AI Skills Manager (corvus)

Manage Ravn AI Toolkit skills using the corvus CLI. Install, update, remove, and configure skills for any project without needing Bash knowledge.

Prerequisites

Check if corvus is installed:

corvus --version

If not installed, run the bootstrap installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ravnhq/ai-toolkit/main/install.sh | bash

After installation, restart the shell or source ~/.zshrc.

Workflow

1. Browse Available Skills

List all skills grouped by category:

corvus list

Search by keyword:

corvus search <keyword>

Preview a specific skill's details, rules, and dependencies:

corvus info <skill-name>

2. Install Skills

Interactive mode (recommended for first-time users) — launches a picker UI:

corvus

Direct install to the current project:

corvus install <skill-name> [<skill-name> ...]

Target flags — install to a specific tool's rules directory:

Flag	Target
--claude	.claude/rules (project)
--cursor	.cursor/rules (project)
--codex	.codex/rules (project)
--global-claude	~/.claude/rules (global)
--global-cursor	~/.cursor/rules (global)
--global-codex	~/.codex/rules (global)

corvus install --claude tech-react
corvus install --codex lang-typescript
corvus install --global-claude core-coding-standards

Recipe install — predefined skill sets for common stacks:

corvus install --recipe fullstack-ts
corvus install --recipe ios-swift
corvus install --recipe backend-api

Dependencies are resolved automatically. Use --no-deps to skip.

3. Update Skills

Pull latest toolkit and update all installed skills:

corvus update

corvus auto-checks for updates every 7 days and prompts when new versions are available.

4. Manage Installed Skills

Check installed versions vs latest:

corvus status

Remove a skill:

corvus remove <skill-name>
corvus remove --global <skill-name>

5. Team Collaboration

The .corvusrc file in the project root tracks installed skills and can be committed to git. Teammates can sync all project skills with:

corvus sync

6. Health Check

Run diagnostics to verify installation, dependencies, and configuration:

corvus doctor

7. Shell Completions

Print setup instructions for your shell:

corvus completions          # auto-detect shell
corvus completions --shell zsh
corvus completions --shell bash
corvus completions --shell fish

Follow the printed instructions to add completions to your shell config. For fish, the output will guide you to create a completions file at ~/.config/fish/completions/corvus.fish.

Configuration

Global Config (~/.corvus/config)

Key	Default	Description
update_check	7	Days between auto-update checks (0 = disabled)
auto_deps	true	Automatically install dependency skills
global_skills	(empty)	Comma-separated list of global skills with versions

Project Config (.corvusrc)

Key	Description
install_dir	Where skills are copied (e.g., .cursor/rules)
skills	Comma-separated list of installed skills with versions

Skill Scoping

Global skills apply to every project. Set personal defaults:

corvus install --global core-coding-standards lang-typescript

Project skills are project-specific additions. Stored in .corvusrc:

corvus install tech-react tech-drizzle

Both layers merge at runtime. Project versions take priority on conflicts.

Available Recipes

Recipe	Skills
fullstack-ts	lang-typescript, tech-react, tech-trpc, tech-drizzle, tech-vitest, design-frontend
ios-swift	swift-concurrency, liquid-glass-ios
backend-api	lang-typescript, tech-trpc, tech-drizzle, platform-testing

Maintaining corvus

Use this section when making changes to the corvus CLI itself (TypeScript source in cli-ts/).

Version Locations

Both must be kept in sync on every release:

File	Field
cli-ts/src/core/paths.ts	CORVUS_VERSION constant
cli-ts/package.json	"version" field

Workflow for Every corvus Change

1. Make the code changes in cli-ts/src/.
2. Run tests: cd cli-ts && npm test
3. Read the current version from cli-ts/src/core/paths.ts, propose the next version to the user (increment build number), and wait for approval:

   "Current version is 0.1.0. Proposed next version: 0.1.1. Approve?"

4. Update CORVUS_VERSION in paths.ts and "version" in package.json atomically.
5. Bump the skill version: ruby scripts/skill_version.rb skills/assistant/agent-skills-manager/SKILL.md build
6. Commit, push to fork, update PR.

Examples

Positive Trigger

User: "Install AI skills for my React + tRPC + Drizzle project"

Expected behavior: Run corvus install --recipe fullstack-ts in the project directory. This installs all 6 skills with their dependencies resolved automatically.

Non-Trigger

User: "Fix the TypeScript error in my API handler"

Expected behavior: Do not use this skill. Choose a more relevant skill like lang-typescript or tech-trpc.

Troubleshooting

corvus Command Not Found

• Error: corvus: command not found after installation.
• Cause: ~/.local/bin is not in PATH, or shell was not restarted.
• Solution: Run source ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc) or restart the terminal. If still missing, add export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" to your shell config.

Skills Not Installing

• Error: Registry not found when running install.
• Cause: The local toolkit cache is missing or corrupted.
• Solution: Run corvus update to re-pull the repository cache at ~/.corvus/repo/.

Outdated Skills After Update

• Error: corvus status shows skills behind latest but update reports all up to date.
• Cause: The .corvusrc version numbers may be stale.
• Solution: Run corvus remove <skill> then corvus install <skill> to force a fresh install.