co-mono/packages/coding-agent/docs/skills.md
Mario Zechner 3b2b9abffc coding-agent: change Pi skills to use SKILL.md convention
Breaking change: Pi skills must now be named SKILL.md inside a directory,
matching Codex CLI format. Previously any *.md file was treated as a skill.

Migrate by renaming ~/.pi/agent/skills/foo.md to ~/.pi/agent/skills/foo/SKILL.md
2025-12-12 23:23:17 +01:00

98 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown

# Skills
Skills are instruction files that the agent loads on-demand for specific tasks.
## Skill Locations
Skills are discovered from these locations (in order of priority, later wins on name collision):
1. `~/.codex/skills/**/SKILL.md` (Codex CLI user skills, recursive)
2. `~/.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md` (Claude Code user skills)
3. `<cwd>/.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md` (Claude Code project skills)
4. `~/.pi/agent/skills/**/SKILL.md` (Pi user skills, recursive)
5. `<cwd>/.pi/skills/**/SKILL.md` (Pi project skills, recursive)
Skill names and descriptions are listed in the system prompt. When a task matches a skill's description, the agent uses the `read` tool to load it.
## Creating Skills
A skill is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter containing a `description` field:
```markdown
---
description: Extract text and tables from PDF files
---
# PDF Processing Instructions
1. Use `pdftotext` to extract plain text
2. For tables, use `tabula-py` or similar
3. Always verify extraction quality
Scripts are in: {baseDir}/scripts/
```
### Frontmatter Fields
| Field | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| `description` | Yes | Short description for skill selection |
| `name` | No | Override skill name (defaults to filename or directory name) |
The parser only supports single-line `key: value` syntax. Multiline YAML blocks are not supported.
### Variables
Use `{baseDir}` as a placeholder for the skill's directory. The agent is told each skill's base directory and will substitute it when following the instructions.
### Subdirectories
Pi and Codex skills in subdirectories use colon-separated names:
- `~/.pi/agent/skills/db/migrate/SKILL.md``db:migrate`
- `<cwd>/.pi/skills/aws/s3/upload/SKILL.md``aws:s3:upload`
## Claude Code Compatibility
Pi reads Claude Code skills from `~/.claude/skills/*/SKILL.md`. The `allowed-tools` and `model` frontmatter fields are ignored since Pi cannot enforce them.
## Codex CLI Compatibility
Pi reads Codex CLI skills from `~/.codex/skills/`. Unlike Claude Code skills (one level deep), Codex skills are scanned recursively, matching Codex CLI's behavior. Hidden files/directories (starting with `.`) and symlinks are skipped.
## Disabling Skills
CLI flag:
```bash
pi --no-skills
```
Or in `~/.pi/agent/settings.json`:
```json
{
"skills": {
"enabled": false
}
}
```
## Example
```markdown
---
description: Perform code review with security and performance analysis
---
# Code Review
Analyze:
## Security
- Input validation
- SQL injection
- XSS vulnerabilities
## Performance
- Algorithm complexity
- Memory usage
- Query efficiency
```