Introduction

If you're using AI coding assistants like Claude Code, Cursor, Antigravity or GitHub Copilot, Vercel just made them significantly more useful. The company has released vercel-labs/agent-skills—a collection of best practices that AI agents can automatically apply when writing or reviewing your React and Next.js code.

I recently installed these skills globally on my development setup, and the difference is immediately noticeable. Here's everything you need to know about this game-changing resource.

What Are Agent Skills?

Agent Skills are curated guidelines that AI coding assistants can reference when helping you write code. Think of them as "expert knowledge" that gets loaded into your AI context, ensuring it follows industry best practices automatically.

The vercel-labs/agent-skills repository includes three primary skills:

1. React Best Practices (40+ Rules)

This skill contains performance optimization guidelines directly from Vercel Engineering—distilled from over a decade of React and Next.js experience. The rules are organized into 8 categories:

• Eliminating Waterfalls (CRITICAL)
• Bundle Size Optimization (CRITICAL)
• Server-Side Performance (HIGH)
• Client-Side Data Fetching (MEDIUM-HIGH)
• Re-render Optimization (MEDIUM)
• Rendering Performance (MEDIUM)
• JavaScript Micro-optimizations (LOW-MEDIUM)
• Advanced Patterns (LOW)

2. Web Design Guidelines (100+ Rules)

A comprehensive UI audit skill covering accessibility, focus states, forms, animation, typography, performance, navigation & state, dark mode & theming, touch interactions, and internationalization.

3. Vercel Deploy (Claimable)

Deploy directly from conversations with Claude.ai or Claude Desktop, with "claimable" deployments that transfer ownership to your Vercel account.

Installation

Installing these skills is remarkably simple:

npx add-skill vercel-labs/agent-skills

The installer will detect your AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) and offer to install globally or per-project. Once installed, the skills are automatically available.

Real-World Examples

Here are some concrete optimizations these skills helped me identify:

Deferring Analytics (Critical Impact)

Before:

import { Analytics } from '@vercel/analytics/react';

After:

// Client component wrapper for code splitting
const Analytics = dynamic(
  () => import('@vercel/analytics/react').then(m => m.Analytics),
  { ssr: false }
);

This defers analytics loading until after hydration, improving Time to Interactive (TTI).

Optimizing Package Imports (Critical Impact)

Instead of barrel imports that load entire libraries, configure Next.js to auto-optimize:

// next.config.js
module.exports = {
  experimental: {
    optimizePackageImports: ['lucide-react', 'framer-motion']
  }
}

Scroll Handler Optimization (Medium Impact)

Before:

useEffect(() => {
  const handleScroll = () => setScrolled(window.scrollY > 10);
  window.addEventListener('scroll', handleScroll);
  return () => window.removeEventListener('scroll', handleScroll);
}, []);

After:

useEffect(() => {
  let ticking = false;
  const handleScroll = () => {
    if (!ticking) {
      requestAnimationFrame(() => {
        setScrolled(prev => (prev !== window.scrollY > 10 ? !prev : prev));
        ticking = false;
      });
      ticking = true;
    }
  };
  window.addEventListener('scroll', handleScroll, { passive: true });
  return () => window.removeEventListener('scroll', handleScroll);
}, []);

How to Prompt

Once installed, you don't need complex prompts. The skills are automatically available to the agent, but you can be explicit to ensure it references the guidelines.

Try these prompts to trigger the skills:

• "Review this file using vercel-react-best-practices"
• "Audit this page for accessibility and design violations"
• "Optimize this component for performance"
• "Deploy this to Vercel"

Why This Matters for AI-Assisted Development

By 2026, an estimated 85% of developers are using AI coding assistants daily. But AI is only as good as the knowledge it draws from. These agent skills ensure:

• Consistency: Every AI-generated component follows the same optimization patterns
• Quality: Critical performance issues are caught before they ship
• Learning: Developers learn best practices through AI explanations
• Efficiency: No need to manually review for common anti-patterns

Getting Started

1. Install the skills: npx add-skill vercel-labs/agent-skills
2. Ask your AI to review a component for performance
3. Watch it apply rules like bundle-barrel-imports or async-parallel

The skills automatically activate when you ask things like "Review this React component for performance" or "Optimize this Next.js page".

Conclusion

Vercel's agent-skills represent a significant step forward in AI-assisted development. By codifying expert knowledge into a format AI agents can understand and apply, they're making performance optimization and best practices accessible to every developer.

The investment in setting this up takes minutes. The return—faster apps, fewer bugs, and better code—lasts the lifetime of your project.