How to sell AI agent skills
Agent Skills are SKILL.md folders that teach Claude Code, Cursor, and similar agents to do one job well. If you've written one that reliably saves you time, other people may pay for it. This guide covers what makes a skill sellable, how to package it, how to price it, and where to sell it, including Skillvize's terms.
1. Pick a job people repeat
Skills that sell solve a recurring, specific task where the payoff is obvious. "A code review that always checks edge cases and names the one blocking issue" is a product. "Be a better coder" isn't.
Good signals:
- You've pasted the same instructions into chat more than a few times.
- The task has clear steps and a clear output: a review, a brief, an email, a checklist.
- You bring domain knowledge a generic model doesn't have, like your industry, your stack, or your process.
2. Package it properly
A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file (format explained here):
name: lowercase with hyphens, matching the folder name.description: what it does and when to use it. This is what the agent reads to decide whether to load the skill, so include the words a user would actually type.- Body: numbered steps, the output format, and one worked example. Keep it focused. Move long reference material into a
references/file. - Optional:
scripts/for anything deterministic, andassets/for templates.
Test it in a fresh session, in each tool you claim to support (Claude Code and Cursor at least). Check that it triggers when it should and that the output matches the example.
3. Show buyers what they're getting
People are buying something they can't easily try first, so reduce the guesswork:
- A one-line description of the outcome
- An example input and a real example output
- The list of steps the skill follows
- Which tools it works in
Don't inflate anything. Fake reviews or usage numbers destroy trust quickly in a small community.
4. Price it
There's no established price norm for skills yet. Practical approaches:
- Free for simple, general skills. They build an audience and credibility.
- Paid for skills that encode real expertise or replace hours of work, especially niche or professional ones.
- Start lower and adjust. It's easier to raise a price than to win back buyers who felt overcharged.
5. Choose where to sell
- Your own site or a general store (Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, and similar). Full control, but you bring all the traffic and handle delivery yourself.
- A public GitHub repo. Good for free skills and discovery. Directories like SkillsMP index public repos that contain SKILL.md files.
- A skills marketplace like Skillvize, built specifically for SKILL.md skills.
Selling on Skillvize
- Free to list. No listing fee.
- Set your own price, up to $100 per skill, or make it free.
- Keep 85% of each sale. Keep 95% on sales that come through your own storefront link (
www.skillvize.com/@yourhandle). - Payouts via Stripe Connect.
- Each skill page shows the description, the steps, and an example, and buyers download it as a SKILL.md folder for Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex.
To be upfront: Skillvize is early. The catalog is 37 skills, mostly written by the Skillvize Team, and we're actively inviting creators. If you want to be one of the first, see the current catalog and browse creators.
6. Drive your own traffic
Wherever you sell, the buyers who convert best usually come from you: a post showing the skill working, a short demo, or a free "lite" version that links to the full one. On Skillvize, sharing your storefront link is also the cheaper route for you (95% vs 85%).