Aider is a terminal pair-programmer; Cursor is an AI editor. They consume a SKILL.md differently — Aider as a read-only context file (--read), Cursor via its native .cursor/skills/ loader.
| Aider | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Terminal pair programmer | AI editor (VS Code fork) |
| Skill mechanism | --read context file | .cursor/skills/ (native) |
| Reads SKILL.md frontmatter | No — body as context | Yes |
| Install a skill | aider --read path/to/SKILL.md | Drop into .cursor/skills/<slug>/ |
| Best skill type | Guidance / conventions | Any (incl. tool-running) |
Guidance-style skills shine in Aider (loaded as context); Cursor handles the full range natively. See skills for Aider and skills for Cursor, then browse the catalog.