Skill Constellations: Tracing the Supply Chain of Agent Skills on GitHub

Hugging Face Daily Papers Papers
agent-skills software-supply-chain security github ai-agents provenance

Summary

论文首次基于 GitHub 全量 SKILL.md 的 git 历史构建了 AI 代理技能的复制网络，追踪 219 万次技能采用，发现少数仓库是几乎所有复制的源头、安全修复难以传播，并提出基于复制模型的审计排序方法以识别高风险技能仓库。

Agent skills are SKILL.md instructions and scripts that AI coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex run with the permissions of their user. Developers share skills by copying them between repositories, which makes them a software supply chain without a registry, versions or provenance. The origin of a copied skill, the reach of a security fix and the repositories that warrant review are therefore unknown. Studies that record which repositories hold a skill at a single point in time cannot reveal who copied it from whom. We contribute the first dated copy network of agent skills, built from the git history of every SKILL.md in GitSkills and covering 2,193,119 skill adoptions across GitHub, together with an interactive viewer. A few repositories are the source of almost all copies, and GitHub stars do not identify them. Skill copies almost never change with their source, and a fix at the source therefore rarely reaches them. We fit a model of which repositories others copy from and use it to rank repositories for audit. Reviewing the 100 repositories it ranks highest prevents 14.9% of later adoptions of high-risk skills, against 0.5% for the 100 most starred, which gives security engineers a short list to check before a skill spreads. Platforms should therefore distribute versioned references rather than copies. Project Website: https://fahdseddik.github.io/Skill-Constellations/
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Cached at: 10/09/26, 10:23 PM

Paper page - Skill Constellations: Tracing the Supply Chain of Agent Skills on GitHub

Source: https://huggingface.co/papers/2610.11169

Abstract

AgentskillsareSKILL.mdinstructionsandscriptsthatAIcodingagentssuchasClaudeCodeandCodexrunwiththepermissionsoftheiruser.Developersshareskillsbycopyingthembetweenrepositories,whichmakesthemasoftwaresupplychainwithoutaregistry,versionsorprovenance.Theoriginofacopiedskill,thereachofasecurityfixandtherepositoriesthatwarrantreviewarethereforeunknown.Studiesthatrecordwhichrepositoriesholdaskillatasinglepointintimecannotrevealwhocopieditfromwhom.Wecontributethefirstdatedcopynetworkofagentskills,builtfromthegithistoryofeverySKILL.mdinGitSkillsandcovering2,193,119skilladoptionsacrossGitHub,togetherwithaninteractiveviewer.Afewrepositoriesarethesourceofalmostallcopies,andGitHubstarsdonotidentifythem.Skillcopiesalmostneverchangewiththeirsource,andafixatthesourcethereforerarelyreachesthem.Wefitamodelofwhichrepositoriesotherscopyfromanduseittorankrepositoriesforaudit.Reviewingthe100repositoriesitrankshighestprevents14.9%oflateradoptionsofhigh-riskskills,against0.5%forthe100moststarred,whichgivessecurityengineersashortlisttocheckbeforeaskillspreads.Platformsshouldthereforedistributeversionedreferencesratherthancopies.ProjectWebsite:https://fahdseddik.github.io/Skill-Constellations/

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