Install modes

A skill installs one of two ways: as a Claude Code plugin, or ejected — copied into your project as files you own. It’s a per-skill choice, so a mixed installation is normal, and it’s independent of the skill’s scope. Set it wherever you pick your skills — the editor’s grid, or the wizard.

Quick start

Plugin is the default and needs no action — every skill installs as a Claude Code plugin unless you say otherwise. To own a skill’s files instead, set that skill to eject before you install it.

In the editor, click the plugin badge on the skill’s cell and it flips to eject. The same choice sits behind the cell’s ••• control as an Install mode pair, and the two stay in step because they write the same field. A skill added from outside the catalogue has no plugin form, so its badge states eject rather than flipping.

The choice travels in the id the Install dialog mints, so install with the command that dialog hands you and not a bare init:

npx agents-inc init --from Ab3xY9_Q

npx agents-inc init on its own starts the wizard from nothing — it’s a valid command, it just doesn’t carry what you configured in the browser.

From the terminal

On the wizard’s Sources step, SPACE on a row’s Local cell is the same choice — Local is what that step calls eject. It’s the only install-mode surface there: the step has no bulk keys, and SPACE is inert on a row inherited from a global install. To change a skill already installed, npx agents-inc edit and the same step; npx agents-inc eject skills copies the marketplace’s skills into .claude/skills/ in one go.

npx agents-inc list prints which mode an installation is on: Plugin, Eject or Mixed. The mode isn’t stored anywhere — it’s read off the skills in your config, so an installation holding one local copy and the rest as plugins reports Mixed.

Install Modes

Plugin (default) — Skills are installed as Claude Code plugins, registered in Claude’s own plugin store (~/.claude/plugins/ for global scope, your project’s .claude/plugins/ for project scope). No files are copied into your project source. Updates are pulled directly from the source.

Eject — Skills are copied into .claude/skills/ in your project directory. Use this when you want full ownership of the skill files or need to modify them.

You can switch modes after initial install using npx agents-inc edit.

Scope is the other choice, and it’s separate

Install mode decides how a skill’s files get there. Scope decides who can see them — this project, or every project on the machine. The two are set independently, so a skill can be an ejected copy at global scope, a plugin at project scope, or either of the other two combinations.

In the editor, scope is the second badge on a skill’s cell; a sub-agent carries the same word on its roster row. In the wizard it’s S on the focused row, on the Skills and Agents steps alike.

Scopes covers what each one means, why global is the default, and the one pairing the CLI refuses to write.

Related

• Scopes — the other per-skill choice, including the one skill/sub-agent pairing that can’t be written.
• Global-first setup — why global is the right default, and what happens to global entries when you edit from inside a project.
• Customizing sub-agents — ejecting is not only for skills; partials and templates eject too.
• Config reference — origin is the field that records the install mode, scope the one that records the scope.
• Switch a skill to eject — the change worked end to end, on one skill.