Quick start

This guide walks you through running a local SkillsCtl registry server and connecting the CLI to it. The whole process takes about five minutes.

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later (to run the server from source)
• SkillsCtl CLI installed

Start a local server

Clone the repository if you haven’t already:

git clone https://github.com/nebari-dev/skillsctl.git
cd skillsctl

Start the server:

go run ./backend/cmd/server

You should see output like:

2026/03/18 10:00:00 auth disabled (no OIDC_ISSUER_URL)
2026/03/18 10:00:00 starting server on :8080 (db: skillsctl.db)

The server listens on port 8080. Leave this terminal open.

Verify the server is running

In a new terminal, hit the health endpoint:

curl localhost:8080/healthz

Expected response:

ok

Configure the CLI

Run the interactive setup:

skillsctl config init

The prompts ask for a server URL and skills directory. Accept the defaults by pressing Enter:

No configuration found. Let's set up skillsctl.

API URL [http://localhost:8080]:
Skills directory [/home/you/.claude/skills]:

Config saved to /home/you/.config/skillsctl/config.yaml

Verify the configuration was saved:

skillsctl config list

api_url: http://localhost:8080

Test the connection

List available skills (the local server starts empty):

skillsctl explore

No skills found.

That’s expected - you’re connected and ready to publish your first skill.

Dev mode note

When the server starts without OIDC configuration, it runs in dev mode. In dev mode:

• Authentication is disabled - no login required
• All API operations are allowed without credentials
• A default user identity is injected automatically for ownership tracking

Dev mode is useful for local development and evaluation. For production deployments, configure OIDC. See the server documentation for details.

Next steps

• Explore skills - browse a registry with existing skills
• Publish a skill - add your first skill to the local registry
• Configuration - set options like a production server URL