Canonical Skills
Use when setting up a new project, auditing an existing one, or aligning a project so the same project-level skills and agent guide work under Claude Code, Codex, and Pi Agent. Trigger on phrases like "make this project canonical", "set up canonical skills layout", "ensure canonical skills style", "migrate CLAUDE.md to AGENTS.md", "make claude/codex/pi share the same agent guide here", "standardize the agent layout for this repo", or whenever the user opens a fresh project and wants the five project invariants (skills/ real dir, .claude/skills symlink, .agents/skills symlink, AGENTS.md canonical, CLAUDE.md = @AGENTS.md) to hold. Also trigger when the user mentions only one of these symptoms (drifted CLAUDE.md vs AGENTS.md, .claude/skills or .agents/skills as a real directory, multiple skills directories) — the goal is to converge to the canonical shape every time, not just react to the symptom they named.
Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›
From the source SKILL.md
Apply a single, predictable layout to any project the user works in so Claude Code, Codex, and Pi Agent share one project guide and one project skill source of truth wherever the runtime supports project-local skills. The skill is installed once at the user level (via the dotfiles just link symlink loop) and shows up automatically inside every user-level runtime.
What this skill does
Canonical Skills is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the general-misc sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/canonical-skills/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.
When to invoke it: Use when setting up a new project, auditing an existing one, or aligning a project so the same project-level skills and agent guide work under Claude Code, Codex, and Pi Agent. Trigger on phrases like "make this project canonical", "set up canonical skills layout", "ensure canonical skills style", "migrate CLAUDE.
Who uses this skill
The Canonical Skills Claude Code skill is built for Claude Code users and developers across all disciplines looking for general-purpose AI assistance. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 174,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).
How to install
Free
Manual install (2 steps)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/canonical-skills
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/canonical-skills/SKILL.md \
-o ~/.claude/skills/canonical-skills/SKILL.md
Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/canonical-skills/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.
Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/canonical-skills/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\canonical-skills\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.
Telegram
📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram
Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →
Pro
One-click install via the desktop app
The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.
Pro
For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the Canonical Skills Claude Code skill?
Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy
SKILL.md from the source repository to
~/.claude/skills/canonical-skills/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at
claudskills.com/install/.
What does the Canonical Skills skill do?
Use when setting up a new project, auditing an existing one, or aligning a project so the same project-level skills and agent guide work under Claude Code, Codex, and Pi Agent. Trigger on phrases like "make this project canonical", "set up canonical skills layout", "ensure canonical skills style", "migrate CLAUDE.md to AGENTS.md", "make claude/codex/pi share the same agent guide here", "standardize the agent layout for this repo", or whenever the user opens a fresh project and wants the five project invariants (skills/ real dir, .claude/skills symlink, .agents/skills symlink, AGENTS.md canonical, CLAUDE.md = @AGENTS.md) to hold. Also trigger when the user mentions only one of these symptoms (drifted CLAUDE.md vs AGENTS.md, .claude/skills or .agents/skills as a real directory, multiple skills directories) — the goal is to converge to the canonical shape every time, not just react to the symptom they named.
Is this skill free to install?
Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.
When should I use the Canonical Skills skill?
Use Canonical Skills when your Claude Code task falls under the General category — specifically in the general misc area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Canonical Skills" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at
/category/general/.
What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Canonical Skills skill fit in?
A Claude Code skill is a
SKILL.md file that lives under
~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Canonical Skills is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the General category. Learn more at
/learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.
Attribution & license
Cite this skill
If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:
APA
memorysaver. (2026). Canonical Skills [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/canonical-skills/
BibTeX
@misc{canonical-skills-2026,
author = {memorysaver},
title = {Canonical Skills [Claude Code skill]},
year = {2026},
publisher = {ClaudSkills},
url = {https://claudskills.com/skills/canonical-skills/}
}Embed this skill
Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →
Badge
[](https://claudskills.com/skills/canonical-skills/?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=skill_badge)
<script>
<script src="https://claudskills.com/embed/canonical-skills.js" async></script>
<iframe>
<iframe src="https://claudskills.com/embed/canonical-skills.html" width="100%" height="160" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" title="ClaudSkills: Canonical Skills"></iframe>
Security scan
Grade A · scanned 2026-08-02 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.
The scan flagged 1 of 10 categories (filesystem), including lower-severity patterns. Patterns shown inside code fences are weighted as examples rather than instructions — read the grading methodology for what this does and does not guarantee.
- ✓ Prompt injection
- ✓ Data exfiltration
- ✓ Supply chain
- ✓ Reverse shell
- ✓ Credentials
- ✓ Execution
- ⚠ Filesystem
- ✓ Persistence
- ✓ Obfuscation
- ✓ Network
Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):
[](https://claudskills.com/skills/canonical-skills/#security)
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