.dev tasks.


## Supported AI assistants

Skills work with any AI coding assistant that supports the [Agent Skills standard](https://agentskills.io), including:

- [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code)
- [Cursor](https://cursor.com)
- [Windsurf](https://codeium.com/windsurf)
- [GitHub Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot)
- [Cline](https://github.com/cline/cline)
- [Codex CLI](https://github.com/openai/codex)
- [Gemini CLI](https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli)
- [OpenCode](https://opencode.ai)
- [View all →](https://skills.sh)

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Agent Rules" icon="scroll" href="/mcp-agent-rules">
    Install comprehensive rule sets directly into your AI client.
  </Card>
  <Card title="MCP Server" icon="sparkles" href="/mcp-introduction">
    Give your AI assistant direct access to Trigger.dev tools and APIs.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Writing tasks" icon="code" href="/tasks/overview">
    Learn the task patterns that skills teach your AI assistant.
  </Card>
  <Card title="skills.sh" icon="box" href="https://skills.sh">
    Browse the full Agent Skills ecosystem.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>