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Skills

Skills are knowledge, not actors. They provide patterns, documentation, and procedures that agents use to perform tasks. Think of skills as technical manuals that agents consult.

Skills vs Agents

  • Skills = Knowledge (how to do something)
  • Agents = Actors (does the work)

Example: The validation skill contains knowledge about running tests, type checking, and linting. The reviewer agent uses this skill to actually validate code.

Built-in Skills

SkillKnowledge ProvidedUsed By
conversationIntent classification, context management patterns/agentful command
product-trackingProgress calculation methods, state tracking/agentful-status, orchestrator
validationQuality gate checks, tool detection/agentful-validate, reviewer

Technology Skills

Technology-specific skills (React, Express, Prisma, etc.) are generated from your codebase using:

/agentful-generate

This analyzes your project and creates skills containing:

  • Framework patterns detected in your code
  • Tech stack conventions you're using
  • Project-specific architectural decisions

These generated skills ensure agents follow your existing patterns instead of imposing generic templates.

Skill Structure

Each skill is a Markdown file at .claude/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md:

---
name: skill-name
description: What this skill provides
model: sonnet
tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash
---
 
# Skill Name
 
## Knowledge Provided
What information this skill contains
 
## Usage Patterns
How agents should use this knowledge
 
## Examples
Concrete examples of applying this skill

How Agents Use Skills

  1. Agent receives a task
  2. Agent checks relevant skills for patterns/procedures
  3. Agent applies knowledge to execute the task
  4. Agent updates state using skill-defined structures

Example flow:

User: /agentful add authentication
 
1. conversation skill → classifies intent as "feature_request"
2. orchestrator agent → reads product-tracking skill for progress tracking
3. backend agent → uses generated Express skill for implementation patterns
4. reviewer agent → applies validation skill to check quality

Custom Skills

Create custom skills in .claude/skills/:

.claude/skills/
├── my-deployment/
│   └── SKILL.md
└── my-monitoring/
    └── SKILL.md

Example custom skill:

---
name: deployment
description: Deployment procedures for our infrastructure
model: sonnet
tools: Read, Bash
---
 
# Deployment Skill
 
## Deployment Targets
- Production: AWS ECS
- Staging: Vercel
- Preview: Netlify
 
## Pre-deployment Checklist
1. All tests passing
2. Type checking clean
3. Environment variables set
4. Database migrations applied
 
## Deployment Commands
\`\`\`bash
# Production
npm run deploy:prod
 
# Staging
npm run deploy:staging
\`\`\`
 
## Rollback Procedure
\`\`\`bash
npm run rollback -- --version <previous-version>
\`\`\`

Agents will reference this skill when deploying your application.

Next Steps