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Overview

Android Skills MCP wraps Google's android/skills library so any AI coding assistant can use it without copy and paste. The repository ships two complementary tools that share a common parser and a bundled snapshot of the upstream skills, so both work offline through npx.

You get an MCP server that exposes the skill library to any MCP capable client, and a packager CLI that converts each SKILL.md into the native rules format of every major AI coding assistant.

Two Components

Android Skills MCP consists of two independent, complementary packages. The MCP Server runs in the background and lets any MCP capable client (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, Windsurf) discover and pull skills on demand. You install it once per machine. The Packager CLI writes rules files directly into your project, so you can commit them and review them in pull requests.

Component Purpose When to use
MCP Server The model decides which skill to pull on demand Per machine setup. Best when you do Android work in many repositories.
Packager CLI Skills as static files committed to your repo Per project setup. Best when you want skills versioned alongside the code.

Independence

The two packages are completely independent. You can use either one alone, or both together. The packager works without the server, and the server works without the packager.

Quick Start

MCP Server

claude mcp add android-skills -- npx -y android-skills-mcp

For Cursor, add an entry to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "android-skills": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "android-skills-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Packager CLI

npx android-skills-pack install --target cursor
npx android-skills-pack install --target claude-code
npx android-skills-pack install --target all

Why Use This?

Google's android/skills is the canonical source of step by step guidance for Android tasks (XML to Compose migration, AGP 9 upgrade, R8 keep rule analysis, edge to edge, Navigation 3, Play Billing, and more). It follows the open agentskills.io standard and is the closest thing Android has to authoritative AI guidance.

The challenge is delivery. The repository ships markdown files, not configuration for any specific tool. To use a skill in Claude Code you copy it into .claude/skills/. For Cursor, you reformat it as a .mdc file. For Copilot, you wrap it in .github/instructions/. Each tool has a slightly different layout, frontmatter shape, and scoping model. Multiply that by seven tools and six skills and you have forty two manual transformations to keep in sync.

Android Skills MCP closes this gap. The MCP server keeps the model itself in the loop: when you ask an Android question, the model searches the catalog and pulls the right skill. The packager CLI handles the static file path: one command per tool generates the right layout, the right frontmatter, and the right scoping rules.

What's Inside

Skill Category What it covers
agp-9-upgrade build Upgrading or migrating to Android Gradle Plugin 9
migrate-xml-views-to-jetpack-compose jetpack-compose Step by step XML View to Compose migration
navigation-3 navigation Installing and migrating to Jetpack Navigation 3
r8-analyzer performance Analyzing R8 keep rules to find redundancies and broad patterns
play-billing-library-version-upgrade play Upgrading any legacy Play Billing version to current
edge-to-edge system Migrating a Compose app to adaptive edge to edge support

The list grows as upstream android/skills adds more. Both packages bundle the latest snapshot at publish time.

Trademarks and attribution

Android is a trademark of Google LLC. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC. The skill content bundled here is redistributed from android/skills under the terms of its Apache 2.0 license. See the NOTICE file for complete attribution.

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