Skills Overview

A Skill is the unit of capability in GolemBot. It's a directory containing instructions and optional supporting files that teach the Coding Agent how to perform a specific task.

Structure

skills/
├── general/              # Built-in: general assistant
│   └── SKILL.md
├── im-adapter/           # Built-in: IM response conventions
│   └── SKILL.md
└── my-custom-skill/      # Your own skill
    ├── SKILL.md          # Required: instructions + metadata
    ├── analyze.py        # Optional: supporting scripts
    └── reference.md      # Optional: knowledge documents

How Skills Work

1. On each assistant.chat() call, GolemBot scans the skills/ directory
2. Each subdirectory with a SKILL.md file is registered as a skill
3. Skills are injected into the engine's expected location (symlinks):
   • Cursor: .cursor/skills/
   • Claude Code: .claude/skills/
   • OpenCode: .opencode/skills/
4. The Coding Agent reads the skill instructions and gains the described capabilities

SKILL.md Format

Every SKILL.md must have YAML frontmatter with at least a name and description:

---
name: my-skill
description: Brief description of what this skill does
---

# Skill Title

Instructions for the Coding Agent on how to use this skill.

## What This Skill Does

- Capability 1
- Capability 2

## How to Use

Detailed instructions, conventions, and constraints.

The name and description from the frontmatter are used in AGENTS.md (auto-generated) and in golembot skill list output.

Key Principles

• No config declaration — the skills/ directory is the single source of truth. Whatever is in it, the assistant has those capabilities.
• No separate Tool concept — scripts live inside the Skill directory, and SKILL.md describes how to invoke them. Coding Agents can natively execute any script.
• Drop in, drop out — add a skill by copying a directory in; remove it by deleting the directory.
• Engine-agnostic — the same Skill works across Cursor, Claude Code, and OpenCode.

Managing Skills

# List installed skills
golembot skill list

# Add a skill from a local path
golembot skill add /path/to/my-skill

# Remove a skill
golembot skill remove my-skill

Or simply copy/delete directories manually — no CLI required.