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Use Pressidium Agent Skills with Pressidium MCP

What Agent Skills are, how they work, and how to install, verify, and use them with Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex.

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Pressidium Agent Skills add reusable workflows to compatible AI assistants connected to Pressidium MCP.

They help your assistant carry out common Pressidium tasks in a consistent way, such as reviewing a website, checking plugin updates and reported vulnerabilities, investigating performance, or preparing for maintenance.

Skills are optional. You can use individual Pressidium MCP tools without installing them.

What are Pressidium Agent Skills?

An Agent Skill is a package of instructions and supporting resources that teaches an AI assistant how to perform a specific workflow.

Pressidium Agent Skills are designed around Pressidium operations. Instead of deciding which MCP tools to call and in what order for every task, the assistant can follow a predefined Pressidium workflow.

For example, the Site Guardian Skill guides the assistant through a website review, while Plugin Auditor focuses on available plugin updates and reported vulnerabilities.

Agent Skills use a format supported by compatible AI assistants such as Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex. Installation and discovery differ between applications, but the Pressidium workflows remain the same.

How Agent Skills work

Compatible AI assistants discover installed Skills from supported Skills directories.

Each Skill includes information describing what it does and when it is relevant. The assistant initially uses this information to determine whether a Skill matches your request.

When a Skill is selected, the assistant loads its full instructions and any supporting resources required for the task. This keeps context usage efficient because every Pressidium workflow does not need to be loaded for every request.

A Skill can be selected in two ways:

  • Automatically: The assistant determines that a Pressidium Skill matches your request.

  • Explicitly: You name or select the Skill you want to use.

For example:

Use the installed Pressidium Site Guardian skill to review my-site in production. Start with inspection only. Summarize the findings and proposed next steps, and ask before taking any action that changes the site.

Pressidium MCP and Agent Skills work together

Pressidium MCP and Agent Skills have different roles.

Pressidium MCP

Pressidium Agent Skills

Connects your AI assistant to Pressidium

Provides reusable workflow instructions

Exposes supported Pressidium tools and data

Guides the assistant in combining those tools for a task

Determines which Pressidium operations are available

Does not add new MCP operations

Uses your Dashboard account permissions

Does not grant additional account access

Required for Pressidium operations

Optional

In simple terms, MCP provides the tools; Agent Skills provide the workflow.

Installing Agent Skills does not connect your assistant to Pressidium MCP. Likewise, a working MCP connection does not mean the Skills package has been installed correctly. Verify them separately.

When to use Pressidium Agent Skills

Use a Pressidium Agent Skill when you want your assistant to follow a repeatable workflow rather than manually requesting individual MCP operations.

Skills are particularly useful when:

  • A task requires information from several Pressidium MCP tools.

  • You want the assistant to follow a consistent review process.

  • You want findings organized around a specific operational goal.

  • You regularly perform the same type of review across different websites.

You do not need a Skill for simple individual requests. For example, you can ask Pressidium MCP directly to list websites, inspect a site's WordPress version, or retrieve available backups.

Prerequisites

Before installing Pressidium Agent Skills:

  1. Connect a supported AI assistant to Pressidium MCP. If you have not connected Pressidium MCP yet, start with Get started with Pressidium MCP.

  2. Verify that the MCP connection can access the expected Pressidium account, team, and websites.

  3. Keep the complete extracted package together where required by your AI assistant.

What's included

The Pressidium Agent Skills beta package contains 38 Skills:

  • 29 building blocks

  • 9 combined workflows

The nine combined workflows provide the main named Pressidium workflows:

Workflow

What to use it for

Site Guardian

Review a website and prioritize areas that need attention.

Backup Guardian

Review available backups before maintenance.

Plugin Auditor

Review available plugin updates and reported vulnerabilities.

Maintenance Advisor

Prepare a website maintenance plan.

Performance Review

Review available performance evidence and explain the findings.

Reliability Engineer

Investigate errors using available logs and activity.

Growth Monitor

Review traffic and usage trends.

Staging Validator

Review available staging evidence before a deployment decision.

Capacity Advisor

Review current usage against available plan limits.

The installed Skill instructions define the exact scope of each workflow.

Install Pressidium Agent Skills in Cursor

Cursor can discover nested Skill folders, so the Pressidium package can keep its existing pressidium/blocks and pressidium/composites structure.

Install the package

  1. Extract the downloaded package.

  2. Locate the extracted pressidium folder.

  3. Copy the entire folder into:

~/.cursor/skills/

On Windows, use .cursor\skills\ under your user profile.

For a project-specific installation, you can instead use:

.cursor/skills/

On macOS or Linux, run the following from the directory containing the extracted pressidium folder:

mkdir -p ~/.cursor/skills cp -R pressidium ~/.cursor/skills/

Verify the installation

In Cursor:

  1. Open Customize.

  2. Go to Skills.

  3. Confirm that the Pressidium Skills are listed.

  4. Confirm that Site Guardian is available.

Cursor can select a relevant Skill automatically. To select one explicitly, type / in Agent chat and search for the Skill name.

If the Skills do not appear, restart Cursor and check the installation path.

Install Pressidium Agent Skills in Claude Code

Claude Code needs each individual Pressidium Skill to be discoverable from its Skills directory.

The installation below keeps the complete Pressidium package in one location and creates symbolic links to the individual Skills.

Store the package

These instructions apply to macOS, Linux, or WSL.

From the directory containing the extracted pressidium folder, run:

mkdir -p ~/pressidium-agent-skills cp -R pressidium ~/pressidium-agent-skills/

The complete package should now be available at:

~/pressidium-agent-skills/pressidium/

Keep this folder in place. The Skill links created in the next step depend on it.

Make the Skills discoverable

Claude Code discovers user Skills from:

~/.claude/skills/

Run:

pressidium_skill_root="$HOME/pressidium-agent-skills/pressidium" pressidium_skill_dest="$HOME/.claude/skills"  mkdir -p "$pressidium_skill_dest"  for pressidium_skill_dir in "$pressidium_skill_root"/blocks/* "$pressidium_skill_root"/composites/*; do   [ -f "$pressidium_skill_dir/SKILL.md" ] || continue    pressidium_skill_link="$pressidium_skill_dest/$(basename "$pressidium_skill_dir")"    if [ -e "$pressidium_skill_link" ] || [ -L "$pressidium_skill_link" ]; then     printf 'Already exists; check before replacing: %s\n' "$pressidium_skill_link"   else     ln -s "$pressidium_skill_dir" "$pressidium_skill_link"   fi done

Verify the installation

  • Restart Claude Code if the Skills do not appear.

  • Confirm that Site Guardian and the other Pressidium Skills are discoverable before trying a named workflow.

You can also explicitly tell Claude Code which workflow to use:

  • Use the installed Pressidium Plugin Auditor skill to review available plugin updates and reported vulnerabilities for my-site in production.

For native Windows, use a client-specific package layout supplied by Pressidium Support, or follow these instructions inside WSL with Claude Code also running there.

Install Pressidium Agent Skills in Codex

Codex also requires the individual Pressidium Skills to be discoverable from its Skills directory.

If you already stored the complete package at:

~/pressidium-agent-skills/pressidium/

you do not need to copy it again.

Otherwise, from the directory containing the extracted pressidium folder, run:

mkdir -p ~/pressidium-agent-skills cp -R pressidium ~/pressidium-agent-skills/

Make the Skills discoverable

Codex discovers user-level Skills from:

~/.agents/skills/

Run:

pressidium_skill_root="$HOME/pressidium-agent-skills/pressidium" pressidium_skill_dest="$HOME/.agents/skills"  mkdir -p "$pressidium_skill_dest"  for pressidium_skill_dir in "$pressidium_skill_root"/blocks/* "$pressidium_skill_root"/composites/*; do   [ -f "$pressidium_skill_dir/SKILL.md" ] || continue    pressidium_skill_link="$pressidium_skill_dest/$(basename "$pressidium_skill_dir")"    if [ -e "$pressidium_skill_link" ] || [ -L "$pressidium_skill_link" ]; then     printf 'Already exists; check before replacing: %s\n' "$pressidium_skill_link"   else     ln -s "$pressidium_skill_dir" "$pressidium_skill_link"   fi done

Keep the original package in place. The symbolic links depend on it.

Verify the installation

  • Restart Codex if newly installed Skills do not appear.

  • In Codex CLI or the IDE extension, confirm that Site Guardian is available in the Skill selector.

Codex can select a Skill automatically when your request matches its purpose. You can also use /skills to inspect available Skills or explicitly select a Skill with $.

If you have many Skills installed, Codex may limit how many Skill descriptions it presents initially. If a Pressidium Skill is not automatically selected, try selecting or naming it explicitly.

For native Windows, use a client-specific package layout supplied by Pressidium Support, or follow these instructions inside WSL with Codex also running there.

Verify a Pressidium Agent Skill

After installation, test one named workflow before relying on the full package.

Start with Site Guardian:

Use the installed Pressidium Site Guardian skill to review my-site in production. Start with inspection only. Summarize the findings and proposed next steps, and ask before taking any action that changes the site.

Replace my-site with a website returned by Pressidium MCP.

Confirm that:

  • The assistant can find and use Site Guardian.

  • It accesses the expected Pressidium website and environment.

  • The information returned matches the site you expect.

  • It distinguishes findings from missing or unavailable information.

  • It asks before performing changes when your request requires approval.

A successful Skill test and a successful MCP connection are separate checks. If the Skill is available but cannot access Pressidium data, verify the MCP connection.

Using Pressidium Agent Skills safely

Agent Skills guide the AI assistant through a workflow, but they do not bypass Pressidium MCP permissions or your AI application's approval controls.

The connected Dashboard account still determines what Pressidium data and operations are available.

  • Keep tool approval enabled for operations that can modify a website, and review the target website, environment, and requested action before approving changes.

  • For an initial review, explicitly request inspection only:

    • Use the Pressidium Performance Review skill for my-site in production.

    • Review the available evidence and explain your findings. Do not start tests or change any settings.

A read-only instruction guides the assistant's behavior, but it does not convert the connected Dashboard account into a technically enforced read-only account.

Common issues and solutions

Problem

What to check

MCP works but no Pressidium Skills appear

Confirm that the Skills package is installed in the correct directory for your AI assistant. Restart the application if required.

Cursor does not show the Skills

Confirm the complete pressidium folder is under the Cursor Skills directory and that the blocks and composites folders remain intact.

Claude Code does not show the Skills

Confirm the individual links exist under ~/.claude/skills/ and still point to the stored Pressidium package.

Codex does not show the Skills

Confirm the individual Skills are discoverable under ~/.agents/skills/ and that the symbolic links still point to the stored package.

Skills disappeared after moving the package

Claude Code and Codex symbolic links depend on the original package location. Restore it or recreate the links using the new path.

A Skill exists but cannot access a website

Verify the Pressidium MCP connection, connected Dashboard account, selected team, and account permissions.

The assistant does not automatically select the expected Skill

Name the Pressidium Skill explicitly in your request or use your application's Skill selector where available.

A newly installed Skill does not appear

Restart the AI application and check its Skill discovery list again.

A Skill requests an unavailable operation

Availability depends on the Pressidium product, environment, account permissions, and operations exposed through MCP.

Need help?

If Pressidium MCP works but the Agent Skills do not, contact Pressidium Support and include:

  • The AI application you are using.

  • Your operating system and whether you are using WSL.

  • Whether Pressidium MCP itself connects successfully.

  • The Skills installation path.

  • The name of a Pressidium Skill that does or does not appear.

  • Any relevant error message.

Do not include your Pressidium Dashboard password, credential environment variables, or other secrets.

Where to go next

After installing and verifying the Skills:

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