The ecosystem around coding agent resources
The open Agent Skills standard, official repositories, catalogs, Claude Code plugins and neighboring formats (DESIGN.md, AGENTS.md, MCP): who does what, and where PalateKit fits.
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Writing for a coding agent now involves a handful of formats, repositories and catalogs. They play different roles and they combine. This article puts them in order, then places PalateKit among them.
The standard: Agent Skills
A skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file: metadata (at minimum a name and a description) and instructions. It can also bundle scripts, reference documentation and templates.
The format was originally developed by Anthropic, then released as an open standard, and a growing number of products have adopted it. Agents load it in stages: at startup only the name and description of each skill are read, and the full content loads only when the task matches. A skill written once therefore serves any compatible agent, give or take the install folder. For the details, see What is an Agent Skill?.
Official repositories
Agent vendors publish reference skills on GitHub.
- Anthropic: the
anthropics/skillsrepository holds skills ranging from creative work to technical tasks and enterprise workflows. Many are under the Apache 2.0 license; the document skills (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel) are source-available, not open source. The repository states that it is provided for demonstration and educational purposes, so test any skill before relying on it. - OpenAI: the
openai/skillsrepository is the skills catalog for Codex, organized as.system,.curatedand.experimental, and installed with$skill-installer. At the time of writing, its README says the repository is deprecated and points to OpenAI's plugins repository.
The license is read skill by skill, in each skill's own folder.
Marketplaces and catalogs
Beyond vendor repositories, some sites gather resources from many authors. They differ in what they index (skills only, or also prompts and rules), in whether licenses are verified, in the language of their pages, and in what they host versus merely link to. When you compare, check three things: is the license shown and verified, does the page show what the resource produces, and do you know exactly what you are copying to your disk.
Claude Code plugins
A plugin is a directory that Claude Code installs and loads as one unit. It can bundle skills, agents, hooks and MCP servers, with a manifest at .claude-plugin/plugin.json. A single skill kept in ~/.claude/skills/ works well on its own: a plugin is for when you want several components installed with one command, updated from a marketplace, or shared with a team.
Anthropic's repository registers as a plugin marketplace like this:
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
Neighboring formats
Three other formats often sit next to skills.
| Format | Role | Loads |
|---|---|---|
| Agent Skills (SKILL.md) | A method for one specific task, with its files | On demand, when the task matches |
| DESIGN.md | A visual identity: design tokens (colors, typography, spacing) plus the rationale in prose | A project file the agent consults |
| AGENTS.md | Project instructions: build and test commands, code conventions | Read by the agent in the project |
| MCP | A connection from the agent to external systems, through tool and data servers | A running server the agent calls |
- DESIGN.md pairs machine-readable tokens (YAML) with an explanation in Markdown: the tokens give exact values, the prose says why. DESIGN.md catalogs are at /en/design-md.
- AGENTS.md is described by its authors as a "README for agents". It is stewarded by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, and many agents read it.
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems. It is a different mechanism from a skill: see Skills vs MCP.
Where PalateKit fits
PalateKit is a catalog of resources for coding agents: Agent Skills, DESIGN.md files, motion design templates, text, image and video prompts, rules, agents and hooks. Three choices set it apart.
- Verified licenses. Every page lists the author, the original license, the source and the attached notice. A resource is hosted here only if its license allows it; otherwise it is only indexed, with a link to the source.
- Pages in two languages. Every page exists in French and in English. The author's files stay in their original version, often in English.
- Install without execution. Installing means copying files, by prompt, command or ZIP, and the catalog offers no resource that ships scripts. The full method is in Install your first resource.
PalateKit replaces neither vendor repositories nor the formats above: it builds on them. You can browse skills, DESIGN.md files and rules, and compare with a plain prompt in Resource or plain prompt?.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Does a skill written for one agent work in another?
Often, yes: the Agent Skills format is an open standard supported by many agents. Only the install folder changes from one agent to the next.
Do DESIGN.md, AGENTS.md and MCP replace each other?
No. Each answers a different need: describing a visual identity, giving a project's instructions, connecting the agent to tools and data. They complement each other.
What does PalateKit add over a GitHub repository?
It gathers resources whose license has been checked, presented in French and English, with a preview, the compatible agents and the original license on every page.