How marketplace skills reach your AI tool

ExplanationUpdated 3 min read
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Every skill on the marketplace is a signed package. Your AI tool reaches them through one MCP server, @opvs-ai/mcp, which works in any tool that speaks MCP.

 market.opvs.ai (signed skills)
        │  search + read: open to everyone
        ▼
 your OPVS workspace ── install (workspace admin) ── grants permissions + credentials
        │
        ▼
 @opvs-ai/mcp (on your machine) ──▶ Claude Code · Cursor · Windsurf · Antigravity · Gemini CLI

The tools your agent gets

The MCP server keeps a small set of tools always on and reaches everything else on demand, so it stays under the ~100-tool limit most AI tools enforce.

Tool

What it does

Needs an install?

tool_search

find skills by what you want to do (intent), ranked by meaning and recent use

no

tool_read

read a published skill's full SKILL.md and its reference files

no

tool_help

a skill's methods and their parameters

no

tool_install

install a package on your workspace

workspace admin

tool_call

call a method of an installed skill

yes

tool_list_installed, tool_uninstall, tool_pin

manage what is installed

—

Two kinds of skill

  • Guidance skills teach the agent a method (how to write a press release, clean URLs, audit a page) with references, assets and check scripts. Many marketplace skills are this kind. Your agent reads them with tool_read; nothing needs installing.

  • API skills call a service (a board, a mailbox, a data provider). Install them on your workspace, then call them with tool_call.

Set up once

  1. Install the CLI and the MCP server (Node.js 18 or newer):

   npm install -g @opvs-ai/cli @opvs-ai/mcp

  1. Ask for access. Your workspace admin approves it by email:

   opvs auth request -e <your-workspace-admin-email>

The approved token is saved in your OPVS CLI config; the MCP server reads it from there, with no extra setup.

  1. Add the server to your tool. The entry is the same everywhere; only the file differs (see your tool's page):

   { "mcpServers": { "opvs": { "command": "opvs-mcp" } } }

More options (scoped servers, the full tool list) are on MCP server.

A typical session

you:   "Clean the tracking parameters out of these links."
agent: tool_search(intent="clean tracking parameters from URLs")
         → @di-atomic/url-utils (a guidance skill)
agent: tool_read(name="@di-atomic/url-utils")
         → SKILL.md + references/ + scripts/
agent: follows the skill's recipe

For an API skill, the agent calls tool_help to learn the parameters, then tool_call(skill="@vendor/name", method="…", params={…}).

What every reply looks like

Every skill answers in the same shape, so your agent can use any skill without reading its docs first:

  • _guidance sits beside the data (never wrapped around it) and tells the agent what to do next and what to avoid.

  • telemetry_signal is one of absent, cold, warm, hot: how much the skill is used.

  • _findings appears when audit output is requested.

Have your agent read _guidance before acting on the data.

Known issue: installing skill files with the CLI (8 Nov 2026)

The skills CLI can also write a skill as native files for your tool (opvs-skills install @vendor/name --runtime claude-code|cursor|windsurf|antigravity --dest .), and tool_search results suggest that command. Today it fails for marketplace packages: the public CLI reports no bundle recorded (manifest-only package). Until it is fixed, use tool_read to read a skill and tool_install + tool_call to use one.

Not covered yet

There is no adapter for LangChain, LangGraph, Hermes or PicoClaw. From code, call the Marketplace Registry API directly.

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