Skills
See and switch the skills Claude Code and Codex CLI have loaded for a thread, in the Skills dialog.
The Skills dialog shows the skills a thread's CLI has loaded, and lets you switch them on and off. As the dialog says: "The skills this thread's harness has loaded. Every change is made by the harness itself — Claude Code or Codex — never by GitDB Desktop."
Open the Skills dialog
- From a thread's ··· menu, choose Skills…, or
- on a Claude Code thread, type
/skillsin the message box.
Use Refresh at the top of the dialog to read the list again.
When the dialog is available
The Skills dialog works only in threads that work in a local folder. In a GitDB repository thread it says: "This is a GitDB workspace thread. The skills dialog works only in local-workspace threads."
Opening the dialog never starts a CLI, so it also needs the thread's CLI to be running:
| Situation | What the dialog says |
|---|---|
| Claude Code thread with no running session | "This thread has no live Claude Code session, and listing its skills never starts one. Send a message in the thread to start a session, then Refresh." |
| Claude Code older than 2.1.280 | "The skills dialog needs Claude Code 2.1.280 or newer, and this thread's Claude Code is older." — followed by what Claude Code answered |
| Codex CLI isn't running | "The Codex app-server is not running, so no skills can be listed — listing never starts it. Refresh once a Codex session is running." |
No thread yet (typing /skills before your first message) | "There is no thread yet, so there are no skills to list — skills are read from a thread's own harness. Send the first message to start the thread, then open Skills again." |
Claude Code skills
Each skill is listed by its command name (for example /my-skill), with its description and a line showing where it comes from (as Claude Code reports it) and Claude Code's estimate of how many tokens it adds, such as "· 120 tokens".
The button on the right shows the skill's state. Click it to move to the next state; the four states go round in this order:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| On | "Listed for Claude, and yours to invoke" |
| Name only | "Listed for Claude by name only, without its description" |
| User only | "Yours to invoke; Claude does not see it" |
| Off | "Hidden from Claude and from the command list" |
After Off, the next click goes back to On. Only one change is saved at a time; while it saves, the button reads Saving….
Locked skills
Some skills can't be changed from the dialog. Their button is replaced by the state and the word locked — for example "On · locked" — with the reason:
| Reason shown | Why |
|---|---|
| "Set in the skill's own file" | The skill's own file decides its state. |
| "Managed with its plugin" | The skill comes with a plugin. |
| "Set by a higher-priority configuration" | Another configuration or setting overrides it. |
| "Settings can't store an entry with this name; rename the skill's folder or file to configure it" | The skill's name can't be saved in settings. |
Where Claude Code saves your changes
The dialog says: "Changes are saved by Claude Code itself, in this workspace's .claude/settings.local.json."
If Claude Code saves a change but the running session hasn't picked it up yet, the dialog tells you and suggests Refresh.
Codex CLI skills
Each skill shows its name, description and a scope label:
| Scope label | Where the skill comes from |
|---|---|
| Personal | Your own (user) skills |
| the workspace folder's name (or Team) | Skills that belong to the workspace's repository |
| System | Skills Codex reports as system skills |
| Admin installed | Skills Codex reports as installed by an administrator |
Use the switch next to a skill to turn it off or on (Disable skill / Enable skill). A turned-off skill shows a Disabled badge. If Codex couldn't load a skill, the dialog shows the error in red.
Where Codex saves your changes
The dialog says: "Changes are saved by Codex itself, in its config.toml."
Skills in the Codex slash menu
On a Codex CLI thread, typing / in the message box also lists the thread's enabled skills under Skills, each with its scope label. Picking one inserts a link to that skill into your message in place of what you typed — it doesn't send anything. Write the rest of your message and send it as usual.
GitDB Desktop keeps no skill settings of its own — every change is made and stored by the CLI.
MCP servers
GitDB's built-in MCP server, adding your own MCP servers for Claude Code and Codex CLI, secrets, sign-in, Connect & check, and what each status means.
Plugins and marketplaces
Install, enable, update, and uninstall Claude Code and Codex plugins, and manage plugin marketplaces, from the Plugins dialog.