Skills

A skill is a folder of instructions that a coding agent follows to do one RobOS task, such as starting the VM or importing a knowledge graph. This page explains where skills live, how to run one, and how to add your own.

On this page
  1. What a skill is
  2. Two kinds of skill
  3. Where skills live
  4. Run a skill
  5. Install and sync
  6. Add a skill
  7. Not built yet
  8. Related pages

What a skill is

A RobOS agent skill is a directory under plugins/robos/skills/ that contains a SKILL.md file. The file starts with YAML front matter and continues with plain Markdown instructions that the agent reads and follows. A skill is not compiled code. A few skills ship a helper script in a scripts/ folder (import-company-kgraph, install-desktop-app, schema-lookup), and the instructions tell the agent when to run it.

The front matter has two keys in every existing skill. name matches the directory name and uses lowercase kebab-case. description is one sentence that tells an agent when the skill applies.

---
name: <skill-name>
description: <Concise, actionable description of what this skill does and when to use it.>
---

# <Skill Title>

<Overview of the skill>

## Input
$ARGUMENTS — <parameters or payload>

## Procedure
1. <Step 1>
2. <Step 2>

## Validation
- <Verification checklist>

This is the template from the manage-robos-skill skill. The body is free-form. Most skills use some of the headings Input, When to Use, Steps or Procedure, Execution and Validation. In the Input section, $ARGUMENTS stands for whatever you type after the skill name.

Two kinds of skill

  Agent skills Skills Manager shell skills
What it is A SKILL.md with instructions for an agent A named shell command with a description and tags
Where it lives plugins/robos/skills/<name>/SKILL.md packages/skills-manager/skills-data.js for built-in ones, ~/.config/robos/skills.json for your own
Who runs it A coding agent, usually through a slash command You, by copying the command from the Skills Manager window
Reference Skills catalog Skills Manager Desktop App

packages/robos-lib/skill-catalog.js merges both kinds, plus the installed SKILL.md files, into one list. PR Review uses it to feed the /skills picker in the <robos-ai-textarea> prompt box. The picker is described on the Skills Manager page.

Where skills live

plugins/robos/skills/ is the source. Other agent directories hold copies that plugins/install.sh generates, so edit the source and re-run the installer.

Path Contents
plugins/robos/skills/<name>/SKILL.md The skill itself
plugins/robos/commands/<name>.md The slash-command bridge: a short file that passes $ARGUMENTS to the skill
plugins/robos/plugin.json Plugin manifest with skills and commands lists
.agents/skills/, .github/skills/ Copies of the skill folders
.claude/commands/, .antigravity/commands/, .gemini/commands/ Copies of the command files

A command file is only a pointer. plugins/robos/commands/start-vm.md, for example, takes the optional flags and says to follow plugins/robos/skills/start-vm/SKILL.md.

Run a skill

If the skill has a command file, type the slash command in your agent with the arguments the skill’s Input section describes:

/start-vm --headless
/app-snapshot dev-central --json
/create-robos-app "Work Journal"

Some skills have no command file, including the kgraph-* skills and pr-review-theater. Ask the agent for the task in plain words and name the skill, for example “use the kgraph-impact-analysis skill on urn:robos:service:orders-api”. The Skills catalog shows which skills have a slash command.

Which agent reads which directory is up to the agent. The table in the next section only lists what the installer writes.

Install and sync

Run the installer from the repository root. With no options it writes project-level copies for every agent:

./plugins/install.sh
Option Effect
--target <agent> Limit to claude, codex, antigravity, copilot or gemini (default all)
--skill <name> Sync one skill and its command file; project level only
--global Install to your home directory instead of the repository
--dry-run Print what would be copied
--sync Accepted, but project-level sync is the default behavior

Project-level targets write to these places:

Target Writes
claude .agents/skills/, .claude/commands/
codex .agents/skills/
antigravity .agents/skills/, .antigravity/commands/
copilot .github/skills/
gemini .gemini/commands/

With --global, the installer writes ~/.agents/skills/, ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/robos/ and ~/.antigravity/skills/. It does not write global Copilot or Gemini files.

Add a skill

The manage-robos-skill skill does these steps for you. Run /manage-robos-skill add <skill-name> "<description>", or do them by hand:

  1. Create plugins/robos/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md with the front matter above. The name must be lowercase kebab-case.
  2. Create plugins/robos/commands/<skill-name>.md if you want a slash command.
  3. Add the name to the skills and commands arrays in plugins/robos/plugin.json.
  4. Run ./plugins/install.sh --skill <skill-name>.
  5. Add the skill to the list in AGENTS.md and to plugins/README.md.

manage-robos-skill also supports update, remove and list.

install.sh copies every directory under plugins/robos/skills/, whether or not plugin.json lists it. The manifest is not complete today: several skills, including the kgraph-* skills, are not in its skills list, and it lists a sync-kgraph-docs command that has no command file.

Not built yet

The Skill Commons whitepaper proposes a shared catalog of verified, compiled skills that a small local model could assemble. That catalog, the compiler and the assembler do not exist. The proposal is at rowbose.com/future.

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