HumanLayer skills
humanlayer/skills
Six skills for CLAUDE.md, visual pull requests and agentic loops, from HumanLayer.
HumanLayer skills is an MIT-licensed set of six Claude Code skills from HumanLayer. They rewrite a CLAUDE.md so the agent follows it, open pull requests with a visual outline, explain topics with diagrams, narrow React prop types to real code paths, and help you build iterated agentic loops that run as GitHub Actions workflows.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- GitHub stars
- 4,850
- Skills in the pack
- 6
- Agents supported
- 1The README describes them as Claude Code skills and installs with the skills CLI
- Instruction size
- 7.8k wordsacross all SKILL.md files
How to install HumanLayer skills
| Agent | Command | Copy |
|---|---|---|
| Any agent | Replace SKILLNAME with one of the six skill names, for example show-me or visual-pr. |
Commands as given in the README on 3 October 2026.
What is inside HumanLayer skills
| Skill | What it makes the agent do |
|---|---|
| show-me | Explains the current topic with concise diagrams, code-shape sketches and focused HTML artifacts. |
| visual-pr | Creates or updates a pull request with a visual outline that helps reviewers. |
| improve-claude-md | Rewrites your CLAUDE.md using important-if blocks to improve instruction adherence. |
| narrow-react-prop-types | Narrows React prop types to match live code paths, not Storybook, test or mock-only states. |
| build-iterated-agentic-loop | Builds a repo-local skill plus an iterated coding-agent GitHub Actions workflow, prompt and memory file. |
| design-control-loop | Interviews you to design an agentic control loop, then builds it as local components plus a scheduled workflow. |
What HumanLayer skills runs on your machine
| Hooks | None found in the repo. |
|---|---|
| Bundled scripts | No scripts run on their own. Two skills ship a TypeScript reference template, agent-iteration.ts, that they copy into your repo as part of the workflow they build. |
| Network calls | Two skills build GitHub Actions workflows that run coding agents on a schedule, so those workflows use GitHub and your agent provider once you commit them. The visual-pr skill opens pull requests on GitHub. |
| API keys needed | None named in the README. |
These are facts read from the repo, not a security rating. Read the files before you install any skill.
How much context HumanLayer skills uses
| All 6 skills | 7,782 words across every SKILL.md file |
|---|---|
| Largest skill | design-control-loop, 2,241 words |
| Loaded at start | Only each skill's name and description. The full text loads when a task needs that skill. |
Word counts are measured from the repo every day. Reference files a skill loads on demand are not counted.
How HumanLayer skills works
improve-claude-md is built on a claim in its SKILL.md: Claude Code adds a reminder that CLAUDE.md context may not be relevant, so the agent can ignore parts it judges irrelevant. The skill wraps conditionally relevant sections in important-if blocks, which gives the model an explicit relevance signal.
Each skill is its own plugin in the repo, so you can install one without the others. The README gives a separate install command for each skill.
A good fit for
- Claude Code users who want the agent to follow their CLAUDE.md more reliably
- Reviewers who want pull requests with a visual outline of the change
- Teams that want to set up a scheduled coding-agent workflow on GitHub Actions
- React teams that want prop types matched to code paths the app really uses
Skip it if
- Agents other than Claude Code, since the README calls them Claude Code skills
- Teams that want a full development workflow, because these six skills are separate tools
- Anyone who does not use GitHub, as two skills build GitHub Actions workflows
Is HumanLayer skills still maintained?
| Last commit | , 2 weeks ago |
|---|---|
| Stars gained in 7 days | Shown after 7 days of tracking |
| Stars gained in 30 days | Shown after 30 days of tracking |
| Open issues and pull requests | 9 |
| Forks | 156 |
Tools HumanLayer skills works with
Questions about HumanLayer skills
How do I install one skill?
Run npx skills add humanlayer/skills --skill SKILLNAME, for example --skill visual-pr.
Is it free?
Yes. It is MIT licensed.
What does improve-claude-md change?
It rewrites your CLAUDE.md so conditionally relevant sections sit inside important-if blocks, which the skill says helps the agent follow them.
Do the skills run scheduled jobs?
Two of them, build-iterated-agentic-loop and design-control-loop, build scheduled coding-agent workflows that run on GitHub Actions after you commit them.
Who makes it?
HumanLayer, the company behind humanlayer.dev.