AIShelf manages AI skills, prompts, rules, and workflows for your team through GitHub-based registries. This guide covers basic workflows, advanced features, and troubleshooting.
Basic Workflows
Browsing Resources
The AIShelf sidebar displays connected registries in a tree view:
- Registries - See all connected repositories
- Packages - Expand to view skills, prompts, rules, and workflows
- Resources - Click any resource to preview its content
Hierarchy: Registry - Package - Resource Type - Individual Files
Copying Resources
- Browse to the resource you want to use
- Click the copy icon next to the resource
- Paste the content wherever your IDE needs it:
- Cursor's
.cursorrulesfile - Windsurf's custom rules
- Cascade workflows
- AI chat prompts
- Cursor's
Syncing Updates
Sync local resources with team changes:
- Click the sync icon on any registry
- AIShelf pulls the latest changes from GitHub
- Your sidebar updates with new or modified resources
Sync daily, after team updates, or before starting important work.
Advanced Features
Creating & Editing Resources
With write access to a registry:
- Create packages: Click the folder icon to add new package categories
- Upload resources: Click the upload icon to add new workflows, rules, or prompts
- Edit resources: Click the edit icon to modify existing resources
Draft System
Work on resources locally before pushing to the registry:
- Click Create Resource or Edit Resource to start a draft
- Edit the file in your IDE
- Click Push to Registry when ready to share with your team
- Click Discard Changes to revert if needed
Compare Versions
Click the compare icon on draft resources to view a diff between local and registry versions.
Managing Multiple Registries
Connect to multiple registries simultaneously:
- Your team's private registry
- Public community registries
- Personal resource collections
Each registry appears in the sidebar with its own tree view.
Organization & Team Collaboration
AIShelf detects permissions based on GitHub repository access:
- Read-only access: Browse and copy resources
- Write access: Create, edit, and upload resources
Permissions
MCP ServerEarly Preview
What is the AIShelf MCP Server?
The AIShelf MCP server lets AI assistants (Cursor, Windsurf, Claude, and others) automatically discover and apply your team's resources - skills, prompts, rules, and workflows - without any manual copy-paste. Once configured, your AI assistant can query AIShelf directly during a conversation.
Setup
Add the following to your IDE's MCP configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"aishelf": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@aishelf/mcp-server"]
}
}
}You can add MCP servers through your IDE's settings interface - look for an MCP section in Cursor or Windsurf settings.
Prerequisite
How It Works
The MCP server exposes two tools to your AI assistant:
- list_resources - returns an index of available resources across your connected registries, with just enough information for the AI to identify what to fetch
- get_resource - fetches the full content of a specific resource by its path
Your AI assistant calls these tools automatically when relevant, so it can find and apply the right workflows, rules, or prompts for your task without you having to look them up manually.
Tip
use aishelf anywhere in your prompt to explicitly tell the model to check AIShelf for relevant resources before responding.Troubleshooting
AIShelf service is not running / extension shows "Offline"
- The AIShelf service must be running before the extension can connect
- Check that it's running:
curl http://localhost:5314/healthshould return{"status":"ok"} - If it's not running, see the installation guide
- If you just installed it, make sure you started it:
docker start aishelf-service(Docker) oraishelf service start(npm)
Registry not showing up after connecting
- Check that you're authenticated with GitHub (click the GitHub icon)
- Verify the repository URL is correct
- Ensure the repository has the required
ai_shelf_registry.jsonfile - Try reloading the VS Code window (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P - "Reload Window")
Can't sync registry
- Check your internet connection
- Verify you have read access to the GitHub repository
- Try disconnecting and reconnecting the registry
- Check the Output panel (View - Output - AIShelf) for detailed error messages
Can't upload or edit resources
- Verify you have write access to the GitHub repository
- Check that you're authenticated with the correct GitHub account
- Ensure the file meets AIShelf's requirements (see Registry Policy)
Extension not loading or crashing
- Check that you're running VS Code version 1.105.0 or higher
- Try disabling other extensions to check for conflicts
- Reload the VS Code window
- Check the Developer Console (Help - Toggle Developer Tools) for errors
- Reinstall the extension if issues persist
Next Steps
Ecosystem Overview
How the service, clients, and registries connect
Service Installation
Install and run the AIShelf service (Docker or npm)
Registry Policy & Security
Registry requirements and security validations
Create Your Own Registry
Set up a registry for your team
MCP Server on npm
Package details, changelog, and full API reference