chatgpt-on-wechat/skills

Skills Directory

This directory contains skills for the COW agent system. Skills are markdown files that provide specialized instructions for specific tasks.

What are Skills?

Skills are reusable instruction sets that help the agent perform specific tasks more effectively. Each skill:

• Provides context-specific guidance
• Documents best practices
• Includes examples and usage patterns
• Can have requirements (binaries, environment variables, etc.)

Skill Structure

Each skill is a markdown file (SKILL.md) in its own directory with frontmatter:

---
name: skill-name
description: Brief description of what the skill does
metadata: {"cow":{"emoji":"🎯","requires":{"bins":["tool"]}}}
---

# Skill Name

Detailed instructions and examples...

Available Skills

• calculator: Mathematical calculations and expressions
• web-search: Search the web for current information
• file-operations: Read, write, and manage files

Creating Custom Skills

To create a new skill:

1. Create a directory: skills/my-skill/
2. Create SKILL.md with frontmatter and content
3. Restart the agent to load the new skill

Frontmatter Fields

• name: Skill name (must match directory name)
• description: Brief description (required)
• metadata: JSON object with additional configuration
  • emoji: Display emoji
  • always: Always include this skill (default: false)
  • primaryEnv: Primary environment variable needed
  • os: Supported operating systems (e.g., ["darwin", "linux"])
  • requires: Requirements object
    • bins: Required binaries
    • env: Required environment variables
    • config: Required config paths
• disable-model-invocation: If true, skill won't be shown to model (default: false)
• user-invocable: If false, users can't invoke directly (default: true)

Example Skill

---
name: my-tool
description: Use my-tool to process data
metadata: {"cow":{"emoji":"🔧","requires":{"bins":["my-tool"],"env":["MY_TOOL_API_KEY"]}}}
---

# My Tool Skill

Use this skill when you need to process data with my-tool.

## Prerequisites

- Install my-tool: `pip install my-tool`
- Set `MY_TOOL_API_KEY` environment variable

## Usage

\`\`\`python
# Example usage
my_tool_command("input data")
\`\`\`

Skill Loading

Skills are loaded from multiple locations with precedence:

1. Workspace skills (highest): workspace/skills/ - Project-specific skills
2. Managed skills: ~/.cow/skills/ - User-installed skills
3. Bundled skills (lowest): Built-in skills

Skills with the same name in higher-precedence locations override lower ones.

Skill Requirements

Skills can specify requirements that determine when they're available:

• OS requirements: Only load on specific operating systems
• Binary requirements: Only load if required binaries are installed
• Environment variables: Only load if required env vars are set
• Config requirements: Only load if config values are set

Best Practices

1. Clear descriptions: Write clear, concise skill descriptions
2. Include examples: Provide practical usage examples
3. Document prerequisites: List all requirements clearly
4. Use appropriate metadata: Set correct requirements and flags
5. Keep skills focused: Each skill should have a single, clear purpose

Workspace Skills

You can create workspace-specific skills in your agent's workspace:

workspace/
  skills/
    custom-skill/
      SKILL.md

These skills are only available when working in that specific workspace.