Show HN: OpenSkills: Run Claude Skills Locally Using Any LLM

3 hours ago 1

___ ____ _____ _ _ ____ _ _____ _ _ ____ / _ \| _ \| ____| \ | | / ___|| |/ /_ _| | | | / ___| | | | | |_) | _| | \| | \___ \| ' / | || | | | \___ \ | |_| | __/| |___| |\ | ___) | . \ | || |___| |___ ___) | \___/|_| |_____|_| \_| |____/|_|\_\___|_____|_____|____/

Anthropic recently announced Skills for Claude - reusable folders with instructions, scripts, and resources that make Claude better at specialized tasks. This tool lets you run these skills entirely on your local machine in a sandboxed environment.

What this means: You can now process your files (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, images) using these specialized skills while keeping all data on your Mac. No uploads, complete privacy.

This tool executes AI-generated code in a truly isolated sandboxed environment on your Mac using Apple's native containers.

Watch Open-Skills in action with Gemini CLI:

Privacy: Process sensitive documents, financial data
Full Control: Skills execute in an isolated container with VM-level isolation
Compatibility: Works with Claude Desktop, Gemini CLI, Qwen CLI, or any MCP-compatible tool
Extensibility: Import Anthropic's official skills or create your own custom skills

Prerequisites: Mac with macOS and Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4/M5), Python 3.10+

git clone https://github.com/BandarLabs/open-skills.git cd open-skills chmod +x install.sh sudo ./install.sh

Installation takes ~2 minutes. The MCP server will be available at http://open-skills.local:8222/mcp

Install required packages (use virtualenv and note the python path):

pip install -r examples/requirements.txt

Setup: Connect Your AI Tool

This MCP server works with any MCP-compatible tool. All execution happens locally on your Mac.

Option 1: Claude Desktop Integration

Configure Claude Desktop to use this MCP server:

Copy the example configuration:

cd examples cp claude_desktop/claude_desktop_config.example.json claude_desktop/claude_desktop_config.json
Edit the configuration file and replace the placeholder paths:
- Replace /path/to/your/python with your actual Python path (e.g., /usr/bin/python3 or /opt/homebrew/bin/python3)
- Replace /path/to/open-skills with the actual path to your cloned repository
Example after editing:

{ "mcpServers": { "open-skills": { "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/python3", "args": ["/Users/yourname/open-skills/examples/claude_desktop/mcpproxy.py"] } } }
Update Claude Desktop configuration:
- Open Claude Desktop
- Go to Settings → Developer
- Add the MCP server configuration
- Restart Claude Desktop

Option 2: Gemini CLI Configuration

Edit ~/.gemini/settings.json:

{ "theme": "Default", "selectedAuthType": "oauth-personal", "mcpServers": { "open-skills": { "httpUrl": "http://open-skills.local:8222/mcp" } } }

For system instructions, replace ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md with GEMINI.md

Option 3: Python OpenAI Agents

Use this server with OpenAI's Python agents library:

Set your OpenAI API key:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-openai-api-key-here"
Run the client:

python examples/openai_agents/openai_client.py

Qwen CLI: Configure similar to Gemini CLI
Kiro by Amazon: See examples in this repository for configuration
Any MCP client: Point to http://open-skills.local:8222/mcp

Once configured, you can ask your AI to:

"Create a professional PowerPoint presentation from this markdown outline"
"Extract all tables from these 10 PDFs and combine into one Excel spreadsheet"
"Generate ASCII art logo for my project"
"Fill out this tax form PDF with data from my CSV file"
"Batch process these 100 images: crop to 16:9 and rotate 90 degrees"

You can extend this server with additional skills in two ways:

Option 1: Import Anthropic's Official Skills

Download skills from Anthropic's skills repository and copy to:

~/.open-skills/assets/skills/user/<new-skill-folder>

Available Official Skills:

Microsoft Word (docx)
Microsoft PowerPoint (pptx)
Microsoft Excel (xlsx)
PDF manipulation
Image processing
Slack GIF creator
And more...

Skills Directory Structure

Here's an example with 4 imported skills:

~/.open-skills/assets/skills/ ├── public │ ├── image-crop-rotate │ │ ├── scripts │ │ └── SKILL.md │ └── pdf-text-replace │ ├── scripts │ └── SKILL.md └── user ├── docx │ ├── docx-js.md │ ├── LICENSE.txt │ ├── ooxml │ ├── ooxml.md │ ├── scripts │ └── SKILL.md ├── pptx │ ├── html2pptx.md │ ├── LICENSE.txt │ ├── ooxml │ ├── ooxml.md │ ├── scripts │ └── SKILL.md ├── slack-gif-creator │ ├── core │ ├── LICENSE.txt │ ├── requirements.txt │ ├── SKILL.md │ └── templates └── xlsx ├── LICENSE.txt ├── recalc.py └── SKILL.md

Option 2: Create Your Own Skills

Create a folder matching the structure shown above. The only mandatory file is SKILL.md. See Anthropic's skills documentation for details.

Quick Method: Ask Claude to generate a skill for you:

"Can you write a skill which creates ASCII art of words?"

Claude will create the skill and offer a ZIP download. Place the ZIP file directly in ~/.open-skills/assets/skills/user (no need to expand).

Manual Method: Create your own skill folder structure:

~/.open-skills/assets/skills/user/my-custom-skill/ ├── SKILL.md # Documentation and usage examples ├── scripts/ # Your Python/bash scripts │ └── process.py └── requirements.txt # (optional) Python dependencies

This MCP server provides a compatibility layer that lets you run Claude's skills locally without modification:

Path Translation:

Claude's path: /mnt/user-data → Local path: /app/uploads
Skills designed for Claude work locally without any changes

Accessing Your Local Files:

Place files in ~/.open-skills/assets/outputs on your Mac
They become available to skills inside the container via volume mounts
The mapping is automatic - skills can access your files without cloud upload

Skill Structure:

No changes needed to imported skills
Original folder hierarchy and file organization remain identical
Import Claude skills and use them directly

Live Demo: ASCII Art Skill

Here's a real example using Gemini CLI:

> /mcp Configured MCP servers: 🟢 open-skills - Ready (5 tools) Tools: - execute_python_code - get_skill_file - get_skill_info - list_skills - navigate_and_get_all_visible_text > can you generate ascii art for my project ✦ I will generate the ASCII art you desire. First, I must survey my available skills. ✓ list_skills (open-skills MCP Server) ✦ I have located a relevant skill: ascii-art. I will now retrieve its instructions. ✓ get_skill_info (open-skills MCP Server) {"skill_name":"ascii-art"} ✦ Your ASCII art is ready: ___ ____ _____ _ _ ____ _ _____ _ _ ____ / _ \| _ \| ____| \ | | / ___|| |/ /_ _| | | | / ___| | | | | |_) | _| | \| | \___ \| ' / | || | | | \___ \ | |_| | __/| |___| |\ | ___) | . \ | || |___| |___ ___) | \___/|_| |_____|_| \_| |____/|_|\_\___|_____|_____|____/ Using: 1 GEMINI.md file | 3 MCP servers (ctrl+t to view)

What happened:

AI discovered available skills via list_skills
Found the relevant ascii-art skill
Retrieved skill instructions with get_skill_info
Executed the skill locally in the sandbox
Returned results - all without uploading any data to the cloud

Code runs in an isolated container with VM-level isolation. Your host system and files outside the sandbox remain protected.

From @apple/container:

Each container has the isolation properties of a full VM, using a minimal set of core utilities and dynamic libraries to reduce resource utilization and attack surface.

This MCP server consists of:

Sandbox Container: Isolated execution environment with Jupyter kernel
MCP Server: Handles communication between AI models and the sandbox
Skills System: Pre-packaged tools for common tasks (PDF manipulation, image processing, etc.)

When connected, this server exposes these tools to your AI: