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Skills

Pre-built AI workflows for common SaaS-management tasks. Install once, run with a sentence.

What Skills are​

A ShiftControl Skill is a folder of instructions that your AI assistant loads to handle a specific multi-step task. Each Skill combines:

  • Domain knowledge — what the task is, when to use it, what the right outcome looks like
  • MCP tool orchestration — which ShiftControl tools to call, in what order, with what data
  • Guardrails — when to ask the user before acting, what counts as a successful result

Skills are open source and live at github.com/ShiftControl-io/skills. Each Skill is a folder with a SKILL.md describing the task, plus any supporting files.

How Skills work with the MCP server​

Skills don't replace the MCP server — they're layered on top of it. The MCP server gives your AI the raw tools (list_apps, list_groups, update_app_subscription, and so on); a Skill gives it the instructions for how to use those tools to accomplish a specific goal.

You can run ShiftControl from your AI without installing any Skill. The MCP server alone is enough for ad-hoc questions like "which apps has nobody been assigned to?" Skills become useful when you have a repeatable, multi-step task you want your AI to handle the same way every time.

Skills carry no permissions of their own. Every tool call still runs as you, under your ShiftControl role, and a Skill that writes still asks before it writes.

Installing Skills​

A Skill is only instructions, so it needs the MCP server underneath it: without the server there are no ShiftControl tools for it to call. In Claude, the plugin below carries both, so installing it is the whole job. In every other AI tool, connect the server first — see Connect your AI tool.

Pick the route that matches the tool you use. They all install from the same repository, so you get the same Skills whichever one you take.

Claude: install the plugin​

Our Skills repository is also a Claude plugin marketplace. Adding it once gives you the whole catalog, and every Skill we publish later arrives through the normal plugin update rather than a fresh install. The plugin also carries the ShiftControl MCP server, so there is no server URL to find or paste anywhere. This is the route we recommend for anyone using Claude Code, the Claude desktop app, or claude.ai.

1

Add the marketplace

In Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add ShiftControl-io/skills

In the Claude desktop app or on claude.ai: open Customize → Plugins, then in Personal plugins click + → Add marketplace → Add from a repository and enter https://github.com/ShiftControl-io/skills.

2

Install the ShiftControl plugin

In Claude Code:

/plugin install shiftcontrol@shiftcontrol-skills

In the desktop app or on claude.ai, click Install on ShiftControl.

3

Connect ShiftControl

In Claude Code the server arrives with the plugin and needs no click. Run /mcp to see shiftcontrol listed and sign in up front, or let the browser open the first time a Skill reaches for your data.

In the Claude desktop app and on claude.ai, open the plugin's Connectors tab. ShiftControl is listed there as Not added: click Connect and approve the ShiftControl sign-in. The apps ask before they let a plugin reach an outside service, so until you click it the Skills have nothing to call.

4

Check that it loaded

Start a new conversation and type /, or click + → Plugins. The Skills appear grouped under ShiftControl. Ask for one by name to confirm the AI can see it.

To pick up new Skills later, run /plugin update in Claude Code, or update the plugin from the Plugins tab in the desktop app and on claude.ai.

Claude: upload a zip​

If you would rather not connect a GitHub repository, every release ships one zip per Skill. This pins you to a published version instead of tracking the repository.

  1. Download the Skill zip from the latest release
  2. Open Customize → Skills in the Claude desktop app or on claude.ai
  3. Click Upload skill, or drag the zip onto the panel

The Skill is available in new conversations straight away. Repeat the download when we publish a new version, since an uploaded zip does not update itself.

Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Cline, Windsurf and others: one command​

SKILL.md is an open format, and most AI coding tools now read it. The community skills installer knows where each of them keeps its Skills, so one command covers all of them:

# Into the current project
npx skills add ShiftControl-io/skills

# Or for every project you work on
npx skills add ShiftControl-io/skills --global

Add --list to see the catalog without installing anything, --skill <name> to take a single Skill, and --agent <agent> to target one tool rather than every one it finds.

Gemini CLI and Antigravity​

gemini skills install https://github.com/ShiftControl-io/skills.git \
  --path skills/refresh-subscription-info --consent

--scope workspace limits it to the current project; the default is your user scope.

Devin, Codex and anything reading .agents/skills/​

.agents/skills/ is the cross-vendor convention: commit a Skill there and the agent finds it whenever it opens that repository. Copy the Skill folder from our repository into .agents/skills/ and commit it, or use ~/.agents/skills/ to install it for yourself rather than for the team.

Per-client steps stay current in the repo

INSTALL.md in the Skills repository is the authoritative copy, and it is what we update when an AI client changes its install path.

Current catalog​

refresh-subscription-info​

Finds recent SaaS invoices in your email and proposes ShiftControl subscription updates (cost, billing cycle, contract length) based on what it sees.

What it does, step by step:

  1. Gathers invoices from whichever source you have: your email, your Xero bills, or a file a colleague collected on your behalf
  2. Cross-references each vendor with your ShiftControl app catalog via list_apps
  3. For each match, reads the current record via get_app
  4. Computes a diff between what the invoice says and what ShiftControl has on record
  5. Shows you the proposed updates and asks for explicit approval
  6. Calls update_app_subscription for each update you approve, recording a short note on where the figures came from

Requirements: the shiftcontrol MCP server, plus at least one invoice source. That can be an email MCP (Gmail, Microsoft Graph, or your AI client's built-in email integration), a Xero connection, or a file from whoever does hold the invoices — a bookkeeper or your finance team never needs a ShiftControl login for that last route.

Skill folder: skills/refresh-subscription-info

More Skills coming

The Skills catalog is open and growing. New entries get announced at journey.shiftcontrol.io, and the Skills repo is the live source of truth.

Writing your own Skill​

If you've built a repeatable AI workflow that hits ShiftControl, you can publish it as a Skill — either privately for your team, or as a contribution to the public catalog.

A Skill at minimum is a folder with a SKILL.md file. The SKILL.md has frontmatter carrying a name and a description (the description is what tells the AI when to reach for the Skill, so it earns the care), and a body that explains the task: when to use it, what the right MCP tool sequence is, and what guardrails to apply, especially around write tools.

Contributing to the public catalog: open a PR at github.com/ShiftControl-io/skills. The repo README has the contribution checklist.