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Installation

Install c4-skills into your target project so your AI agent can discover and use the skills automatically.

Requirements​

# 1. Clone c4-skills somewhere on your machine (one-time setup)
git clone https://github.com/muthub-ai/c4-skills.git ~/tools/c4-skills

# 2. Navigate to your project
cd ~/projects/my-app

# 3. Run the installer from wherever you cloned c4-skills
~/tools/c4-skills/install.sh

The installer automatically detects your agent environment:

  • If .github/ is present → installs to .github/skills/ (GitHub Copilot)
  • Otherwise → installs to .agents/skills/ (emerging standard for Devin, Cursor, Windsurf)

Or use make if you're inside the c4-skills directory:

cd ~/tools/c4-skills
make install

Option B: Manual Install​

Copy the desired skill folders directly into the correct location for your agent.

GitHub Copilot​

cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/c4designer  .github/skills/c4designer
cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/adr-scribe  .github/skills/adr-scribe

Claude Code​

cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/c4designer  .claude/skills/c4designer
cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/adr-scribe  .claude/skills/adr-scribe

Cursor / Devin / Windsurf​

cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/c4designer  .agents/skills/c4designer
cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/adr-scribe  .agents/skills/adr-scribe

Verify the Installation​

After installing, confirm the files are in place:

ls .github/skills/
# c4designer   adr-scribe

Then ask your agent:

What skills are available to you? List the skills you found.

A correctly installed agent should reference c4designer and adr-scribe in its response.

Installing Only One Skill​

If you only need C4 diagrams and not ADRs (or vice versa), just copy the folder you need:

# C4 diagrams only
cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/c4designer  .github/skills/c4designer

# ADRs only
cp -r ~/tools/c4-skills/adr-scribe  .github/skills/adr-scribe
note

adr-scribe recommends (but does not require) c4designer. The two skills work better together — after documenting a decision, adr-scribe will suggest using c4designer to visualize the resulting architecture.