ordinary-claude-skills MCP — Use Cases, Install & Live Demo

Why use it

Key features

Low-friction everyday skills — no API keys, no setup beyond git clone
Each sub-skill is a small SKILL.md; easy to read, fork, and modify
Python helpers included for the skills that need computation
Good reference shape if you're authoring your first skill bundle
MIT-licensed, actively maintained

Live Demo

What it looks like in practice

ordinary-claude-skill.replay ▶ ready

0/0

Install

Pick your client

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ordinary-claude-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills",
        "~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config. Restart after saving.

~/.cursor/mcp.json · .cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ordinary-claude-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills",
        "~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Cursor uses the same mcpServers schema as Claude Desktop. Project config wins over global.

VS Code → Cline → MCP Servers → Edit

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ordinary-claude-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills",
        "~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Click the MCP Servers icon in the Cline sidebar, then "Edit Configuration".

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ordinary-claude-skill": {
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills",
        "~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills"
      ],
      "_inferred": true
    }
  }
}

Same shape as Claude Desktop. Restart Windsurf to pick up changes.

~/.continue/config.json

{
  "mcpServers": [
    {
      "name": "ordinary-claude-skill",
      "command": "git",
      "args": [
        "clone",
        "https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills",
        "~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Continue uses an array of server objects rather than a map.

~/.config/zed/settings.json

{
  "context_servers": {
    "ordinary-claude-skill": {
      "command": {
        "path": "git",
        "args": [
          "clone",
          "https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills",
          "~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to context_servers. Zed hot-reloads on save.

claude mcp add ordinary-claude-skill -- git clone https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills ~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills

One-liner. Verify with claude mcp list. Remove with claude mcp remove.

Use Cases

Real-world ways to use ordinary-claude-skills

Use a general-purpose skill bundle as your default toolkit

👤 Anyone starting with Claude Skills who doesn't want to author from scratch ⏱ ~10 min beginner

When to use: You just installed Claude Code and want something useful loaded before you build your own skills.

Prerequisites

Claude Code or any Agent-Skills-compatible client — Install Claude Code from claude.ai

Flow

Clone into the skills directory

git clone https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills ~/.claude/skills/ordinary-claude-skills✓ Copied

→ Directory populated with SKILL.md files
Let the skill auto-activate on matching requests

Ask whatever everyday thing you need — Claude should pick up the right sub-skill when relevant.✓ Copied

→ Claude references the skill name or its patterns
Fork and customize

Copy the sub-skill you like into your own repo and edit SKILL.md to match your workflow.✓ Copied

→ You have a personal skill bundle shaped like this one

Outcome: A working, broadly useful skill bundle installed — with a template you can extend.

Pitfalls

Too many skills active bloats the context window — Remove sub-skills you don't use — each SKILL.md is opt-in by presence

Combine with: filesystem

Use this repo as a template to author your own skills

👤 Developers writing their first SKILL.md ⏱ ~30 min beginner

When to use: You want to ship a skill but don't know the file layout or frontmatter format.

Flow

Read one of the sub-skills

Open ordinary-claude-skills and pick the smallest SKILL.md. Explain its structure.✓ Copied

→ Frontmatter + name + description + body sections called out
Adapt to your domain

Clone the shape but rewrite the description and examples for <your domain>.✓ Copied

→ A new SKILL.md tailored to your topic

Outcome: A first draft of your own skill using a known-good layout.

Pitfalls

Copying the frontmatter but leaving Microck's name/description — Update name and description — Claude uses description to decide when to activate

Combinations

Pair with other MCPs for X10 leverage

ordinary-claude-skill + filesystem

Sub-skills that deal with files need filesystem access to actually edit

Use the formatting skill on every .md file under docs/ and save the results back.✓ Copied

ordinary-claude-skill + skill-optimizer-skill

Run skill-optimizer on this bundle to see which sub-skills are actually firing

Analyze my ordinary-claude-skills dir and tell me which sub-skills have never activated.✓ Copied

Tools

What this MCP exposes

Tool	Inputs	When to call	Cost
general-purpose helpers	varies per sub-skill	Claude auto-selects based on the request	0
skill-authoring template	your domain description	You're about to write your own skill	0

Cost & Limits

What this costs to run

API quota: none
Tokens per call: each active sub-skill adds a few hundred to a few thousand tokens
Monetary: free
Tip: Delete sub-skills you don't use — Claude loads all SKILL.md descriptions on startup

Security

Permissions, secrets, blast radius

Credential storage: none

Data egress: none — local markdown skills

Review each SKILL.md before trusting — this is a community bundle, not a vetted index

Troubleshooting

Common errors and fixes

Skills don't appear to load

Make sure each sub-skill is its own directory under ~/.claude/skills/ with a SKILL.md at the root.

Verify: find ~/.claude/skills -name SKILL.md

Wrong sub-skill activates

Tighten the description frontmatter so it only matches the intended queries.

Alternatives

ordinary-claude-skills vs others

Alternative	When to use it instead	Tradeoff
awesome-claude-skill	You want a curated list rather than an installable bundle	Index vs installable; you still have to pick and clone items
claude-code-skill-factory-skill	You want a generator that writes new skills for you	More opinionated, less 'read and copy'

More

Resources

📖 Read the official README on GitHub

🐙 Browse open issues

🔍 Browse all 400+ MCP servers and Skills