feat: [gh skill CLI, v2.90.0+] remote skill source connection in Claude.ai desktop customize panel — part of cross-surface remote skill integration (#50148)

Part of the cross-surface gh skill integration proposed in #50148. This issue covers the Claude.ai desktop app specifically.

The surface

The Claude.ai desktop app surfaces skills and commands through the customize panel. This is where most non-developer users discover and manage skills — not through settings.json or a terminal.

What's missing today

Skills in the customize panel are added and managed manually. There is no way to connect the customize panel to a remote GitHub repository and have skills sync from it automatically. For users who maintain a skills repo — or want to use a shared team or community skills repo — there is no path that doesn't require CLI or file management knowledge.

The ask for this surface

A “Connect remote source” option in the customize panel’s skills section that:

• Authenticates with GitHub (OAuth or token) and accepts a repository
• Syncs skills from the repo using the gh skill protocol established in #50148
• Keeps skills current — refreshing on app launch or on demand
• Surfaces synced skills as commands identically to manually-added skills
• Writes to or honors the same skills.sources config read by Claude Code CLI (#50150) and Cowork (issue to follow), so configuring a source in the desktop panel makes it available in those sessions without re-configuration

This is the primary onboarding path for non-developer users — no CLI knowledge required, just connect a repo and go.

Note on mobile

The Claude.ai mobile client does not currently surface skills or commands through a customize panel equivalent, so this request is scoped to desktop only. If mobile gains a skills/commands surface in the future, the same remote source connection model would apply naturally — and the skills.sources config established here would be the backing store for it.

How it connects to other surfaces

Managed sources from enterprise admins (issue to follow) should appear as read-only connected sources in this panel alongside any personal sources the user has added. The full cross-surface picture is in #50148.

References

• Cross-surface parent: #50148
• gh skill announcement: https://github.blog/changelog/2026-04-16-manage-agent-skills-with-github-cli/