The 500k.io skills bank lists 638 Claude, MCP, agent, and Codex skills — and it grows weekly. That number is only useful if you trust how it's curated. This page explains the rules: how a skill gets in, how it's scored, where we look, and what we refuse to do. No black box.
1. Why this bank exists
Solopreneurs lose hours hunting for the right Claude skill, the right MCP server, or the right agent template. Most lists on the internet are either out of date, copied from someone else's GitHub stars, or pumped to sell a course. We curate the bank, rate each entry on real signals, document setup gotchas, and link straight to the source. The goal: turn a 90-minute scavenger hunt into a 5-minute decision.
Every skill page links to the original repository or vendor doc. We don't host the code, we don't middleman the install — we organize, rate, and link.
2. Inclusion criteria
A skill makes it into the bank when it clears all four of these gates:
- Real, public, tested. Vapor-ware, internal-only repos, and unverifiable claims are out. If we can't install it ourselves, it doesn't ship.
- Has a verifiable source. A GitHub repo, an Anthropic-listed skill, or a registry like mcp.so. Personal blogs alone don't qualify.
- Solves a clear founder workflow. Skills that ship "developer infra for developers" sit lower in the priority queue than skills a non-engineering founder can use directly.
- Active in last 12 months — or has documented sustained use. A repo with no commits in 14 months and no users we can find gets archived.
3. How we score popularity (0-100)
Every skill carries a popularity score from 0 to 100. The score is a weighted blend, not a vote. The blend:
- 40% — GitHub stars / community traction where data is available. We use the GitHub API and cap the upper tail so a 50K-star repo doesn't drown out a 5K-star repo that's actively maintained.
- 30% — adoption signals. Whether the skill ships in a known stack list (Anthropic skills page, awesome-mcp-servers, the $500K Stack), whether the install command is one line, whether it has a real README.
- 20% — Maxime's personal use frequency. Daily / weekly / monthly / never. This is the operator-bias correction: a skill that lights up GitHub stars but doesn't survive a real founder workflow gets discounted.
- 10% — recency of last update. A skill updated in the last 90 days scores higher than one untouched for 12 months.
Scores are re-evaluated quarterly, not in real-time. We'd rather show stable scores than chase GitHub-star noise.
4. Sources we monitor
Where we scan, weekly:
- github.com/anthropics — the official Anthropic skills + agent-skills repos.
- awesome-mcp-servers — the community-maintained MCP catalog.
- mcp.so — curated MCP registry.
- Twitter/X tracking on @AnthropicAI and @claudeai announcement threads.
- Skill spotlight requests from the Synapse Circle community.
When sources disagree (e.g., a registry lists a deprecated skill the upstream repo just archived), we trust the upstream repo and flag the registry mismatch in the skill page itself.
5. Update cadence
How the bank stays current:
- Weekly: new skills added via a Mercury-driven cron that ingests the source list above.
- Quarterly: popularity scores re-evaluated across all 638 entries.
- Auto-deprecation rule: any skill with no upstream activity for 18+ months and a popularity score under 40 is automatically
noindexed and labeled "Archived" on its page. The page stays accessible — just out of the index. - Manual review: Maxime hand-checks the top 50 skills by popularity at least once per quarter for accuracy of install command, version, and use case.
6. What we don't do
The negative space matters as much as the positive. We refuse to:
- Pay for placement. No vendor pays to be listed, featured, or boosted in the rankings.
- List skills we can't verify. If we can't install it or read the source, it doesn't ship.
- Fabricate use cases. Use cases are pulled from the README, our own runs, or named operators. We don't invent customer stories.
- Index abandoned or broken skills. See the auto-deprecation rule above. Stale skills stay accessible but leave the search index.
- Inflate the count. Splitting one skill into 4 variants to pump the total is forbidden. One canonical entry per skill.
Our editorial principles are documented in full on the editorial policy page; this section is the skills-specific extension.
7. Submit a skill
Built something worth listing? Found something we missed? Email max@thekreators.ai with the subject "Skill submission" and include:
- The public source URL (GitHub, official doc, or registry).
- One paragraph on what it does specifically.
- One paragraph on the founder workflow it solves.
We review submissions weekly and respond within 7 days — including when the answer is no, with the reason. A dedicated submission form is on the roadmap; the mailto is the canonical path today.
Frequently asked
How often is the skills bank updated?
New skills are added weekly via a Mercury-driven cron that scans the sources we monitor. Popularity scores are re-evaluated quarterly. Skills with no upstream activity for 18+ months and a popularity score under 40 are auto-deprecated (noindexed) so the index stays honest.
Can I pay to get my skill listed or ranked higher?
No. We don't accept payment for placement, ranking, or featured slots. Affiliate links elsewhere on 500k.io are disclosed under our editorial policy, but the skills bank itself is not monetized via paid placement. If a skill is featured, it earned the spot on data, not on a check.
How do I submit a skill for inclusion?
Email max@thekreators.ai with the subject 'Skill submission'. Include the public source URL (GitHub, official docs, or registry), one paragraph on what it does, and one paragraph on the founder workflow it solves. We review submissions weekly and respond within 7 days, including when the answer is no.
See also: editorial policy · corrections · disclosure · browse the skills bank.