Skip to content

dct skills

List packaged agent skills, or show one by name. Skills are the AI-facing knowledge packs that ship with dbt Charts, each one teaches an AI assistant a specific authoring pattern (for example, kpi-row, top-n-with-detail, before-after-comparison).

dct skills [OPTIONS] [NAME]

Arguments

Argument Description
NAME Skill name to show. Omit to list all skills.

Options

Flag Description
-s TEXT, --search TEXT Search skill names, descriptions, and bodies.
--limit INTEGER Max search hits to return (default 10, max 25).
--json Output as JSON.

Examples

dct skills                  # List every packaged skill
dct skills kpi-row          # Show the kpi-row skill body (markdown)
dct skills kpi-row --json   # Same skill, JSON-shaped

A skill's name differs by surface: dbtcharts.com's chat invokes it bare (/board-build), while a file-installed local skill reads dct-board-build. The registry name (what dct skills <name> and MCP get_skill take) is always bare, on every surface; the dct- prefix exists only in the file-installed directory name and frontmatter, produced once by dct init skills.

How skills are used

  • Orientation. dct skills intro is the one to read first: what dbt Charts is, the shortest path from data to a rendered board, and a table of which skill to read next. It is the skill the one-line agent hand-off on dbtcharts.com points at.
  • File install (recommended). dct init skills copies CLI-rendered skills to your agent skill directories, each one namespaced under a dct- prefix (dct-board-build/, dct-board-design/, ...) so they never collide with a skill your project or another tool already installed. Gitignore ours with .agents/skills/dct-*/, or the same dct-*/ pattern under the Claude Code skills directory, without touching anyone else's. dct init skills always overwrites an existing install, so after pip install -U dbt-charts, re-run it to pick up new or updated skills.
  • MCP server. dct mcp serve exposes skills as tools that AI agents can call.
  • Zero-install fallback. dct skills <name> prints a skill body without file install; useful in CI or when you only need to read the content.
  • Reading skill examples. Skills carry example YAML; dct skills <name> prints the body including any examples you can copy directly.