diff --git a/internal/skills/catalog.go b/internal/skills/catalog.go
index 6dd6c9e3e8..bc0465788c 100644
--- a/internal/skills/catalog.go
+++ b/internal/skills/catalog.go
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ func Catalog(active []*Skill, skillPaths []string, workingDir string) []CatalogE
 			Description:   skill.Description,
 			Label:         label,
 			Source:        source,
-			UserInvocable: skill.UserInvocable,
+			UserInvocable: skill.IsUserInvocable(),
 		})
 	}
 	return entries
diff --git a/internal/skills/skills.go b/internal/skills/skills.go
index 9b431214c8..eb30c6c3b3 100644
--- a/internal/skills/skills.go
+++ b/internal/skills/skills.go
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ var (
 type Skill struct {
 	Name                   string            `yaml:"name" json:"name"`
 	Description            string            `yaml:"description" json:"description"`
-	UserInvocable          bool              `yaml:"user-invocable" json:"user_invocable"`
+	UserInvocable          *bool             `yaml:"user-invocable,omitempty" json:"user_invocable,omitempty"`
 	DisableModelInvocation bool              `yaml:"disable-model-invocation" json:"disable_model_invocation"`
 	License                string            `yaml:"license,omitempty" json:"license,omitempty"`
 	Compatibility          string            `yaml:"compatibility,omitempty" json:"compatibility,omitempty"`
@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@ type Skill struct {
 	Builtin                bool              `yaml:"-" json:"builtin"`
 }
 
+// IsUserInvocable reports whether the skill should appear in the command
+// palette. When the user-invocable frontmatter field is absent, skills
+// default to user-invocable to make the feature opt-out.
+func (s *Skill) IsUserInvocable() bool {
+	return s.UserInvocable == nil || *s.UserInvocable
+}
+
 // DiscoveryState represents the outcome of discovering a single skill file.
 type DiscoveryState int
 
diff --git a/internal/skills/skills_test.go b/internal/skills/skills_test.go
index fc78b8dc62..32d40a64c5 100644
--- a/internal/skills/skills_test.go
+++ b/internal/skills/skills_test.go
@@ -400,6 +400,41 @@ func TestParseContent_NoFrontmatter(t *testing.T) {
 	require.Error(t, err)
 }
 
+func TestIsUserInvocable_DefaultTrue(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	tests := []struct {
+		name string
+		yaml string
+		want bool
+	}{
+		{
+			name: "absent defaults to true",
+			yaml: "---\nname: a\ndescription: x.\n---\n",
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "explicit true",
+			yaml: "---\nname: a\ndescription: x.\nuser-invocable: true\n---\n",
+			want: true,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "explicit false",
+			yaml: "---\nname: a\ndescription: x.\nuser-invocable: false\n---\n",
+			want: false,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range tests {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			t.Parallel()
+			skill, err := ParseContent([]byte(tt.yaml))
+			require.NoError(t, err)
+			require.Equal(t, tt.want, skill.IsUserInvocable())
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestDiscoverBuiltin(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()