Education Agent Skills Library
An open-source library of 165 evidence-based pedagogical skills across 20 domains — works in Claude Code, Claude.ai (via MCP), OpenAI Codex, and Hermes Agent, and is engineered for AI agent orchestration. Domains 1–19 are teacher and designer-facing. Domain 20 is the first student-facing domain: live AI interaction patterns that shape how AI responds to learners during study sessions.
[!IMPORTANT]
Hosted MCP access now requires an auth token.
The library is still free and open source, and local/plugin/manual use remains the recommended free path. The hosted MCP server is still available for people who specifically need a remote MCP endpoint, but anonymous access is now blocked so the service stays sustainable.
Need hosted MCP? Request an access token or jump to hosted MCP setup.
Get Started
Works with Claude, Codex, Hermes Agent, and any tool that supports the Agent Skills standard.
For sustainable free use, install or copy the skills locally from GitHub where possible. The hosted MCP server is a convenience endpoint for remote clients, not a requirement for using the library.
Claude
CoWork (easiest) — go to Customize → (+) Add Plugin and paste:
https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills
Claude Code CLI — install from the repo URL:
claude plugin install https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills
Claude.ai / Claude Desktop (hosted MCP) — use only if your workflow specifically needs a remote MCP connector. Hosted access requires a token:
https://mcp-server-sigma-sooty.vercel.app/mcp
Request a token here: Hosted MCP access signup. Free local and manual options remain available. See Hosted MCP access.
OpenAI Codex
Codex does not need the hosted MCP server. Recommended local setup:
git clone https://github.com/GarethManning/education-agent-skills.git
cd education-agent-skills
codex plugin marketplace add "$PWD"
The repository includes a Codex plugin manifest at .codex-plugin/plugin.json pointing to ./skills/, plus a local marketplace helper at .agents/plugins/marketplace.json. After installing/enabling the local plugin, restart Codex.
For one or two individual skills, copy them into your global Codex skills directory:
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -r skills/<domain>/<skill-name> ~/.codex/skills/
Example:
cp -r skills/memory-learning-science/spaced-practice-scheduler ~/.codex/skills/
Full Codex guide: docs/CODEX.md.
Hermes Agent
Hermes users should keep this repository as the canonical source, then install only the skills they actually need locally.
hermes skills tap add GarethManning/education-agent-skills
hermes skills install \
GarethManning/education-agent-skills/skills/original-frameworks/learning-target-authoring-guide \
--category education --yes
Recommended starting point: install selected skills or a small starter pack rather than all 165 skills. That keeps your local Hermes index useful instead of noisy.
If you want intelligent skill discovery and recommendation rather than local/offline installs, use the hosted MCP server's find_skills and suggest_skills tools. The MCP route and the Hermes tap serve different adopter types; a separate Hermes plugin is not currently planned.
Full Hermes guide: docs/HERMES.md.
Any Agent Skills-compatible tool
Copy skill folders from skills/ into your agent's skills directory. Each skill is a folder containing SKILL.md with name/description frontmatter — no dependencies, no build step.
Manual (no setup)
- Open any skill file in the repository (under
skills/)
- Copy the prompt block
- Paste it into any AI and fill in the fields for your class or context
Feedback & Contributions
I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you have suggestions, find bugs, or want to contribute:
