#How to install SkillDB in Claude Desktop in under 60 seconds

The Claude Desktop app added native MCP connector support a few months ago, and it changed the install story for SkillDB completely. There's no JSON config to edit, no command line, no terminal. You open Settings, paste a URL, and your agent is now a specialist across 5,900+ skill domains.

This post is the walkthrough. If you're the kind of person who'd rather just see the URL and figure it out yourself: it's https://mcp.skilldb.dev. Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste → Connect. Done.

If you'd like the explanation that comes with it — what's actually happening, what to expect, what to do if it doesn't work — read on.

#What you need before you start

• Claude Desktop, latest version. The Connectors UI shipped in the spring 2026 release; if you're on an older build, update first.
• A SkillDB account. Free tier is fine. Sign in with Google, GitHub, or email at skilldb.dev/signup — it takes about ten seconds.
• One minute of attention. This isn't an afternoon project.

That's it. No CLI, no Node, no API key fiddling. The connector handles authentication via OAuth on the SkillDB side; you'll click "Sign in" once and never think about it again.

#Step 1: Open Settings → Connectors

Launch Claude Desktop. In the top-left of the window, click your profile picture (or the menu icon, depending on platform), then Settings. In the Settings sidebar, click Connectors.

You'll see a list of installed connectors — probably empty if you've never added one before, or populated with anything you've previously installed. At the bottom of the list, there's a button labelled Add custom connector. Click it.

A dialog appears asking for a Connector URL.

#Step 2: Paste the SkillDB connector URL

In the URL field, paste:

https://mcp.skilldb.dev

That's the entire URL. No path, no query string, no port. The dialog will validate it and show you a preview of what the connector exposes — name ("SkillDB"), a short description, and the list of tools the agent will be granted (skilldb_search, skilldb_get, skilldb_list, skilldb_recommend, and six others — ten in total).

Click Connect.

#Step 3: Sign in and approve

Claude Desktop opens an in-app OAuth window pointed at the SkillDB sign-in page. If you're already signed in to SkillDB in a browser session, the page recognizes you and shows a one-click "Allow Claude Desktop to access your SkillDB account" prompt. If you're not, you'll log in first — Google, GitHub, or email — then approve.

Claude closes the OAuth window automatically once you've approved, and the connector list now shows SkillDB with a green dot beside it. You're done.

#What just happened

Claude Desktop is now talking to a remote MCP server hosted at mcp.skilldb.dev. Every time you start a new conversation, Claude reads the connector's tool schema and adds those tools to its available capabilities. When you ask a question that the model decides would benefit from a SkillDB skill — say, "how do I set up structured logging in a Go service" — Claude calls skilldb_search, gets back a list of matching skills, calls skilldb_get on the most relevant one, and incorporates the skill's content into its response.

You don't have to do any of that explicitly. The model decides. You just see better answers.

#Try it

Start a new conversation in Claude Desktop and ask one of these:

• "Review this Python script for me. Use SkillDB to find a relevant code-review skill first."
• "Help me write a blameless postmortem for last week's outage. Pull in the SkillDB incident-postmortem-skills pack."
• "I'm building an MCP server in TypeScript. What skills does SkillDB have that would help?"
• "Find a SkillDB skill on threat modeling and walk me through it."

Watch the response. You'll see Claude's tool-call indicator fire as it reaches into SkillDB. The first response with a SkillDB-augmented context tends to be noticeably better than the same question asked without — more specific, more concrete, more grounded in actual practice.

#What to do if it doesn't work

"Add custom connector" isn't there. You're on an older Claude Desktop build. Update via your platform's normal update path (Mac App Store, Windows Store, or the in-app updater).

"Connect" succeeds but no green dot appears. Quit Claude Desktop completely and relaunch. Some connector states only finalize after a full restart.

OAuth window closes immediately with no approval prompt. Browser session conflict. Open https://skilldb.dev in your default browser, sign in there, then retry.

Tools appear but every call returns an authentication error. Your SkillDB session has expired. In Settings → Connectors, click the SkillDB row and select "Reconnect."

The model doesn't seem to know SkillDB exists. Sometimes Claude won't reach for new tools without a nudge. Mention SkillDB explicitly in your prompt — "use the SkillDB tools to..." — and once it's used them once or twice in a conversation, it'll keep reaching for them naturally.

#Other agents work too

Claude Desktop is the easiest path, but SkillDB MCP works with any agent that speaks the protocol:

• Claude Code — claude mcp add skilldb -- npx skilldb-mcp from any project root.
• Cursor — Add the JSON config under Settings → MCP. Full snippet on the SkillDB MCP page.
• OpenClaw — npx skilldb init detects OpenClaw and writes the AGENTS.md integration automatically.
• Hermes — hermes config mcp.add skilldb https://mcp.skilldb.dev.
• NemoClaw — Tools panel → Add MCP → paste the URL.

The /mcp page has tabs for each agent with the exact commands.

#What you get for free

The free tier of SkillDB covers most agents. You can search, browse, and read full skill content up to 50 calls per day. That's enough for an individual developer using SkillDB intermittently.

If you start hitting the limit — typically because you're using SkillDB on every PR, or you've automated it into a CI workflow — the Pro plan is $9/month for 10,000 calls/month. Studio is $29/month for 50,000 calls plus the ability to author your own private skills via skilldb_create_skill. There's no credit card required to get started; you only enter payment info if you decide to upgrade.

#What's actually inside

The SkillDB catalog as of this writing: 5,912 skills across 404 packs and 38 categories. A short tour:

• Software engineering: code review, security practices, system design, performance optimization, debugging strategies
• Incident response: blameless postmortems, severity classification, runbooks, customer communication during incidents
• DevSecOps: SAST/DAST integration, supply chain security, threat modeling, security as code
• AI/agent engineering: prompt injection defense, multi-agent orchestration, agent memory architecture, browser automation for agents
• DevRel content: tutorial writing, conference talks, blog posts, OSS community management
• Creative work: author archetypes, screenwriter styles, director archetypes, cinematographer archetypes — the work-process kind, not name-of-person kind
• Domain expertise: grant writing, healthcare informatics, legal contract review, financial analysis

Each skill is 200 to 500 lines of focused markdown — short enough to fit in context, long enough to actually change the agent's output.

#The big picture

MCP is the most important protocol shift in agent tooling since structured outputs. The connector pattern means agents can be extended by anyone, with anything, without forking the model or rewriting the client. SkillDB's bet is that the most valuable thing to extend an agent with is expert knowledge — not just tool access, but the accumulated wisdom of practitioners across thousands of domains.

You install it once. The agent uses it forever. Every conversation gets better.

Go install it. Three clicks.

→ https://skilldb.dev/mcp