Install Katana Skills¶

Katana Skills teach AI agents how to interact with DeFi on Katana Network. Unlike the MCP server which gives agents access to hosted tools, skills are reference guides that live alongside your code. They teach your agent about contract addresses, function signatures, workflows, safety rules, and common mistakes so it can build and reason about on-chain operations directly.

Skills work with any agent framework that talks to EVM chains: Claude Code, OpenClaw, LangChain, CrewAI, or your own stack.

What Are Skills?¶

Each skill is a structured markdown file (SKILL.md) that covers a specific area of Katana DeFi. When your agent loads a skill, it gains the knowledge it needs to work with that protocol. No API keys, no server, no dependencies.

Skill	What It Covers
wallet-manager	Balances, transfers, approvals, wrap/unwrap ETH
dex	Token swaps, quotes, pool analysis, LP provision on SushiSwap
lending	Morpho markets, vaults, positions, leverage loops
merkl	Reward discovery, yield farming, claiming Merkl rewards
analytics	Token prices, gas costs, transaction lookup, contract reference
perps	Perpetual futures, market data, orders, positions, withdrawals
kat	KAT staking (vKAT), auto-compounding vault (avKAT), gauge voting

Prerequisites¶

Node.js version 22 or higher — download from nodejs.org

Verify your install:

node --version

The version must be >= 22.0.0.

Install All Skills¶

One command installs every skill in the collection:

npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills

This downloads the full Katana Skills Hub into your project. Your agent will automatically pick up the skills it needs based on what you ask it to do.

Choose Your Setup¶

Pick the section below that matches the tool you’re using:

Claude Code (CLI)
Claude Code (VS Code & JetBrains)
Claude Code — Manual Install
OpenClaw
LangChain / CrewAI / Custom Frameworks

Claude Code (CLI)¶

Install via the skills command¶

Run this from your project directory:

npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills

This creates a skills/ folder in your project with all Katana skills. Claude Code will automatically detect and use them when relevant to your prompts.

Verify the installation¶

Ask Claude Code something that would activate a skill:

“What are the current KAT token prices?” (activates analytics)
“How do I swap WETH for KAT on SushiSwap?” (activates dex)
“Show me the Morpho lending markets on Katana” (activates lending)

If the skills are loaded correctly, Claude will reference the contract addresses, function signatures, and workflows from the skill files in its response.

Management¶

# View installed skills
ls skills/

# Update to the latest version
npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills

# Remove a specific skill
rm -rf skills/dex

# Remove all Katana skills
rm -rf skills/

Claude Code (VS Code & JetBrains)¶

Claude Code extensions use the same skills directory as the CLI. Open a terminal in your IDE and run:

npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills

The skills will be available in the Claude Code sidebar panel. Any skill installed via the CLI is automatically picked up by the extension.

VS Code: Install the “Claude Code” extension from the VS Code Marketplace.

JetBrains: Install the Claude Code plugin from the JetBrains Marketplace.

Claude Code — Manual Install¶

If you prefer not to use the npx skills command, you can download the skill files directly and add them to your project by hand.

1. Download the skills¶

Go to the Katana Skills Hub repository and click Code > Download ZIP. Extract the ZIP file somewhere on your machine.

2. Copy the skills folder¶

Inside the extracted folder you’ll find a skills/ directory containing all the skill folders. Copy the entire skills/ folder into your project root:

your-project/
├── skills/
│   ├── analytics/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   ├── dex/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   ├── kat/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   ├── lending/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   ├── merkl/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   ├── perps/
│   │   └── SKILL.md
│   └── wallet-manager/
│       └── SKILL.md
└── ... your other project files

You can also pick and choose — only copy the skill folders you need.

3. Verify in Claude Code¶

Open Claude Code in the same project directory. The skills will be automatically detected. Test it by asking something like “How do I swap tokens on Katana?” and Claude should reference the skill content in its response.

Note

To update manually installed skills, download the latest ZIP from the repository and replace the files in your skills/ folder.

OpenClaw¶

OpenClaw supports the same skills format natively. From your project directory:

npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills

OpenClaw will automatically discover the skills in the skills/ folder and activate them based on user prompts.

LangChain / CrewAI / Custom Frameworks¶

Skills are plain markdown files — any framework can read and use them. After installing:

npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills

Each skill lives in its own folder under skills/ with a SKILL.md file. You can load these files into your agent’s context however your framework handles system prompts or reference documents.

Example: Loading a skill into your agent’s context¶

# Read a skill file and include it in your agent's system prompt
with open("skills/dex/SKILL.md", "r") as f:
    dex_skill = f.read()

system_prompt = f"""
You are a DeFi assistant for Katana Network.

{dex_skill}
"""

// Read a skill file in Node.js
import { readFileSync } from "fs";

const dexSkill = readFileSync("skills/dex/SKILL.md", "utf-8");

const systemPrompt = `
You are a DeFi assistant for Katana Network.

${dexSkill}
`;

Each SKILL.md includes YAML frontmatter with a name and description field that you can use to decide which skills to load based on the user’s request.

What Each Skill Teaches Your Agent¶

Wallet-Manager¶

Covers core wallet operations on Katana: checking ETH and token balances, transferring tokens, wrapping and unwrapping ETH (which on Katana produces yield-generating vbETH), and managing ERC-20 approvals. Includes known token addresses and decimals for all major tokens on the network.

Dex¶

Everything your agent needs to work with SushiSwap on Katana — V3 concentrated liquidity and V2 full-range pools. Covers token swaps, getting trade quotes, analyzing pool liquidity, and providing LP positions. Includes fee tiers, tick spacing, and all relevant contract addresses.

Lending¶

Teaches your agent about Morpho Blue on Katana — direct lending markets, MetaMorpho vaults, position management, and leveraged looping strategies. Includes market parameters, health factor calculations, and safety thresholds.

Merkl¶

Covers the Merkl reward distribution system on Katana. Your agent learns how to discover incentivized DeFi opportunities, check reward accruals, and build claim transactions. Includes campaign types, reward timing, and the Distributor contract.

Analytics¶

Read-only market data and chain utilities — token prices, gas estimation, transaction debugging, and contract reference lookups. A good starting point for building dashboards or monitoring tools.

Perps¶

Perpetual futures trading on Katana Perps — a non-custodial, cross-margined exchange with a central limit order book. Covers market data, funding rates, order placement, position management, and withdrawals. Includes up to 50x leverage across available markets.

KAT¶

The KAT token ecosystem — staking KAT to receive vKAT (non-transferable governance NFTs), depositing into the avKAT auto-compounding vault, gauge voting for reward allocation, and exit mechanics including cooldown periods and fees.

Skills vs MCP Server¶

Both give your agent access to Katana DeFi, but they work differently:

	Skills	MCP Server
What it is	Reference docs your agent reads	Hosted tools your agent calls
How it works	Agent builds transactions using contract knowledge	Agent calls pre-built tools via API
Requires	Node.js 22+ (for install only)	Nothing (hosted at `mcp.katana.network`)
Best for	Building custom integrations, deep protocol knowledge	Quick queries, market data, prototyping
Framework support	Any agent framework	MCP-compatible clients

You can use both together, the MCP server for quick data queries and skills for building more complex on-chain interactions.

Troubleshooting¶

“npx skills” command not found: Make sure Node.js 22+ is installed. Run node --version to check.

Skills not activating in Claude Code: Make sure the skills/ folder is in your project root (the same directory you run Claude Code from). Try asking a specific question like “How do I swap tokens on Katana?” to trigger skill activation.

Permission errors on install: On macOS/Linux, you may need to check folder permissions. Make sure you have write access to your project directory.

Outdated skills: Re-run npx skills add https://github.com/katana-network/katana-skills to pull the latest version.