ljg-skills

ljg-skills is an open-source skills library created by Li Jigang, a Chinese writer and AI community figure widely nicknamed the "prompt god." It packs more than 20 skills for coding agents like Codex, covering concept dissection, essay writing, classical text reading, presentation casting, and investment analysis. The library went viral on X and Chinese developer communities in mid-2026, praised as the Eastern counterpart to Western skill systems like Matt Pocock's, and can be installed globally in a single command.

Key Features

• One-command install: bunx skills add lijigang/ljg-skills -g -a codex --skill '*' -y installs every skill to ~/.agents/skills/ for Codex.
• Two output formats: The master branch ships Org-mode files for Emacs and Denote users; the md branch ships Markdown for Obsidian, VS Code, and Notion ecosystems.
• 20+ purpose-built skills: ljg-learn for concept dissection, ljg-is for essence extraction, ljg-think for first-principles drilling, ljg-card for visual note cards, ljg-present for high-takahashi slide casting, and more.
• Selective install: Pick individual skills (--skill ljg-card --skill ljg-learn) or list available skills with -l before installing.
• Dependency handling: ljg-card documents its Playwright screenshot dependency so you know exactly what to install after setup.
• Self-publishing workflow: ljg-push syncs local ljg-* skills back to the repository on both branches, keeping the collection self-maintaining.

Use Cases

• Language and writing learners: Use ljg-word for English word dissection and ljg-writes for turning an opinion into a readable Chinese essay.
• Deep readers: ljg-classic formats classical Chinese text with annotations into a long PNG, while ljg-read does three-layer English translation with structure notes.
• Researchers: ljg-paper starts from a concrete case and shows how a paper rewrites its framework, and ljg-qa turns articles, papers, and books into Q-A chains.
• Investors: ljg-invest evaluates whether a project is a "order-creating machine" before you commit capital.

Pricing

ljg-skills is free and open source under the MIT license. There is no paid tier, and the underlying Codex or agent subscription you run the skills with is billed separately by its provider.

Getting Started

1. Install Codex or any agent that supports the skills CLI from Vercel Labs.
2. Run bunx skills add lijigang/ljg-skills -g -a codex --skill '*' -y to install all skills globally.
3. Ask your agent to invoke a skill, for example "use ljg-learn to dissect the concept of attention."
4. For Markdown ecosystems, install from the md branch: bunx skills add lijigang/ljg-skills#md -g -a codex --skill '*' -y.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need Emacs to use ljg-skills?

No. The master branch stores skills in Org-mode, but the md branch provides Markdown versions that work in Obsidian, VS Code, Notion, and most modern tools.

Which agents are supported?

The install examples target Codex (-a codex), but the skills themselves are mostly prompt text and can be adapted to any agent that can load skills or follow a structured prompt.

Are the skills in Chinese only?

Most skill instructions are written in Chinese and optimized for Chinese-language output. Some skills, like ljg-word and ljg-read, explicitly work with English text.

Alternatives

• Claude Skills: Anthropic's official skills mechanism if you work inside Claude Code.
• OpenSkills: An open skills standard for coding agents.
• Superpowers: A structured meta-skill system for Claude Code.

Tips & Best Practices

1. Install selectively first: Run -l to list skills, install the two or three you use daily, then expand.
2. Pair formats with tools: Pick the md branch for Obsidian or VS Code, and the master branch only if you are an Emacs user.
3. Keep skills updated: Re-run the add command after upstream changes, and use ljg-push if you maintain your own fork.