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skills

Skills are named collections of instructions, reference files, and scripts that kasmos injects into agent context. They extend the base prompt with domain-specific knowledge without cluttering the project's AGENTS.md.

skill locations​

kasmos recognises two skill layers:

layerdirectoryscope
personal~/.agents/skills/available in every project
project.agents/skills/available only in this repository

Each skill is a directory containing at minimum a SKILL.md file. Additional reference files (scripts, examples, templates) can sit alongside it.

.agents/skills/
  kasmos-coder/
    SKILL.md
  cli-tools/
    SKILL.md
  kasmos-cli/
    SKILL.md

built-in project skills​

kas setup scaffolds the following skills into .agents/skills/ from embedded templates:

skillpurpose
kasmos-plannerinstructs the planner agent on plan format and wave structure
kasmos-coderguides coder agents through TDD, debugging, and shared worktree safety
kasmos-reviewerreviewer agent workflow: spec compliance, correctness, blocking issues
kasmos-architectdecomposes planner specs into waves and coder-ready tasks
kasmos-fixerdebugging, failure investigation, and stuck task recovery
kasmos-masterholistic final review across merged implementation and plan
kasmos-lifecycleorientation on plan lifecycle, signal mechanics, and mode detection
kasmos-cliexact kas command syntax, flags, and lifecycle transitions
cli-toolscode search and refactoring: rg, sd, fd, difft, comby, scc
These are the directories under .agents/skills/ and .opencode/skills/ that exist in this repository.

how harnesses load skills​

Each AI harness reads skills from a harness-specific directory:

harnesspersonal skills dirproject skills dir
Claude Code~/.claude/skills/.claude/skills/
OpenCode~/.config/opencode/skills/.opencode/skills/
Codex~/.agents/skills/ (native).agents/skills/ (native)

Codex reads skill directories directly — no sync step is needed. Claude and OpenCode require symlinks pointing back to the canonical directories.

kas setup creates those symlinks automatically. For ongoing updates, use kas skills sync.

syncing skills​

After installing new personal skills or changing which harnesses are configured, run:

kas skills sync

This reads ~/.agents/skills/ and creates symlinks in each detected harness's global skill directory. Project-level skills are also synced if you run the command from inside a project that has .agents/skills/.

Output example:

  claude       OK
  opencode     OK
  codex        SKIP (not installed)

Project skills:
  claude       OK
  opencode     OK

listing installed skills​

kas skills list

Lists personal skills from ~/.agents/skills/ and project skills from .agents/skills/ in the current directory.

auditing sync health​

kas check
kas check -v   # verbose: show per-skill status per harness

kas check audits two layers:

  1. Global skills — ~/.agents/skills/ → harness global dirs
  2. Project skills — .agents/skills/ → harness project dirs

Output shows counts of synced, missing, orphan, and broken entries per harness. Exit code is 0 when 100% healthy, 1 otherwise.

Global skills (~/.agents/skills):
  claude       5 synced  0 skipped  0 missing  0 orphan
  opencode     5 synced  0 skipped  0 missing  0 orphan
  codex        0 synced  5 skipped  0 missing  0 orphan

Project skills (.agents/skills):
  ✓ cli-tools                claude ✓  opencode ✓
  ✓ kasmos-coder             claude ✓  opencode ✓
  ✓ kasmos-reviewer          claude ✓  opencode ✓

Health: 3/3 OK (100%)

Common remediation hints:

• run `kas skills sync` to create missing skill links
• add SKILL.md to skills missing documentation (e.g. .agents/skills/<name>/SKILL.md)

installing a personal skill​

To install a skill from an external source (e.g. one packaged by a third party):

# option 1: clone into personal skills dir
git clone https://example.com/my-skill ~/.agents/skills/my-skill

# option 2: symlink an externally managed skill
ln -s /path/to/my-skill ~/.agents/skills/my-skill

Then run kas skills sync to propagate to the harness directories.

kasmos skips syncing entries in ~/.agents/skills/ that are themselves symlinks — these are treated as externally managed and are not forwarded to harness dirs.

writing a skill​

A minimal skill needs only SKILL.md:

~/.agents/skills/my-skill/
  SKILL.md          # the instructions injected into agent context

The SKILL.md file should be written in markdown and describe:

  • when the agent should activate this skill
  • what the skill provides (tools, constraints, examples)
  • any important caveats or rules

Reference files, scripts, and examples can live alongside SKILL.md in the same directory. Some harnesses (like OpenCode) load the entire skill directory.

project skills vs personal skills​

Use project skills when the instructions are specific to this codebase — e.g. architecture conventions, domain models, or project-specific coding patterns.

Use personal skills for portable expertise you want in every project — e.g. language-specific idioms, tool preferences, or general workflows.

Project skills take precedence when a harness finds both layers, but the exact merge behavior depends on the harness.

scaffold-managed files​

The skills under .agents/skills/ are synced from the embedded templates in internal/initcmd/scaffold/templates/skills/ each time kas setup --force or kas skills sync is run. Edits to those files will be overwritten on the next sync. To customise a built-in skill, copy it to ~/.agents/skills/ under the same name — your personal copy takes precedence for skill lookup.