FAQs

Find quick answers to the most common questions about Tessl.

The following lists a set of questions that we have been asked about Tessl in the past. If you have a different question which isn’t answered here, talk to the community on the Discord Server.

Getting Started

How can I install a skill with Tessl?

You can install skills using the Tessl CLI. Search for available skills with tessl search <skill-name> and install them with tessl install <skill-name>. Tessl automatically evaluates skills to ensure they improve agent behavior.

For detailed instructions, see the Quick start guide.

Core Concepts

What is a Tile?

Tiles are Tessl packages, which are bundles of reusable context that capture knowledge you want to use across your team and projects. Common Tile content includes:

• Agent skills

• Usage documentation for libraries, APIs, tools, etc.

• Common, repeatable workflows

• Styleguides

• Policies

• ...

What is the difference between a Tile and a skill?

A Tile is a bundle of agent context. A Tile is a container for context - it's what you install and manage via the package manager.

A skill is one type of context that can be included inside a Tessl package (along with docs and rules).

A helpful analogy is:

• Tessl package/Tile = the npm package

• Skills, docs, rules, commands = different types of files inside that package

Just like npm packages, tiles are versioned and can be updated safely as libraries and dependencies evolve.

For detailed definitions, see our Glossary.

Platform

What agents does Tessl support?

Skills are agent and model-agnostic, allowing teams to maintain consistent behavior across tools without locking into a single ecosystem.

Tessl installs skills to the appropriate agent-specific directory:

• Claude Code: .claude/skills/

• Cursor: .cursor/skills/

• Codex: .codex/skills/

• Gemini: .gemini/skills/

Docs: full support for Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini, and Codex.

See the Supported platforms reference for the most up-to-date list of supported agents.

How does Tessl compare to other marketplaces like skills.sh?

skills.sh is a directory and an easy way to browse and copy individual skills. Tessl is a fully fledged package manager and registry for agent context: you install, version, and update skills as dependencies rather than duplicating them to your codebase.

Comparing the two:

• skills.sh – Browse and copy skills from a catalog; no built-in versioning or dependency management. You manually keep skills in sync.

• Tessl – Install skills with tessl install <skill-name>; skills are versioned, tracked in a manifest, and updates are controlled and repeatable across your team.

Tessl also adds:

• Evaluation – Measure whether skills are structured well and if they improve agent behavior

• Lifecycle managemenet – Ensure skills stay correct and up to date as systems change

So Tessl treats skills as software with a full lifecycle (build, evaluate, distribute, optimize), which helps teams move from ad‑hoc agent usage to long-lived, production systems where agent behavior can be inspected, measured, and reasoned about.

Evaluations

How does Tessl evaluate skills?

Tessl evaluates skills using both task evaluations and conformance reviews:

Task evaluation: Measure whether agents can successfully complete real-world coding tasks when using the skill.

• Creates a representative set of coding tasks that require using the skill

• Runs each task with the agent both with and without the skill installed

• Scores each task using task-specific success criteria

• Compares baseline performance against performance with the skill over all tasks

• Reports improvement as a multiplier (e.g., 2× improvement)

Conformance review: Assess whether the skill conforms to the Agent Skills specification created by Anthropic.

• Validates that the skill conforms to the official specification at agentskills.io/specification

• Checks proper file structure and formatting

• Verifies required frontmatter fields (name, description)

• Ensures the skill follows best practices defined in the specification

How does Tessl generate documentation for libraries?

Tessl is designed to flexibly generate context for coding agents from existing code repositories, by scanning the codebase and compressing the content into context packages. For documentation, we focus this process primarily on the APIs, methods, conventions, patterns, and idioms in the code.

Documentation is continuously evaluated to ensure it helps agents use libraries correctly. As libraries evolve, documentation is version-matched to keep agent behavior aligned with current APIs.

We've populated the Tessl Registry with agent-optimized, evaluated documentation for over 10,000 OSS packages. If the one you're looking for is not available, request it at https://tessl.io/registry/request

How does Tessl evaluate docs?

Tessl evaluates documentation using task-based evaluations that test whether agents can correctly use a library's APIs when they have access to the Tessl-generated docs.

API usage tasks: Creates coding tasks that require proper use of a library's APIs, covering imports, examples, conventions, and common patterns

• Runs each task with the agent both with and without having access to the Tessl documentation via MCP

• Scores each task using task-specific success criteria, which evaluates whether the agent:

  • Uses the correct APIs and methods

  • Follows proper conventions and patterns

  • Avoids common pitfalls and mistakes

  • Produces working, idiomatic code

• Compares baseline performance against performance with the docs over all tasks

• Reports improvement as a multiplier

This checks documentation actually improves agent behavior rather than just adding more context that could make things worse.

In benchmarks, teams using Tessl saw up to 3.3× improvement in correct API usage across open-source libraries.

Publishing & Sharing

How can I publish a skill?

To publish a skill:

• Create an account and workspace on Tessl

• Define visibility (public or private) at the Tessl package level

• Use the Tessl CLI to publish:

  • tessl skill publish - If you have a standalone SKILL.md file (skill-first workflow)

  • tessl tile publish - If you've created a tile structure with tile.json that contains a skill (tile-first workflow)

Published skills are evaluated and versioned, so users can see quality metrics and choose versions that match their dependencies. See Creating skills for a complete tutorial.

Can I share these with my team?

Yes! The Tessl Registry has workspaces which let you share Tessl packages for your own libraries with your team members. Skills and context can be kept private to your workspace or published publicly.

This allows teams to onboard agents the same way they onboard developers: with shared assumptions, behavior, and clear expectations about how internal systems should be used.

Advanced

Does Tessl support monorepos?

Yes! Tessl supports monorepo workflows. You can initialize Tessl at the monorepo root with tessl init, and then run tessl install --project-dependencies from any subfolder to install tiles for that subfolder's dependencies. The command scans dependencies from your current working directory, allowing each subfolder to have its own set of tiles while maintaining a single tessl.json at the root.

Example:

# Initialize Tessl at the monorepo root
tessl init

# Navigate to a subfolder and install its dependencies
cd backend
tessl install --project-dependencies

Support & Help

How can I check if Tessl services are experiencing issues?

Visit the Tessl Status Page to check the current status of all Tessl services, view any ongoing incidents, and see historical uptime data.

For other support options, see Giving feedback.