lms-plugin-skills

A 1:1 clone of Claude's internal skill system, built as an LM Studio plugin.

How It Works

Claude reads a list of available skills at the start of every context, then uses a view tool to read the relevant SKILL.md file before working on tasks that skill covers. This plugin replicates that system exactly for LM Studio.

The Skill System - Three Components

1. Prompt Preprocessor Before every message, the plugin scans the skills directory and injects an <available_skills> block into the prompt. The model sees this and knows which skills exist, their descriptions, and their file paths - exactly like Claude's system prompt injection.

2. Tools

Tool	Purpose
`list_skills`	List all available skills with names and descriptions
`read_skill_file`	Read any file within a skill directory (defaults to `SKILL.md`)
`list_skill_files`	Explore the full file tree of a skill directory

3. Persistent Settings LM Studio does not save plugin settings across new chats. This plugin solves that by writing settings to ~/.lmstudio/plugin-data/lms-skills/settings.json - the skills path and all configuration survive chat resets.

Skill Directory Structure

A skill is any subdirectory inside your skills folder that contains a SKILL.md file.

~/.lmstudio/skills/          ← default skills directory
├── docx/
│   ├── SKILL.md             ← entry point (required)
│   ├── scripts/
│   │   └── helper.py
│   └── templates/
│       └── base.docx
├── pptx/
│   ├── SKILL.md
│   └── editing.md
└── my-custom-skill/
    ├── SKILL.md
    └── skill.json           ← optional: override name/description

`skill.json` (optional)

Place a skill.json in any skill directory to override its display name and description:

{
  "name": "My Custom Skill",
  "description": "Use this skill when the user asks to do X, Y, or Z."
}

If absent, the plugin uses the directory name and extracts the description from the first paragraph of SKILL.md.

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Auto-Inject Skills List	On	Injects skills block into every prompt
Max Skills in Context	15	Max skills listed in each injected block
Skills Directory Path	(empty)	Custom path to skills directory

Skills Directory Path

Empty - uses the last saved path (or ~/.lmstudio/skills on first run)
default - resets the saved path back to ~/.lmstudio/skills
Any absolute path - saves that path and uses it immediately

Settings (including the skills path) are written to disk and survive new chat sessions.

Local Development

cd lms-plugin-skills
bun install
bun run dev

Default Skills Path by Platform

The default path ~/.lmstudio/skills resolves to:

Platform	Path
Windows	`C:\Users\<you>\.lmstudio\skills`
macOS	`/Users/<you>/.lmstudio/skills`
Linux	`/home/<you>/.lmstudio/skills`

Model Workflow

User sends a message
Preprocessor fires - scans skills dir, injects <available_skills> block
Model reads the block and recognises a relevant skill
Model calls read_skill_file("skill-name") → receives full SKILL.md content
SKILL.md may reference other files → model calls list_skill_files then read_skill_file with specific path
Model follows the skill's instructions to produce high-quality output

License

Apache 2.0

skills