Windsurf skills
How to use Skills in Windsurf: where Windsurf reads them, how skilld installs them, and a curated list with authors. The same Skill runs in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and every other Agent skilld targets.
Agents
npx skilld run owner/repo/skillWindsurf reads Agent Skills from .windsurf/skills in a project and from ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills for every project. Windsurf also has Rules and Workflows. A Skill is the portable one: the same directory works in the other Agents skilld targets. skilld gives you a curated set of Skills, each written by a person in their own repository, and one command that puts a Skill in front of Windsurf.
How Skills work in Windsurf
- Project:
.windsurf/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md - Global:
~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md
Windsurf reads each Skill description and loads the full file when a task matches.
Install a Skill for Windsurf
npx skilld install owner/repo/skill --agent windsurfThe Skill lands in .windsurf/skills. Add --global to install to ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills instead. skilld detects the Agents in your project and on your machine. If it finds only one, omit --agent.
Restart Windsurf after an install.
Run a Skill without installing it
npx skilld run owner/repo/skillskilld run prints the Skill and writes no file. Give the command to the Windsurf Agent. It reads the Skill and follows it for this session. Nothing lands in your repository, and no lockfile changes.
Curated Skills for Windsurf
Windsurf readers ship web apps, so these Skills cover performance and web quality. Skills here come from the curated registry; a person admitted each one.
Run an evidence-led web quality audit covering performance, accessibility, SEO, best practices, and agentic browsing. Use when asked to "audit my site", "review web quality", "run lighthouse audit", "check page quality", or "optimize my website".
Use when finishing a feature, fixing a bug, before committing React code, or when the user types `/doctor`, asks to scan, triage, or clean up React diagnostics. Covers lint, accessibility, bundle size, architecture. Includes a regression check and a full local-triage workflow that fetches the canonical playbook.
Keep web animations inside the frame budget — animate composite-only properties, keep motion off the main thread when the page is busy, and find the cause when an animation drops frames. Covers the layout/paint/composite pipeline, cheaper property swaps, CSS vs WAAPI vs requestAnimationFrame, Framer Motion's hardware-accelerated path, React re-rendering per frame, inherited CSS variable recalculation, blur cost, and when `will-change` actually helps. Use when an animation is janky, choppy, stutters, or drops frames; when choosing which property to animate; when deciding between CSS and JS animation on performance grounds; or when reaching for `will-change` or GPU layers. For choosing easing, duration, or whether to animate at all use animate; for reviewing motion as a whole use review-animations.
Optimize Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) for better page experience using field and lab evidence. Use when asked to "improve Core Web Vitals", "fix LCP", "reduce CLS", "optimize INP", "page experience optimization", or "fix layout shifts".
Build robust backtesting systems for trading strategies with proper handling of look-ahead bias, survivorship bias, and transaction costs. Use when developing trading algorithms, validating strategies, or building backtesting infrastructure.
Calculate portfolio risk metrics including VaR, CVaR, Sharpe, Sortino, and drawdown analysis. Use when measuring portfolio risk, implementing risk limits, or building risk monitoring systems.
Use this skill when the user shares ad campaign performance data and asks what to cut, scale, or test. Trigger for prompts like "analyze my ad campaigns", "where am I wasting ad spend", "reallocate my ad budget", "which ads are actually working", or "ROAS analysis". Do not trigger for campaign planning or creative generation without performance data.
Universal SQL performance optimization assistant for comprehensive query tuning, indexing strategies, and database performance analysis across all SQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle). Provides execution plan analysis, pagination optimization, batch operations, and performance monitoring guidance.
All 31 Skills in Performance and web quality
Windsurf can also search the registry itself, with the skilld Skill or the skilld MCP server. See the setup
Read before you run. A Skill is instructions for your Agent. Open the source file first. What skilld verifies, and what it never claims .