CookiesForAI

Agent skill and AI tool directories compared, October 2026

By Cookie Agents · Updated · First published · How we check

The directories AI assistants cited most in our 2026-10-01 tests were small skill directories for agent-skill questions (LobeHub in 5 runs, MCP Market in 4, agentmods and skills.rest in 3 each across six engines; skills.lc in 6 and MCP Market in 4 Claude answers) and There's An AI For That for "best AI tools directory" (named first on 6 of 6 engines, and in 27 of 27 Claude search runs, with Futurepedia also in 27). CookiesForAI is itself a directory of agent skills, MCP servers and AI coding tools, so it is not in this comparison.

How to read the tables

Every site figure below was read on the directory's own pages on 2026-10-01, unless the cell names another source. "Our count" means we counted the URLs in the site's sitemap. A size a site states about itself is its own claim. The citation column comes from two studies run the same day: six AI assistants, 110 runs and three Claude models, 93 runs. "Runs" counts answers where the directory was a source that decided the answer; "Claude answers" counts links in the answer body, not the appended Sources list.

Agent skill directories

Directory Size as stated (2026-10-01) What an item page shows How to get listed, paid options Agent extras Cited in our tests
LobeHub "334,144 Skills" on the index; its llms.txt said 361,306+ the same day Version, author, date, category, license, installs, stars, a generated summary, the full SKILL.md Publish a SKILL.md bundle from a GitHub repo; no price seen; publish flow not verified llms.txt and llms-full.txt, Markdown on request (Accept: text/markdown), OpenAPI file, a WebMCP endpoint named in llms.txt 5 runs; 2 Claude answers
MCP Market Claims 200K+ agent skills and 35K+ MCP servers (not verified); 75 skill sitemaps Author, GitHub stars, one-line description, key features, use cases, install, security scan tab, FAQ GitHub repo URL: free queue "Avg. 4 to 6 week listing time", or a one-time paid fee for listing within 24 hours and an "Official" badge llms.txt, Markdown copies of hub pages (item pages return 404); robots.txt blocks ClaudeBot and other named bots 4 runs; 4 Claude answers
agentmods "604,842" skills, agents, commands, MCP servers and rules; about 3,000 item URLs in its sitemap (our count) Token cost per session, security grade with findings, original or copy, license, stars, install command for each agent, the SKILL.md Crawled from GitHub; no submit form and no prices seen llms.txt with a list of questions mapped to pages, JSON API, CLI 3 runs
skills.rest "754,000+" skills Author badge, updated date, tags, install command, a ready-to-paste install prompt for agents, FAQ Free: paste a GitHub repo or folder URL, "screened and indexed within 24 hours" llms.txt (it says 113,000+), a search API wrapped in an installable skill 3 runs
Skills Directory llms.txt: 577,470 indexed skills; its pricing page says 100,000+ Security grade A to F with scan date, stars, agents it works with, install command, the full SKILL.md Free submit with an automated security scan; paid monthly sponsor slots, 3 at most; Pro tier llms.txt, JSON API, badge endpoint, pricing page in Markdown 2 runs
skills.sh No total on the site; about 20,000 skill URLs in its sitemap (our count); AgenticSkills read 1,367,794 on 2026-09-04 Install command, generated summary, installs, GitHub stars, first-seen date, three third-party security audits No form; its docs say a skill appears after real installs through the skills CLI; exact mechanism not verified No llms.txt; the CLI (npx skills add, npx skills find) No count in our studies
SkillsLLM "5453 found" on the index; its llms.txt says 1,600+ Stars, forks, language, git clone install, security report with scan date, compare links, README, FAQ Submit with GitHub sign-in (form not verified); self-service Featured placements "currently unavailable" llms.txt, daily news page Among the deciding sources in the six-engine study; runs not tallied
AgenticSkills "194+ skills indexed, 193 MCP servers" (header dated 2026-09-29) Editorial rank, author, platforms, stars, last update, install by CLI or by direct download Free form, "Listing is selective"; paid featured partner, sponsored workflow and launch campaign packages None found (no llms.txt) Among the six-engine sources; runs not tallied
skills.lc "706,757 skills with 274,899,527 total installs" Content loads by JavaScript; the first HTML response holds only navigation and footer Not checked /llms.txt returns an HTML page 6 Claude answers

AI tool directories

Directory Size as stated (2026-10-01) What an item page shows How to get listed, paid options Agent extras Named in our tests
There's An AI For That (TAAFT) "Used by 90M+ humans" (a user claim, not a tool count) Not verified: item pages returned HTTP 403 Paid tiers according to AIToolsRecap; not verified on the site No llms.txt; robots.txt disallows GPTBot, ClaudeBot and other AI bots First in run 1 on 6 of 6 engines; top three in 14 of 18 first runs of three directory questions; 27 of 27 Claude search runs
Futurepedia 1,332 tool URLs in its tool sitemap (our count) Rating, related categories, alternatives, advertiser disclosure, overview, key features, pros, cons A paid yearly listing according to AIToolsRecap; not verified on the site No llms.txt Top three in 15 of 18; 27 of 27 Claude search runs
Toolify "Over 30900+ AI Websites and AI Tools" Not verified: item pages returned HTTP 403 A paid express listing according to AIToolsRecap; not verified No llms.txt; its sitemap now includes OpenClaw skill pages Top three in 9 of 18, including 6 of 6 for "widest range of categories"
AITopTools 11,189 tool URLs in its sitemap (our count) Starting price, pricing model, user reviews, claim and report-inaccuracy links, similar tools Claim a listing; "placement packages", prices not shown No llms.txt Top three in 3 of 18, all on the user-reviews question
ToolDirectory.ai "2,840+ AI tools across 45 categories" Rating with review count, FAQ with prices, dated editorial review with reviewer name, live or retired status, similar tools Featured partner slots, price not verified; submission rules not read llms.txt, per-category text files, JSON feeds, a read-only MCP server listed in the official MCP Registry 8 of 9 Claude runs on "widest range of categories"; other engines named it only after a follow-up question
AIChief "649+ categories" on the home page Not verified "Submit your tool"; prices not verified Not verified Top three in 2 of 18; engines quoted it at 611+ and at 180+ categories

"Top three in N of 18" counts the first three names in run 1 of three questions (best directory, directory with user reviews, widest range of categories) on six engines. These are names in the answer, not links.

What the cited directories have in common

The cited skill directories share a page shape more than a size, according to our teardown of their pages on 2026-10-01:

  • Server-rendered item pages. The full SKILL.md or description is in the first HTML response on 8 of 9 skill directories and all 5 tool directories we could fetch. skills.lc is the one exception.
  • Crawling allowed. All allow crawling of item pages. MCP Market blocks Claude's crawlers by name and was still linked in 4 Claude answers, which suggests Claude reached it through search results rather than its own crawler.
  • One install line. All 9 skill directories put a copyable install command on the item page.
  • Numbers on the page. Counts, grades, token costs, stars and installs appear in titles, on pages and in structured data.
  • Structured data. 7 of 9 skill directories mark item pages as SoftwareApplication, and 8 of 9 add a BreadcrumbList.
  • Size did not decide. AgenticSkills lists 194 skills, ToolDirectory.ai about 2,840 tools, and agentmods submits about 3,000 item URLs; all three were used in answers.
  • Free to list. 6 of 9 skill directories list for free from a GitHub URL. Money comes from labelled sponsor slots or a one-time speed-up fee.
  • Pages about directories. AgenticSkills, ToolDirectory.ai and Skills Directory each publish a dated page comparing directories.

How AI engines used them

For agent-skill questions, the engines searched and the answer followed whichever skill directory page ranked for the skill's task words. All 18 Claude search runs on little-known skills used web search, and 13 of 18 answers linked a third-party skill directory. Across two Claude tests, Claude opened a page in 55 of 489 cases where a domain was cited, so the title and first lines of a directory page carried most of the weight.

For "best AI tools directory", the leaders were named from memory. TAAFT appeared in 9 of 9 Claude runs with no search, and its robots.txt blocks GPTBot and ClaudeBot. A precise attribute in the question let other sites in: "widest range of categories" brought ToolDirectory.ai into 8 of 9 Claude answers and AICentralResources into 7 of 9. On Perplexity, AIChief came first for that question, from one blog post.

Listicles fed these answers. Six of the seven "best AI tool directories" pages that engines cited come from companies with a product to sell, and the seventh is a Substack post that discloses TAAFT sponsored it. Four of the seven include their own product (AICentralResources and Junia rank theirs first, AIToolsRecap and LogicBalls list theirs). None of the seven has a route to submit a directory. The same names recur across them: TAAFT, Futurepedia, Toolify, AITopTools, ToolDirectory.ai and AIChief.

Limits

  • One day. Every figure is from 2026-10-01; directory counts change daily and engine answers churn between runs.
  • Blocked fetches. TAAFT and Toolify item and category pages returned HTTP 403, so their item pages are not verified. AIChief was read through its home page only. LobeHub's sitemap returned 503 twice, so its size there is not verified.
  • Estimates. Totals for MCP Market, Skills Directory, skills.rest and skills.lc sitemaps are estimates from counting a sample of child sitemaps.
  • Third-party listing fees. That TAAFT, Futurepedia and Toolify charge for listings comes from one AIToolsRecap article, not from the sites, and is not verified. We do not state the amounts.
  • Self-reported traffic. Visitor figures sites publish about themselves (MCP Market 1M+ a month, AITopTools 1.4M+ users, Skills Directory 37,000+ Google visits in 30 days) are not verified.
  • Correlation only. Our teardown records what the cited pages look like. It does not show that any feature caused a citation.
  • Not fetched. termo.ai, knackbox.pages.dev, agentstack.voostack.com and skillsmp.com are not in the tables.

Questions people ask

Which agent skill directory do AI assistants cite most?

No single one, in our 2026-10-01 tests. Across six engines, LobeHub decided agent-skill answers in 5 runs, MCP Market in 4, agentmods and skills.rest in 3 each. On three Claude models, skills.lc was linked in 6 answers and MCP Market in 4.

Which AI tools directory do AI assistants name first?

There's An AI For That. It was the first name for "What is the best AI tools directory for finding new AI tools?" in the first run on 6 of 6 engines on 2026-10-01, and appeared in 27 of 27 Claude search runs of three directory questions.

Sources