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are agent skills safe? a review checklist

why this matters

A skill is a set of instructions your agent will follow, and some skills also include scripts the agent can run. That makes installing a skill closer to running someone else's runbook with your agent's permissions than to installing a document. Most skills are written in good faith, but you are trusting the author, so a short review is worth it.

what to read before installing

Read all of SKILL.md, not just the description.
Open every script in the folder. If you cannot follow one, ask your agent to explain it line by line.
Look for commands that download and run code from the internet.
Look for any use of credentials, environment variables, tokens or files outside the project.
Look for network calls to domains you do not recognise.
Treat instructions to hide actions from you, ignore your other rules or skip confirmation as a serious warning sign.

check the source

Open the repository and look at who maintains it, how long it has existed, whether it has a license and what recent changes look like. A skill from an established author with a visible history is lower risk than a brand-new repository with one commit, although neither is proof of safety.

limit what a skill can do

Try new skills on a branch or in a disposable project first.
Keep API keys in environment variables, never pasted into a chat.
Give your agent the narrowest permissions that let the skill work, and require confirmation for anything destructive.
For skills that need an MCP server, review what that server can access, since it sets the real limits.
After the first run, review what changed before you keep it.

what skilldirectory does and does not do

We list skills, link to their sources and write our own summary of what each one says it does. We read each skill's published description and outline, but we do not audit every script line by line, so a listing is not a security endorsement. Review a skill yourself before you rely on it.

reporting a problem

If you find a skill that behaves in a harmful or misleading way, email admin@skilldirectory.dev with a link to the page and we will review it and remove the listing where appropriate.