Firebase skill for Claude Code: firebase-basics explained

Source: firebase/agent-skills · Maintainer: Firebase (Google) · License: Apache-2.0 · Checked: 24 October 2026

What is the Firebase skill?

The Firebase skill most people install is firebase-basics, Firebase's official Agent Skill for the CLI groundwork: checking the Firebase CLI, logging in, creating or picking a project, and fetching app config files. It is the entry point to a larger set of Firebase skills covering Firestore, Auth, Hosting, App Hosting, Crashlytics and more.

Its SKILL.md description says it "Provides foundational Firebase CLI setup, CLI installation, version checks (firebase-tools@latest --version), CLI login (including --no-localhost), project creation, project selection (firebase use), and app config file downloads (google-services.json, GoogleService-Info.plist)." It adds: "Use ONLY for CLI login, project creation/switching, or downloading app config files."

Firebase's own agent skills page describes it as a skill that "Assists with adding Firebase to your app for the first time, and learning general platform workflows." The frontmatter lists Google LLC as author and version 1.0.0.

As of 24 October 2026, its skills.sh page listed 174.9K installs (snapshot, 24 October 2026), the most of any skill in the repo.

What does it do?

The SKILL.md is a checklist the agent works through before any Firebase task, followed by a short set of usage principles.

Prerequisites it checks:

• Local environment. The agent runs npx -y firebase-tools@latest --version and checks whether the Firebase MCP server is available. It must read references/local-env-setup.md, which verifies Node.js (version 20 or newer), the CLI and login.
• Authentication. It runs login:list first, then login if needed, or login --no-localhost on remote shells without a browser. The --no-localhost flag is documented in the Firebase CLI reference.
• Active project. If you didn't give a project ID, the skill tells the agent to stop and ask whether you want to use an existing project or create a new one. New project IDs must be 6 to 30 characters, lowercase, digits and hyphens, and globally unique, per the skill.

Principles it enforces:

1. Always run the CLI as npx -y firebase-tools@latest, never the bare firebase command.
2. Look things up with the developerknowledge_search_documents MCP tool before falling back to web search or the model's own memory.
3. Follow the other Firebase skills for implementation details rather than general knowledge.
4. Use Firebase MCP server tools instead of raw API calls, for example to fetch Crashlytics logs.
5. Keep the plugin or skills updated, with refresh steps per agent.
6. Fetch google-services.json and GoogleService-Info.plist with apps:sdkconfig ANDROID or apps:sdkconfig IOS instead of sending you to the Firebase console.

What's in the folder:

• SKILL.md: the checklist and principles above.
• references/local-env-setup.md: Node.js, CLI and login checks.
• references/firebase-service-init.md: running firebase-tools init to pick Firestore, Functions, Hosting and other features, which writes firebase.json and .firebaserc.
• references/firebase-cli-guide.md: how to explore commands with --help.
• references/web_setup.md, android_setup.md, ios_setup.md, flutter_setup.md: SDK setup per platform.
• references/setup/ and references/refresh/: install and update steps for Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Antigravity, Android Studio, GitHub Copilot and other agents.

How do you install the Firebase skill?

Firebase's agent skills docs give one route per tool. Pick one per agent.

Claude Code plugin (all Firebase skills plus the MCP server):

claude plugin marketplace add firebase/agent-skills
claude plugin install firebase@firebase

The repo's Claude Code setup note says this plugin installs "both the agent skills and the MCP functionality", and asks you to restart Claude Code afterwards. See Claude Code plugins for how marketplaces work.

Codex plugin:

codex plugin marketplace add firebase/agent-skills
codex plugin add firebase@firebase

Cursor:

npx skills add firebase/agent-skills --agent=cursor

Just this skill. The command from skills.sh:

npx skills add https://github.com/firebase/agent-skills --skill firebase-basics

The README also lists a Gemini CLI extension, a Kimi plugin and a manual copy. For where Codex and Cursor look for skill folders, see Codex skills and Cursor skills. Claude Code reads skills from .claude/skills/ or ~/.claude/skills/, as its skills docs explain.

One thing to know before you install just this one skill: the SKILL.md says that if firebase-basics is the only Firebase skill available, the agent "must follow the reference for your agent environment to set up the full suite of Firebase skills." In Claude Code that reference checks for existing skills and MCP config, then installs the Firebase plugin if neither is present, and only stops to ask you when it finds a mixed state.

How do you use it?

You rarely call it by name. It loads when you ask for Firebase setup work, and other Firebase skills lean on it for project context.

Example prompts (suggestions, not quotes from the repo):

• Add Firebase to this Next.js app. Create a new project called acme-staging.
• Which Firebase project is this repo pointing at? Switch it to acme-prod if it isn't.
• Register an iOS app in my Firebase project and download GoogleService-Info.plist for it.
• I'm on a remote dev box with no browser. Log me in to the Firebase CLI.
• Initialize Firestore and Functions in this repo with the Firebase CLI.

Expect the agent to pause and ask for a project ID if you didn't give one. That is by design.

Tips and limits

• Socket audit: Warn (20 October 2026). On skills.sh, Gen Agent Trust Hub and Snyk show Pass, and Socket shows Warn with one low-severity "Anomaly" alert. Socket's note says the CLI behavior "routes to official Firebase/Google infrastructure, so this is not malware", but flags that the skill installs further skills and plugins and "relies heavily on unpinned npx @latest execution."
• Node.js version. The skill asks for Node.js 20 or newer; Firebase's CLI docs state "The Firebase CLI requires Node.js v18.0.0 or later." Following the skill's stricter requirement satisfies both.
• Narrow by design. It does not deploy, write security rules or touch Firestore data. Install the plugin, or add firebase-firestore, firebase-auth-basics or firebase-hosting-basics alongside it.
• Doc names and folder names differ a little. Firebase's docs list skills such as firebase-firestore-standard and firebase-local-env-setup; in the repo today, Firestore lives in a firebase-firestore folder and local setup is a reference file inside firebase-basics.
• Genkit is separate. For Genkit, the skill points to npx skills add genkit-ai/skills.

Under Apache 2.0 you can copy and modify the skill as long as you keep the license and notices and mark files you change.

Save it in your Kipt library

In Kipt, open Skills and paste the skill's GitHub folder link into the import box. Kipt reads the SKILL.md and its references/ files. Paste the repo link instead and Kipt shows a list of Firebase skills to pick from, so you can take firebase-firestore or firebase-auth-basics too. Your skills live in your own private GitHub repo and install into Claude Code or Codex with one command:

npx skills add https://github.com/<you>/<repo>.git --all -g

Kipt is not affiliated with Firebase or Google.

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