system-admin — Claude Code skill: Linux admin and monitoring
A skill that hands your agent the commands for checking a Linux box: load, memory, disks, systemd units. Useful when a server starts acting up.
npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a claude-codeWhat system-admin does
The skill gives the agent a working set of Linux inspection commands. It covers system and kernel version, hostname, uptime and load, plus CPU, memory and disk details. For live numbers there is top, htop, vmstat 1, iostat -x 1, iftop and nethogs. For history, sar breaks down CPU, memory and disk activity.
A separate section handles systemd: check a unit's status, start and stop it, enable it at boot, list every service. Two scenarios come ready to run. The health check prints load, memory, disk usage and failed units in one pass. The high-load walkthrough starts with uptime, then sorts processes by CPU and by memory with ps aux --sort.
A troubleshooting table at the end maps symptoms to commands: sluggish system, full disk, memory pressure, a service behaving oddly. Several tools it reaches for — htop, iotop, iftop, nethogs, ncdu, sar — are not part of a minimal distro install, so on a fresh machine the command may simply not be there. Worth checking the list before you let the agent start diagnosing.
What it helps with
- get a quick read on load, memory and disk across a server
- find the process eating CPU or RAM
- check which systemd services have failed
- pull historical load data with sar
- figure out what is filling up a disk
Example prompts for the agent
- run a health check on the server: load, memory, disk, failed services
- the server is slow, find the processes using the most CPU and memory
- show me the status of the nginx service and its recent journalctl logs
How to install system-admin
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/system-admin/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/system-admin/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/system-admin/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/system-admin/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install chaterm/terminal-skills system-admin2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/system-admin/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/chaterm/terminal-skills --path linux/system-adminManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/system-admin/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about system-admin
How do I install system-admin in Claude?
Run npx skills add chaterm/terminal-skills --skill system-admin -a claude-code. The skill file lands at ~/.claude/skills/system-admin/SKILL.md.
What does system-admin do?
It supplies the agent with Linux administration and monitoring commands: system and hardware info, live and historical resource monitoring, systemd service management, and fixes for common failures.
Which utilities does the skill need?
Core commands like uptime, free, df and systemctl are present almost everywhere. Tools such as htop, iotop, iftop, nethogs, ncdu and sar often have to be installed separately.
Source text
SKILL.md · Apache-2.0
--- name: system-admin description: Linux system administration and monitoring version: 1.0.0 author: terminal-skills tags: [linux, system, monitoring, admin] --- # Linux System Administration ## Overview Core commands and best practices for Linux system administration, including system information viewing, resource monitoring, service management, etc. ## System Information ### Basic Information ```bash # System version cat /etc/os-release uname -a # Hostname hostnamectl # Uptime and load uptime ``` ### Hardware Information ```bash # CPU information lscpu cat /proc/cpuinfo # Memory information free -h cat /proc/meminfo # Disk information lsblk df -h ``` ## Resource Monitoring ### Real-time Monitoring ```bash # Comprehensive monitoring top htop # Memory monitoring vmstat 1 # IO monitoring iostat -x 1 iotop # Network monitoring iftop nethogs ``` ### Historical Data ```bash # System activity report sar -u 1 10 # CPU sar -r 1 10 # Memory sar -d 1 10 # Disk ``` ## Service Management ### Systemd Services ```bash # Service status systemctl status service-name systemctl is-active service-name # Start/Stop services systemctl start/stop/restart service-name # Boot startup systemctl enable/disable service-name # View all services systemctl list-units --type=service ``` ## Common Scenarios ### Scenario 1: System Health Check ```bash # Quick health check script echo "=== System Load ===" && uptime echo "=== Memory Usage ===" && free -h echo "=== Disk Usage ===" && df -h echo "=== Failed Services ===" && systemctl --failed ``` ### Scenario 2: Troubleshoot High Load ```bash # 1. Check load uptime # 2. Find high CPU processes ps aux --sort=-%cpu | head -10 # 3. Find high memory processes ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -10 ``` ## Troubleshooting | Problem | Commands | |---------|----------| | System lag | `top`, `vmstat 1`, `iostat -x 1` | | Disk full | `df -h`, `du -sh /*`, `ncdu` | | Memory shortage | `free -h`, `ps aux --sort=-%mem` | | Service abnormal | `systemctl status`, `journalctl -u` |
© terminal-skills · Apache-2.0 · chaterm/terminal-skills