Skills

Skills are reusable, domain-specific capabilities stored in ~/.skimpyclaw/skills/. Each skill is a directory with a SKILL.md file containing instructions, examples, and workflow patterns. The agent reads relevant skill files when handling related tasks.

How skills work

• Skills provide specialized expertise (PDF processing, calendar sync, internal search, etc.)
• The agent automatically routes to relevant skills based on task context
• Skills are modular — add or remove them without changing core code
• No rebuild needed; skill changes take effect immediately

Built-in skills

Skill	Description
a8c-search	Search Automattic internal sources (FieldGuide, P2s, Slack, Linear)
a8c-second-brain	Personalized productivity system using Obsidian + Claude Code + A8C tools
dev-team	Spawn a 5-person dev team (PM, coder, reviewer, tester, docs) for complex features
ical-sync	Sync macOS Calendar events using icalBuddy
qmd-vault-search	Search Obsidian vault for notes, context, or references

Creating a skill

1. Create a directory: ~/.skimpyclaw/skills/my-skill/
2. Add SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter and content:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill does
triggers: ['keyword1', 'keyword2']
priority: 100
emoji: 🛠️
tags: ['tag1', 'tag2']
contexts: ['telegram', 'discord', 'cron']
requires:
  bins: ['required-binary']
  env: ['REQUIRED_ENV_VAR']
  paths: ['~/required/path']
  tools: ['tool_name']
---

# My Skill

Instructions and workflow patterns here.

~/.skimpyclaw/skills/
├── my-skill/
│   └── SKILL.md          # Main instructions (required)

Skill configuration

Skills can be configured in config.json under the skills section:

"skills": {
  "enabled": true,
  "directory": "${HOME}/.skimpyclaw/skills",
  "entries": {
    "my-skill": true,
    "another-skill": false
  },
  "maxPromptTokens": 4000
}

• enabled: Master switch for skills system
• directory: Path to skills directory
• entries: Per-skill enable/disable overrides
• maxPromptTokens: Budget for injected skills content (default ~4000 chars ≈ 1000 tokens)

Skill frontmatter fields

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Skill identifier
description	string	What the skill does
triggers	string[]	Keywords that trigger this skill
priority	number	Sort order (higher = earlier)
emoji	string	Visual identifier
tags	string[]	Categorization tags
contexts	string[]	Where skill applies (telegram, discord, cron)
requires.bins	string[]	Required binaries
requires.env	string[]	Required environment variables
requires.paths	string[]	Required paths
requires.tools	string[]	Required tool names

Skills system flow