feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery by NTaylorMullen · Pull Request #18151 · google-gemini/gemini-cli

NTaylorMullen · 2026-02-03T00:17:58Z

Summary

This PR adds support for .agents/skills as an alias for .gemini/skills in both user (~/.agents/skills) and workspace (.agents/skills) directories. This provides a more generic and intuitive path for managing agent-specific skills.

Details

Added getGlobalAgentsDir, getUserAgentSkillsDir, getAgentsDir, and getProjectAgentSkillsDir to the Storage class in packages/core/src/config/storage.ts.
Updated SkillManager.discoverSkills in packages/core/src/skills/skillManager.ts to include these new alias directories in the skill discovery process.
.agents directories have precedence over .gemini directories when they exist in the same tier (user or workspace).

Related Issues

None.

How to Validate

Create a skill in ~/.agents/skills/test-user-skill/SKILL.md.
Create a skill in .agents/skills/test-workspace-skill/SKILL.md.
Run gemini skills list or use /skills list in the CLI.
Verify both skills are discovered.

Alternatively, run the new test suite:

npm test -w @google/gemini-cli-core -- src/skills/skillManagerAlias.test.ts

Pre-Merge Checklist

gemini-code-assist · 2026-02-03T00:18:13Z

Summary of Changes

Hello @NTaylorMullen, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request enhances the skill discovery mechanism by introducing a new, more flexible directory alias. Users can now store agent-specific skills in .agent/skills directories, which will be prioritized over the existing .gemini/skills paths. This change aims to streamline skill management by offering a more intuitive naming convention and ensuring that the system correctly identifies and loads skills from these new locations.

Highlights

New Directory Alias: Introduced support for .agent/skills as an alias for .gemini/skills for skill discovery, providing a more generic and intuitive path for managing agent-specific skills.
Scope of Alias: The new alias applies to both user-level (~/.agent/skills) and workspace-level (.agent/skills) directories.
Storage Class Updates: Added new methods (getGlobalAgentDir, getUserAgentSkillsDir, getAgentDir, getProjectAgentSkillsDir) to the Storage class to manage these new alias paths.
Skill Discovery Enhancement: Updated SkillManager.discoverSkills to include these new alias directories in the skill discovery process.
Precedence Rule: When both .agent and .gemini directories exist at the same tier (user or workspace), .agent directories will take precedence.

Changelog

packages/core/src/config/storage.ts
- Added static getGlobalAgentDir() to retrieve the global user-level .agent directory.
- Added static getUserAgentSkillsDir() to get the user-specific .agent/skills directory.
- Added getAgentDir() to retrieve the project-level .agent directory.
- Added getProjectAgentSkillsDir() to get the project-specific .agent/skills directory.
packages/core/src/skills/skillManager.ts
- Modified discoverSkills to include userAgentSkills and projectAgentSkills in the skill discovery process.
- Ensured that skills found in .agent paths are added with precedence over those in .gemini paths at the same tier.
packages/core/src/skills/skillManagerAlias.test.ts
- Added a new test file to verify the correct discovery of skills from .agent/skills directories.
- Included tests to confirm that .agent skills take precedence over .gemini skills when both exist for the same skill name.

Activity

The author has added new tests to cover the changes introduced in this pull request.
The author has validated the changes on MacOS using npm run.

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gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request introduces support for .agent/skills as an alias for .gemini/skills for skill discovery. While the feature correctly implements the aliasing and precedence logic, a critical security flaw exists in the global agent directory discovery: it falls back to a world-writable temporary directory on multi-user systems when the home directory cannot be determined, potentially enabling cross-user skill injection attacks. Given that skill content and definitions are considered trusted by design, it is paramount to ensure the integrity of skill loading locations. It is recommended to remove this insecure fallback or implement robust ownership and permission checks. Furthermore, consider refactoring Storage.ts to reduce code duplication and use constants for directory paths to enhance maintainability.

packages/core/src/config/storage.ts

jackwotherspoon

LGTM ✅

github-actions · 2026-02-03T00:31:04Z

Size Change: +882 B (0%)

Total Size: 23.6 MB

ℹ️ View Unchanged

Filename	Size	Change
`./bundle/gemini.js`	23.6 MB	+882 B (0%)
`./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-closed.sb`	1.03 kB	0 B
`./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-open.sb`	890 B	0 B
`./bundle/sandbox-macos-permissive-proxied.sb`	1.31 kB	0 B
`./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-closed.sb`	3.29 kB	0 B
`./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-open.sb`	3.36 kB	0 B
`./bundle/sandbox-macos-restrictive-proxied.sb`	3.56 kB	0 B

_{compressed-size-action}

…18151)

…oogle-gemini#18151)

NTaylorMullen requested a review from a team as a code owner February 3, 2026 00:17

NTaylorMullen changed the title ~~feat(core): add .agent/skills directory alias for skill discovery~~ feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery Feb 3, 2026

gemini-code-assist bot reviewed Feb 3, 2026

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packages/core/src/config/storage.ts Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

NTaylorMullen force-pushed the feat/agent-skills-alias branch 3 times, most recently from c6d9eb1 to 7e0030d Compare February 3, 2026 00:25

feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery

28b3413

NTaylorMullen force-pushed the feat/agent-skills-alias branch from 7e0030d to 28b3413 Compare February 3, 2026 00:27

jackwotherspoon approved these changes Feb 3, 2026

View reviewed changes

gemini-cli bot added the status/need-issue Pull requests that need to have an associated issue. label Feb 3, 2026

NTaylorMullen added this pull request to the merge queue Feb 3, 2026

Merged via the queue into main with commit ad8796b Feb 3, 2026
26 checks passed

NTaylorMullen deleted the feat/agent-skills-alias branch February 3, 2026 06:17

Adib234 pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Feb 3, 2026

feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery (#…

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…18151)

snickell mentioned this pull request Feb 4, 2026

Proposal: include a standard folder where agent skills should be agentskills/agentskills#15

Open

yuvrajangadsingh pushed a commit to yuvrajangadsingh/gemini-cli that referenced this pull request Feb 4, 2026

feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery (g…

5c00195

…oogle-gemini#18151)

sidwan02 pushed a commit to sidwan02/gemini-cli-gemma that referenced this pull request Feb 6, 2026

feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery (g…

185257e

…oogle-gemini#18151)

kevmoo mentioned this pull request Feb 15, 2026

[Docs] Document .agents/skills directory alias for cross-tool alignment #19167

Closed

kuishou68 pushed a commit to iOfficeAI/aioncli that referenced this pull request Feb 27, 2026

feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery (g…

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…oogle-gemini#18151)

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feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery#18151

feat(core): add .agents/skills directory alias for skill discovery#18151
NTaylorMullen merged 1 commit intomainfrom
feat/agent-skills-alias

NTaylorMullen commented Feb 3, 2026 •

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NTaylorMullen commented Feb 3, 2026 •

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