karma Download

Internal tool · macOS & Windows

One home for your
team's AI skills.

Karma is a desktop app for creating, sharing, and evolving AI skills — the markdown playbooks your team feeds to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, and friends. Write one, share it, let everyone pull it into their own library — and connect your AI agent straight to it over MCP.

Download Karma See how it works
Available via MCP Connect Claude Desktop, Claude Code & Cursor to your library over MCP
Feeds the agents your team already uses
  • Claude
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • ChatGPT

The basics

What's a "skill"?

A skill is just a markdown file — a reusable instruction set you hand to an AI assistant. A bit of frontmatter at the top (name, description, tags), then the body: the prompt, checklist, or playbook itself.

Need supporting files? A skill can also be a folder — the main SKILL.md plus examples, templates, or reference docs alongside it. Skills can also depend on other skills, so a big playbook composes from smaller ones and you can hand an agent the whole chain at once. Karma keeps a local library on your machine and mirrors it to plain files on disk, so your skills stay portable — and validates each one against Anthropic's Agent Skills format.

code-review-checklist.md
---
name: Code Review Checklist
description: Standardized review criteria
  for pull requests across the team.
tags: [engineering, quality]
---

# Code Review Checklist

Run through this before approving any PR:

- [ ] Tests cover the new behavior
- [ ] No secrets or keys committed
- [ ] Naming matches the surrounding code
- [ ] Edge cases + error paths handled

What you get

Everything your team needs to share knowledge.

Write once, share with the org, and keep the good stuff in sync — without leaving the app.

Connect an agent (MCP)

Point Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor at your local library. One click adds the bundled MCP server — no setup.

Skill dependencies

Chain skills together so big playbooks compose from smaller ones — and hand an agent the whole context at once.

Editor + live preview

Write skills in a clean markdown editor with a full-width preview toggle. Powered by CodeMirror.

My Skills & Org Skills

Your private library, plus everything your org has shared and approved — side by side.

Share & pull

Share a skill with the whole team or a specific group; pull any org skill into your own library to make it yours.

Propose → approve

Propose a skill as an org standard. Admins review it in a queue with a side-by-side diff before it's published.

Agent Skills format

Every skill is checked against Anthropic's Agent Skills spec, with a readable issues popover and one-click fixes.

Tags & folders

Group skills with flat tags and nestable folders — filter the whole library, across scopes, in a click.

Cloud sync & backup

Org skills sync across your devices in real time, and personal skills back up privately — owner-only.

GitHub sync

Approved standards auto-commit to your repo, so the library is versioned and portable.

Export & import

Export any skill as a portable Agent Skill bundle. Drag a file, folder, or multi-skill archive onto the window to import.

Public links

Publish a skill to a shareable link when you need to point someone outside the app at it.

Getting started

How to use Karma

Seven steps from install to connecting your AI agent. The whole loop takes a few minutes.

  1. 1

    Install & open

    Grab the installer below and launch Karma. On first run it seeds a demo org with a few members and skills, so the sharing flows have real data to play with. Create your own org or join one with a 6-character code.

    hi there

    How will you use Karma?

    just for meA personal library — solo. Join a team later.
    start a teamCreate an org and invite teammates — you'll be admin.
    join a teamEnter a join code from your teammate.
  2. 2

    Create your first skill

    Hit ⌘/Ctrl + N, give it a name and description, and start writing in markdown. The live preview (⌘/Ctrl + E) toggles full-width so you see exactly how it'll read. Add supporting files — even in subfolders — to turn it into a folder skill, and copy the whole thing as markdown to paste straight into any agent.

    Code Review ChecklistStandardized review criteria for pull requests.
    4 files copy mdpreviewsaved
    1--- 2name: Code Review Checklist 3tags: [engineering, quality] 4--- 5 6# Code Review Checklist 7 8Run through this before approving: 9 10- [ ] Tests cover new behavior 11- [ ] No secrets committed 12- [ ] Naming matches the code
    Code Review Checklist

    Run through this before approving:

    • Tests cover new behavior
    • No secrets committed
    • Naming matches the code
  3. 3

    Organize with tags & folders

    Tag skills by team or topic and tuck them into folders. The sidebar turns every tag into a one-click filter, so the right skill is always a click away.

    My Skills

    engineeringsalesopssupport

    Code Review Checklist

    shared

    Standardized review criteria for pull requests.

    engineering4 files · 2d

    Incident Runbook

    shared

    Step-by-step triage and escalation for incidents.

    engineering6 files · 1w

    API Design Notes

    shared

    Conventions for endpoints, errors, and versioning.

    engineering1 file · 6d

    PR Description Template

    sharedupdated

    A fill-in-the-blanks template for clear pull requests.

    engineering1 file · 3d
  4. 4

    Share it with your team

    Share a personal skill with the whole org or just a few teammates. It lands in their My Skills, in a “shared with me” section, with your name on it — ready to read, copy, and make their own. (Org Skills stays reserved for approved standards.)

    Shared with me

    in My Skills · 4 from teammates

    Incident Runbook

    shared

    Step-by-step triage and escalation for incidents.

    Dana K12 pulls

    Brand Voice Guide

    shared

    Tone, vocabulary, and do / don't examples.

    Sam J9 pulls

    Discovery Questions

    shared

    Qualifying questions for a first sales call.

    Mara L5 pulls

    Onboarding Buddy

    shared

    What to cover with a new hire in week one.

    Priya R7 pulls
  5. 5

    Pull it into your library

    Found something useful — an approved org standard, or a skill a teammate shared with you? Hit copy to pull it into your own library as an editable copy. Tweak it for how you work — the original stays untouched.

    Org Skills

    approved standards
    Incident Runbook org standardStep-by-step triage and escalation for incidents.ops12 pulls
    Brand Voice Guide org standardTone, vocabulary, and do / don't examples.marketing9 pulls
    Release Checklist org standardSteps and sign-offs before every production release.engineering8 pulls
    Support Tone Guide org standardHow we sound when answering customer questions.support7 pulls
  6. 6

    Propose it as a standard

    When a skill is good enough to be the team's official version, propose it as an org standard. An admin reviews it in the Approvals queue — with a side-by-side diff if one already exists — and approves the final word.

    DKIncident RunbookDana K · 2hupdate
    SJBrand Voice GuideSam J · 1dnew
    An org standard with this name already exists — review the changes below.
    current standardproposed by Dana K+1−1~1
    8## Triage8## Triage
    10- Page the on-call lead10- Page the on-call lead immediately
    11- Check the dashboard
    12- Post status in #incidents
    13- Note the start time13- Note the start time
    rejectrequest changes approve
  7. 7

    Connect an agent

    Open Settings → Connect an agent and hit Add to Claude Desktop. Karma ships a self-contained MCP server, so there's nothing to install. Your agent can now read skills, follow dependency chains, and draft new ones right in your library — and even pull an org standard and propose an edit back for approval. Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex connect the same way.

    Connect an agent

    Drive your local library over MCP — no separate login.

    Claude DesktopOne-click setup
    Claude CodeAuto-detects .mcp.json
    Cursor · Codexstdio · absolute path
    list_skillsget_skillcreate_skillset_dependenciesget_combined_contextpull_skillpropose_skill

Handy shortcuts

⌘/Ctrl + NNew skill
⌘/Ctrl + SSave current skill
⌘/Ctrl + FFocus search
⌘/Ctrl + EToggle live preview
⌘/Ctrl + ⇧ + LToggle grid / list view

You can also drag a .md file or a folder anywhere onto the window to import it.

Get it

Download Karma

Built for macOS and Windows. Pick your platform, then follow the one-time setup note.

Your library lives locally under ~/.karma (macOS) / %USERPROFILE%\.karma (Windows). The MCP server for connecting an agent ships inside the app — nothing extra to install. Karma checks for updates on its own and shows a banner when a new version ships.

Good to know

FAQ

Can an AI agent use my Karma library?

Yes. Karma ships a bundled MCP server — open Settings → Connect an agent and one click adds it to Claude Desktop (Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex connect too). The agent reads your skills, follows dependency chains, and can create or edit skills in your personal library. Org standards stay read-only — an agent can pull a copy and propose an edit, which still goes through admin approval.

What are skill dependencies?

A skill can declare that it depends on other skills, so a larger playbook composes from smaller, reusable pieces. When you (or an agent) need the full context, Karma concatenates a skill with its entire dependency tree in one shot — no copy-pasting.

Does Karma follow Anthropic's Agent Skills format?

It does. Every skill is validated against the Agent Skills spec — slug-style names, required frontmatter, and folder layout. When something's off, a readable popover explains it and offers a one-click fix, and exports are portable Agent Skill bundles.

Where does my data live?

On your machine. A local SQLite database is the source of truth, mirrored to plain files under ~/.karma/. Your skills are yours, on disk, even offline. Org skills sync to the cloud, and personal skills can back up privately (owner-only).

Does it work offline?

Yes — the whole personal library is local. Org sharing and optional GitHub sync use the network when it's available, and queued changes flush automatically once you reconnect.

Who can edit a shared skill?

You own your skills. When you pull a teammate's skill, you get your own editable copy — the original is untouched. Becoming the team's official version goes through propose → admin approval.

What's the difference between “shared” and an “org standard”?

A shared skill is something a teammate has offered — it shows up in your My Skills, in a “shared with me” section, with their name on it. An org standard is the approved, canonical version an admin has signed off on, and it lives in Org Skills (standards only). Standards are what GitHub sync commits.

How do updates work?

Karma pings a small manifest on launch and periodically. A quiet chip in the sidebar lets you know when a new version is out; fall far enough behind and it escalates to a banner with a Download link. There's no silent auto-install, so you're always in control.