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Install MotherDuck Skills for coding agents

MotherDuck Skills is an opinionated, installable catalog of agent skills that teaches coding agents how to work with MotherDuck. The skills cover picking the right connection path, writing DuckDB SQL (not Postgres-shaped SQL), inspecting a live workspace, and shipping production analytics patterns safely.

Skills work with any DuckDB client — they teach the agent behavior, not how to connect. Pairing them with the MotherDuck MCP server is recommended but not required: MCP gives the agent live access to your workspace so it can inspect real schemas while it applies the guidance from the skills.

What agent skills are​

Agent skills are reusable instruction bundles for AI coding agents. They give the agent domain-specific guidance it can apply during a task, such as which tools to use, which SQL dialect rules matter, what safety checks to run, and what good output should look like.

MotherDuck Skills do not connect to your account or run queries on their own. Instead, your agent loads the relevant skill when a task calls for MotherDuck-specific knowledge. Use them when you want the agent to:

  • Choose between the MotherDuck MCP server, a Postgres-compatible endpoint, a native md: DuckDB connection, or the REST API.
  • Inspect a workspace and summarize databases, schemas, tables, and columns before writing queries.
  • Write DuckDB SQL that works in MotherDuck instead of PostgreSQL-shaped SQL.
  • Load files or application data into MotherDuck with repeatable validation steps.
  • Design a dashboard, Dive, customer-facing analytics app, or data pipeline on top of MotherDuck.
  • Plan a migration to MotherDuck, including validation, rollout, and rollback steps.

Prerequisites​

Before you install:

  • Git available on your PATH.
  • Node.js 18 or later (required for the Skills CLI).
  • A MotherDuck account and one of the supported agent harnesses below.

For live MotherDuck work, authenticate through your normal path — a MOTHERDUCK_TOKEN, the Postgres endpoint, a native md: DuckDB connection, or MotherDuck MCP. Do not paste tokens into prompts or skill files.

Install​

Pick your agent harness and run the command. Each install pulls the full MotherDuck Skills catalog.

HarnessInstall
Claude Code/plugin marketplace add motherduckdb/agent-skills then /plugin install motherduck-skills@motherduck-skills
GitHub Copilot CLI/plugin marketplace add motherduckdb/agent-skills then /plugin install motherduck-skills@motherduck-skills
Codexcodex plugin marketplace add motherduckdb/agent-skills, then install MotherDuck Skills from /plugins
Cursornpx -y skills add motherduckdb/agent-skills --agent cursor --skill '*' --yes --global
Gemini CLIgemini extensions install https://github.com/motherduckdb/agent-skills --consent

For other agents, project-scoped installs, or to install individual skills, use Vercel's portable Skills CLI. See Vercel's Agent Skills documentation for more details.

npx -y skills add motherduckdb/agent-skills --skill '*' --yes --global

Check what got installed:

npx -y skills ls -g

Verify the installation​

After install, try this prompt to confirm the skills are wired up:

Use MotherDuck Skills to choose the best connection path for this project.

You should get MotherDuck-specific connection guidance, including the Postgres endpoint and native DuckDB tradeoffs.

Prompts to try​

Once the skills are installed, these prompts route to the right skill automatically:

  • Use MotherDuck Skills to connect this app to MotherDuck.
  • Explore my MotherDuck workspace and identify the best table for a dashboard.
  • Write a DuckDB SQL query for this KPI and validate the syntax.
  • Design a Dive-backed dashboard from these tables.
  • Plan a Snowflake-to-MotherDuck migration with validation and rollback steps.
  • Design a customer-facing analytics architecture on MotherDuck.
  • Decide whether this workload needs DuckLake or native MotherDuck storage.
  • Use the MotherDuck REST API guidance to manage service accounts and tokens safely.

How the catalog is organized​

The catalog has three layers. Agents pick the right layer based on the task.

Utility skills cover exact MotherDuck mechanics: connect, explore, query, use the REST API, or check DuckDB SQL behavior. Start here for narrow technical work.

Workflow skills cover multi-step work with MotherDuck-specific tradeoffs: loading data, modeling, sharing, building Dives, evaluating DuckLake, planning security and governance, or framing pricing and ROI.

Use-case skills cover designing or shipping a product surface: building customer-facing analytics, a dashboard, or a data pipeline; planning a migration to MotherDuck; rolling out self-serve analytics; or delivering repeatable partner implementations.

For the full skill list and the latest install paths, see the agent-skills repository.