Chops is live · free · last verified 24 Oct 2026 · viability monitor
Chops
Chops is a free, open-source macOS app that browses, edits, and syncs AI agent skill files across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp.
Chops does one narrow job — centralize skill files across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp — and does it for free from v1.16.0 under FSL-1.1-MIT. Run two or more of those assistants on a Mac and the browse-edit loop saves real file-hunting time. Run just one, or you're not on macOS Sequoia, and there's nothing here for you. Pure folder-and-dotfiles setups remain the zero-dependency alternative.
Verdict generatedVerified 6d ago · liveness 69/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/chops
- Developers running two or more of Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or Amp on macOS Sequoia
- Small teams standardizing shared agent skills across a common codebase
- Power users who write and revise custom agent skills often and want them in one place
- Open-source contributors willing to read or fork FSL-1.1-MIT source
- Windows or Linux users — the app requires macOS Sequoia with no other platform build
- Developers who use only one AI coding assistant and already find its skills folder manageable
- Teams that need a hosted, browser-based console for skill management
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Skip Chops if you run only one of those five coding assistants and its skills folder is already manageable — there's nothing to reconcile, so the app adds a download without removing any work.
Chops is $0 with no paid tiers, no subscription and no usage metering, so there's no procurement conversation at any team size. That makes it cheaper than any paid skill-management or agent-config product, and the only real cost is the macOS Sequoia requirement on each machine.
In short
Chops — Chops is a free, open-source macOS app that browses, edits, and syncs AI agent skill files across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp. Best for Developers running two or more of Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or Amp on macOS Sequoia, Small teams standardizing shared agent skills across a common codebase, Power users who write and revise custom agent skills often and want them in one place. Free to use.
What is Chops?
Chops — Chops is a free, open-source macOS app that browses, edits, and syncs AI agent skill files across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp. Best for Developers running two or more of Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or Amp on macOS Sequoia, Small teams standardizing shared agent skills across a common codebase, Power users who write and revise custom agent skills often and want them in one place. Free to use.
If you run Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp side by side, each one keeps its own skills folder, and keeping those folders straight turns into directory spelunking. Chops puts all of it in one native macOS window: browse every skill you've collected, edit the files in place, and manage changes across the five supported assistants so your agents behave consistently no matter which one you open. What it replaces is hand-editing config paths in a terminal. You get a browser-style view of what skills exist, what's inside them, and which assistant can see them, then edit without leaving the app. Everything runs locally — no cloud account, no model of its own — so it's a file-management utility for skills, not an agent runtime. The current build is v1.16.0, it requires macOS Sequoia, and the source is published on GitHub under FSL-1.1-MIT with a public changelog. The app is free with no tiers or metering. The fit is honestly narrow: it pays off when you're running two or more of those five assistants and skill files are actually part of your setup. Windows and Linux have no build to run.
Key features
- Browse skills across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp from one window
- Edit skill files directly in the app instead of hand-editing each tool's directory
- Manage skill edits across the supported assistants from a single view
- Local-first: no cloud account and no remote skill storage
- Free and open source under FSL-1.1-MIT
- Native macOS app requiring macOS Sequoia
- Current release v1.16.0
- Public GitHub repository with source available
- Public changelog documenting versioned releases
- Inspect which skills a given assistant can see
- Organize skills spanning multiple assistant config directories
- No paid tiers, subscription, or usage metering
- No AI model of its own — it manages skill files, not model access
Behind the verdict
The interesting thing about Chops is how small the problem it solves actually is — and how often that small problem comes up. Skills are just files scattered across each assistant's own config directory. That's fine when you use one tool. Once Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp are all installed, you're maintaining parallel copies of the same instructions by hand, and the drift is silent: the skill you tightened in one assistant never makes it to the others. Chops' answer is a single native macOS window that browses what's there, edits it in place, and manages those skill files across the five supported assistants. It's deliberately not more than that. There's no cloud account, no remote skill storage, no bundled model, and the app runs entirely locally — which for a tool whose whole job is reading and writing files in your config directories is the right architecture, not a compromise. The v1.16.0 release ships with a public GitHub repository and changelog, so you can read the source and see what changed. The constraints are real and worth weighing before you download. It's macOS Sequoia only. The supported set is exactly those five assistants and nothing outside it. It's a desktop GUI, so remote, containerized, and headless workflows get no benefit — arguably the place where skill-file drift hurts most. And FSL-1.1-MIT is a source-available license; it's free to use, but if commercial redistribution is anywhere in your plans, read the terms before you build on the code. Where it fits: a developer on a Mac with three or four of those assistants installed who writes and revises custom skills often. Where it doesn't: a single-assistant workflow that's already tidy, a Windows or Linux team, or anyone who needs this wired into CI. If you want a managed, hosted console for team-wide skill governance, this isn't that product. If you want a free local utility that ends the directory spelunking, it is.
Limitations
- Chops runs only on macOS Sequoia, so Windows and Linux are unsupported.
- Its scope is five assistants — Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp — and nothing outside that set.
- It's a desktop GUI, which means remote, containerized, and headless environments get no benefit.
- It exposes no AI models of its own; it manages skill files, not model access.
- The project is at v1.16.0 under FSL-1.1-MIT, a source-available license, so review the license terms before you plan commercial redistribution of the code.
as of 2026-10-19
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Is Chops still active?
Chops is live · free · last verified 24 Oct 2026 · viability monitor.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is Chops? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →What do users say about Chops?
What people actually say about Chops — is it worth it?
Our community sentiment research written Jul 30, 2026 is more than 90 days old, so it is being re-reviewed against current data and is not shown.
How we verified this
Every listed fact about Chops— pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 24 Oct 2026. Pages mix model-assisted synthesis with human review; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified Chops 8 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed features, limitations, switching out, who should skip it, setup time, pricing fit, switching in, our verdict, use cases, description, pricing tiers, summary
- — changed who it suits, who should skip it, our verdict, summary, features, description, pricing tiers
- — changed use cases, who it suits, description, our verdict, features, hidden costs, limitations, switching in, switching out, who should skip it, pricing tiers, pricing fit, setup time, summary
- — changed limitations, SSL certificate
- — changed pricing page, limitations
- — changed features, summary, pricing fit, setup time, hidden costs, who should skip it, switching in, switching out, our verdict, description, who it suits, pricing tiers
Showing the 6 most recent of 8 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does Chops cost in 2026?
Chops: Free to use. Pricing last verified 24 Oct 2026.
Plans compared
Every published Chops tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | — | Any macOS Sequoia user running two or more of Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or Amp who wants skill files in one windowAdds: Starting tier — and the only tier: full browse, edit and skill management across all five assistants at $0, with source available under FSL-1.1-MIT |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Chops's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Chops is $0 with no paid tiers, no subscription and no usage metering, so there's no procurement conversation at any team size. That makes it cheaper than any paid skill-management or agent-config product, and the only real cost is the macOS Sequoia requirement on each machine.
Has Chops' pricing changed?
No plan price for Chops has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick Chops?
Pick Chops if you are Developers running two or more of Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, or Amp on macOS Sequoia, Small teams standardizing shared agent skills across a common codebase, Power users who write and revise custom agent skills often and want them in one place, Open-source contributors willing to read or fork FSL-1.1-MIT source.
Look elsewhere if you are Windows or Linux users — the app requires macOS Sequoia with no other platform build, Developers who use only one AI coding assistant and already find its skills folder manageable, Teams that need a hosted, browser-based console for skill management, Anyone working primarily in remote or headless dev environments with no Mac desktop.
Skip it if Skip Chops if you run only one of those five coding assistants and its skills folder is already manageable — there's nothing to reconcile, so the app adds a download without removing any work.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Chops actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You've written a code-review skill in Claude Code and want Cursor, Codex and Windsurf to behave the same way. Instead of retyping the file into each config directory, you open Chops, browse the skill list, edit it in the app and manage the change across the supported assistants.
Outcome: All five assistants see a consistent skill set, and you stop silently maintaining four diverging copies of the same instructions.
Your team uses a mix of Claude Code and Cursor on macOS. One person writes the canonical skill files, reviews what's installed across the supported tools in Chops, and prunes duplicates that accumulated over months of tool switching.
Outcome: A tidier shared skill library and less time spent debugging why one teammate's assistant behaves differently from another's.
You revise custom skills weekly and keep losing track of which versions live where. Chops gives you one window to inspect each skill's contents and location, edit it in place, and check what's actually present across the five assistants.
Outcome: Faster edit cycles without opening a terminal, plus a clear picture of what your installed skill inventory really looks like.
Use cases
- See every skill installed across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, and Amp in one list
- Edit a skill in Chops and manage the change across the other supported assistants
- Keep a shared canonical skill set consistent for a small Mac-based team using different assistants
- Find out which skills Codex has access to without digging through its config directory
- Build and maintain a tidy personal library of agent skills as you switch between assistants
- Audit and prune duplicate or stale skills that accumulated across multiple tool folders
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Chops — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Download the macOS build from chops.md, install it and point it at your existing skill directories — expect minutes, not hours, for a first useful pass. The real time cost is beforehand: you need macOS Sequoia and at least one of the five supported assistants with skills already on disk.
Switching to or from Chops
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From manual folder edits: install Chops and let it read the skill files already sitting in each assistant's config directory — no re-authoring needed
- →From a single-assistant setup: add your second assistant, then use Chops' browse view to see both skill sets side by side and reconcile them
- ↗To folder-and-dotfiles: your skill files stay where they are on disk, so you can drop Chops and keep managing them with a dotfiles repo or symlinks
- ↗To a hosted skill-management console: you'd re-register the skill files you've already written, since Chops stores nothing remotely
Integrations
Resources & guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Chops”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Chops” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Chops.
Official links
What are the best Chops alternatives?
The closest alternatives to Chops we list are Ui Ux Pro Max Skill, Hue and Taste Skill. Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ui Ux Pro Max Skill | Free | Free | — |
| Hue | Free | Free | — |
| Taste Skill | Free | Free | — |
Alternatives to Chops
View all
Ui Ux Pro Max Skill
Free open-source design-intelligence skill that feeds UI styles, palettes, fonts, and chart rules into Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI coding assistants.
Hue
Open-source skill that turns any brand into a design system Claude Code and Codex can build with
Taste Skill
Open-source SKILL.md rules that stop AI coding agents shipping generic frontend UI
Tools that pair well with Chops
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Chops, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Ui Ux Pro Max Skill
Free open-source design-intelligence skill that feeds UI styles, palettes, fonts, and chart rules into Claude Code, Cursor, and other AI coding assistants.
Hue
Open-source skill that turns any brand into a design system Claude Code and Codex can build with
Taste Skill
Open-source SKILL.md rules that stop AI coding agents shipping generic frontend UI
Chops vs its closest rival
Chops's closest head-to-head is with Spider Cloud — If you manage multiple AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) on macOS and need to keep their skills in sync, Chops is the free, open-source answer. If you build AI agents or RAG pipelines that require live web data, structured extraction, and browser automation at scale, Spider Cloud’s unified API and Silk model are purpose-built for that. For most developers doing both, Spider Cloud is likely the more impactful tool; Chops is a niche utility for coding-assistant skill management. Verdict generated
Head-to-head comparisons
Chops vs Spider Cloud
If you manage multiple AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) on macOS and need to keep their skills in sync, Chops is the free, open-source answer. If you build AI agents or RAG pipelines that require live web data, structured extraction, and browser automation at scale, Spider Cloud’s unified API and Silk model are purpose-built for that. For most developers doing both, Spider Cloud is likely the more impactful tool; Chops is a niche utility for coding-assistant skill management.
GeneratedChops vs Temporal Ai
If you're a developer using multiple AI coding assistants on macOS and want a unified skill management UI, Chops is a free, lightweight choice. But if you're building production-grade AI agents or complex workflows that need automatic retries, state persistence, and human-in-the-loop capabilities—think financial systems, order fulfillment, or recovery-sensitive agents—Temporal AI is the robust, enterprise-grade platform used by OpenAI and NVIDIA. Temporal's recent additions like LangGraph Plugin and Serverless Workers further strengthen its lead for scalable durable execution.
GeneratedChops vs Voyage Ai
Choose Chops if you're a developer juggling multiple AI coding assistants and want a free, open-source way to keep your agent skills consistent across tools. Pick Voyage AI if you're building an enterprise RAG system that needs high-accuracy, domain-specific embeddings with long-context support and are willing to engage sales for pricing.
GeneratedFrequently asked questions
Best-of guides
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