---
title: Agent skill
description: Install the pols agent skill so Claude Code and other skill-aware agents know the CLI, its limits and its errors without reading --help.
---

The pols skill is an [Agent Skill](https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/agent-skills/overview): one `SKILL.md` file that teaches an agent the `pols` CLI, the MCP tools, egress policies, ports, the desktop, computer use, quotas and error codes. With it, an agent uses the CLI directly and correctly from the first command, instead of working the commands out from `--help`.

Use the skill when your agent has a shell and should drive `pols` itself; use the [MCP server](/agents/mcp/) when your client prefers tools. They work well together.

## Install

```sh
pols skill install                              # ~/.claude/skills/pols/SKILL.md
pols skill install --dir .claude/skills/pols    # a project, or another agent's skills directory
```

The install script and `pols login` offer to install it when they find Claude Code and run in a terminal. Without the CLI, download the same file from the website:

```sh
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/pols
curl -fsSL https://pols.so/skill/SKILL.md -o ~/.claude/skills/pols/SKILL.md
```

To skip the offer in the install script, set `POLS_NO_SKILL=1` (and `POLS_NO_MCP=1` for the MCP registration), or run it as `sh -s -- --no-skill --no-mcp`.

## Staying current

The skill ships inside the CLI and records the CLI's version in its frontmatter. When a release of the CLI with another version runs, it rewrites `~/.claude/skills/pols/SKILL.md` to match, as a local file write with no network access. Running the install script again refreshes it too. Copies written with `--dir` are not refreshed automatically; run `pols skill install --dir ...` again after updating the CLI.

The pols test suite fails when the skill names a command, flag, size, egress mode or MCP tool that does not exist, or leaves one out, so the skill always describes the CLI it ships with.

## What the agent needs

The skill teaches the CLI, but the agent still needs an API key: run `pols login` once on the machine, or give the agent's environment `POLS_API_KEY`. See [API keys](/account/api-keys/).