Getting startedBuild With Agents

Agent Skills

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Overview

Agent Skills are pre-built instructions that tell an agent how to perform a specific task. Skills can also bundle scripts, templates, and reference materials. Think of a skill as a structured, repeatable prompt that tells an agent how to complete a specific task in a specific way.

The youdotcom-oss/agent-skills repository packages You.com skills for current web search, URL content extraction, cited research, finance research, and developer integration discovery. The shared skills work with Agent Skills-compatible clients and are also packaged for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI, Kimi Code, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Pi, and Hermes.

Have an idea for a Skill? We’d love for you to contribute.

How Skills Relate to MCP Tools

A skill is an instruction pack. It tells your agent how to approach a task and which tool or API to reach for, but it does not call anything itself. The MCP tools on the You.com server are the callable functions that do the work—you-search runs a web search, you-contents extracts a page, you-research synthesizes a cited answer, you-finance does finance research, you-balance returns remaining credits, and you-discover finds the right integration path.

A few skills share a name with the tool they route to. The you-research skill and the you-research MCP tool are different things: the skill is a set of routing instructions, and the tool is what runs when the agent follows them. Each skill routes to one or more of those tools:

SkillRoutes To
you-webyou-search, you-contents, and you-research MCP tools
you-freeyou-search and you-discover through the free MCP profile
you-research (skill)A local Research API script, a direct API request, or the you-research MCP tool
you-finance (skill)A local Finance Research API script, a direct API request, or the you-finance MCP tool
you-discover (skill)The you-discover MCP tool and the Docs MCP Server searchDocs tool

Available Skills

Pick the skill that matches the task. Search and URL reading route to the MCP tools by default. Research and finance prefer a local script or a direct API request when YDC_API_KEY is set, with the matching MCP tool as a fallback.

you-web
Web MCP

Route web search, URL reading, and cited synthesis to the you-search, you-contents, and you-research MCP tools.

you-free
Free Search

Use keyless you-search and you-discover through the free MCP profile. No YDC_API_KEY or OAuth required.

you-research
Research

Route research tasks between agent-led search, a Research API script, and the you-research MCP tool as a fallback.

you-finance
Finance

Route finance questions to an existing script, a Finance Research API call, or the you-finance MCP tool as a fallback.

you-discover
Discovery

Find the right You.com API, MCP server, SDK, docs page, plugin, or integration path for an agentic project, using the you-discover MCP tool and the Docs MCP Server.

Prerequisites

Most authenticated skills need a You.com API key. The you-free skill is the exception because it uses the free MCP profile (you-search and you-discover).

1

Get an API Key

Get your key at you.com/platform/api-keys.

2

Set the Environment Variable

export YDC_API_KEY="<YDC_API_KEY>"

Installation

Install the shared skills with the universal Agent Skills installer:

npx skills add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills

Platform Plugins

Several agent platforms can install You.com skills through host-specific plugin paths.

PlatformInstall Path
Claude Code/plugin marketplace add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills then /plugin install you@you-com
GitHub Copilot CLIcopilot plugin marketplace add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills then copilot plugin install you@you-com
Codexcodex plugin marketplace add youdotcom-oss/agent-skills --sparse .agents/plugins
CursorInstall youdotcom-oss/agent-skills from the Cursor plugin UI or CLI.
OpenCodeopencode plugin @youdotcom-oss/opencode
OpenClawopenclaw plugins install clawhub:you or openclaw plugins install npm:@youdotcom-oss/openclaw
Pipi install npm:@youdotcom-oss/pi
Hermespip install hermes-youdotcom

MCP Endpoints

The skills reference the same You.com MCP endpoints documented in the MCP Server guide and the Docs MCP Server guide.

EndpointUse It For
https://api.you.com/mcpDefault tools: you-search, you-contents, you-balance, and you-discover. Allow you-research or you-finance with ?tools= or X-Allowed-Tools.
https://api.you.com/mcp?profile=freeKeyless you-search and you-discover.
https://api.you.com/mcp/researchyou-research only. Profile ceiling still applies.
https://api.you.com/mcp/financeyou-finance only. Profile ceiling still applies.
https://you.com/docs/_mcp/serverYou.com docs search through searchDocs.

Usage

Once installed, your AI coding agent will automatically activate the relevant skill when you describe what you want. For example:

  • “Use you-web to find current docs and cite sources.”
  • “Use you-free for a quick web lookup without auth.”
  • “Use you-research to investigate this topic across multiple sources.”
  • “Use you-finance to research this company and cite market data.”
  • “Use you-discover to find the best You.com integration path for my TypeScript agent.”

Each skill provides routing guidance, setup checks, safety rules, and validation steps tailored to the task.

Resources

GitHub Repository

Source code and all available skills

API Keys

Get your You.com API key