Installing the skills

Overview

Install both skills for your user, then ask your agent to set up a LinkML sidecar. linkml-sidecar runs once and hands off to linkml-author, which you keep using. A repository that already holds a LinkML project needs only linkml-author.

GitHub CLI

This route needs gh skill version 2.90.0 or later. It defaults to GitHub Copilot, so pass --agent to name yours (claude-code, github-copilot, cursor, codex, gemini-cli, or another from gh skill install --help).

gh skill install noelmcloughlin/linkml-sidecar --all --scope user --agent claude-code

This is the route for a work machine: it needs github.com but no npm registry.

Open Skills CLI

The Open Skills CLI, npx skills, installs both skills. This route could fail behind a company proxy or an internal npm registry. Take the GitHub CLI route there instead.

npx skills add noelmcloughlin/linkml-sidecar --global --yes \
  --skill linkml-sidecar --skill linkml-author

In PowerShell or cmd, type the command on one line without the \ continuation.

Claude Code plugin

/plugin marketplace add noelmcloughlin/linkml-sidecar
/plugin install linkml-sidecar@linkml-sidecar

From a copy of the repository

Where github.com is out of reach, install from a company copy of this repository, or from a release archive. npx skills add and /plugin marketplace add take a git URL on any host, or a local path. The GitHub CLI takes a local folder, and needs no network for it:

git clone https://git.example.com/mirrors/linkml-sidecar.git
gh skill install ./linkml-sidecar/skills --from-local --all --scope user --agent claude-code

Point it at the copy’s skills/ folder, not its root: a working copy’s website/node_modules/ can hold other skills.

For your user, not the repository

The commands above install for your user, which keeps the instructions an agent follows under your control. Install into the repository only when a team wants every member on one version: leave out --global, or pass --scope project, and commit what the installer writes.

Pin to one tag

Both skills are released together under one tag, so pin them to the same one. Append it to the skill name (linkml-author@v0.1.1) or pass --pin v0.1.1. The changelog says what each release changed.

Turn on the workflow

The workflow the sidecar installs checks the schema on every pull request that touches .linkml/. It publishes the documentation site only once the repository variable LINKML_DOCS_ENABLED is set to true (on GitHub: Settings, Secrets and variables, Actions, Variables). On Forgejo and Codeberg the sidecar installs a Forgejo workflow instead, and skills/linkml-sidecar/references/automation.md says how to set it up.

Run the scripts without an agent

The two scripts of linkml-sidecar work without an agent. From the host’s root, with this repository cloned beside it:

bash ../linkml-sidecar/skills/linkml-sidecar/templates/scripts/linkml-preflight.sh .
export PROJ_NAME="Acme Platform" PROJ_DESC="One sentence." GITHUB_ORG=acme \
  REPO_URL=https://github.com/acme/platform FULL_NAME="A Person" EMAIL=a.person@acme.example \
  LICENSE_ID=Apache-2.0 SCHEMA_ID=https://w3id.org/acme/platform DOCS_URL=https://acme.github.io/platform/linkml/
bash ../linkml-sidecar/skills/linkml-sidecar/scripts/linkml-scaffold.sh --dry-run
bash ../linkml-sidecar/skills/linkml-sidecar/scripts/linkml-scaffold.sh

Step 0 of linkml-sidecar’s SKILL.md says where each fact comes from, and Step 1 lists the exit codes, --repair and --pointers-only.

What each skill needs

Both skills run from a POSIX shell: on Windows, the bash of Git for Windows. linkml-sidecar starts with a preflight that prints what this machine can do, and which steps are switched off by what it lacks.

• linkml-sidecar needs git, and uv, which runs copier, just and the project’s Python: 3.10 or later, which uv downloads when the machine has none. It needs network access once: the template from github.com and packages from PyPI, or a company copy and mirror of each.
• linkml-author needs the project’s own recipes (just or make), or uv, or the host’s own environment where it already installs linkml.

Behind a company proxy or package mirror, on RHEL, or under WSL2, skills/linkml-sidecar/references/portability.md says what to set. If you cannot act on a line the preflight prints, skills/linkml-sidecar/references/prerequisites.md gives a request note for whoever can.