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Skills are the way Max learns to use tools it wasn’t born knowing about. Each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file — a markdown document with instructions that Max reads at session startup. Skills are not code. They’re documentation.

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What Skills Are (and Aren’t)

Skills ARE

  • Markdown instruction files
  • Documentation on when and how to use a CLI tool
  • Injected into the orchestrator’s system message at session creation
  • Persistent across restarts

Skills are NOT

  • Executable scripts or plugins
  • Code that runs on your behalf
  • A package manager or binary installer
  • Automatically trusted — Max always asks before installing
The external tool itself (e.g. gog, curl, a custom CLI) must be installed separately on your machine. The skill just tells Max how to use it.

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Skill Format

Every skill is a directory with two files: 
---
name: Google (gogcli)
description: Access Gmail, Calendar, Drive, etc. via gog CLI
---

# Detailed instructions for Max on how to use this skill

## When to use
Use this skill whenever the user asks about email, calendar events,
Drive files, contacts, or tasks.

## Authentication
Run `gog auth add [email protected]` once to authorize.

## Common commands
- List inbox: `gog mail list`
- Send email: `gog mail send --to addr --subject "..." --body "..."`
- List calendar: `gog cal list --days 7`

## Tips
- Always confirm before sending email or creating calendar events.
- Use --json flag for machine-readable output.
The YAML frontmatter (between the --- delimiters) provides the name and description used in listings. Everything after the second --- is the instruction body injected into the system message.

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Three Skill Tiers

Max looks for skills in three directories, in this priority order:
1

Bundled skills

Ships inside the Max package itself:
<package>/skills/
Contains find-skills and gogcli. Cannot be removed with uninstall_skill.
2

User-installed skills

Skills you install via learn_skill or by copying files manually:
~/.max/skills/
This is the default install target for all skills found via find-skills.
3

Global skills

Shared across multiple AI agents on the same machine:
~/.agents/skills/
Max reads from this directory but never writes to it.

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Skill Injection

At session creation time, the Copilot SDK receives the list of skill directories via skillDirectories. The SDK reads each SKILL.md and includes the instruction body in the session’s system context. This means:
  • Skills are always available from the first message of a session
  • Installing a new skill takes effect on the next message (which may trigger a session refresh) or at the latest on the next daemon restart
  • Skill instructions are read-only from Max’s perspective — Max cannot modify a SKILL.md during a session

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Skill Management Tools

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learn_skill — create a new skill

learn_skill(
  slug: string,          // kebab-case identifier, e.g. "web-search"
  name: string,          // Human-readable name, e.g. "Web Search"
  description: string,   // One-line: when to use this skill
  instructions: string   // Full markdown body for SKILL.md
)
Creates ~/.max/skills/{slug}/SKILL.md and ~/.max/skills/{slug}/_meta.json. Guards against path traversal — slashes in the slug are rejected. Example: 
User:  Teach yourself how to use ripgrep
Max:   [creates worker to run `which rg && rg --help`]
       [calls learn_skill("ripgrep", "Ripgrep", "Fast code search", "...")]
       Skill 'Ripgrep' created. Available on your next message.

​
uninstall_skill — remove a skill

uninstall_skill(
  slug: string  // The kebab-case slug of the skill to remove
)
Deletes ~/.max/skills/{slug}/. Only works for user-installed skills — bundled and global skills are not affected.
Only local skills (~/.max/skills/) can be removed with uninstall_skill. Bundled skills (packaged with Max) and global skills (~/.agents/skills/) are read-only from Max’s perspective.

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Bundled Skills

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find-skills

Teaches Max how to discover and install community skills from skills.sh:
  • Searches the skills.sh API: https://skills.sh/api/search?q=...
  • Fetches security audit scores from https://skills.sh/audits
  • Presents the skill name, description, install count, and security status before asking permission
  • Installs by fetching the SKILL.md from the skill’s GitHub repository and calling learn_skill
Max always asks before installing a skill found via find-skills. It will never auto-install without explicit confirmation. Security audit data is always shown — it is never omitted.

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gogcli

Teaches Max how to use the gog CLI for Google services:
  • Gmail (list, read, send, search)
  • Google Calendar (list events, create events)
  • Google Drive (list files, read, upload)
  • Contacts, Tasks, Sheets, Docs
Requires gogcli to be installed (brew install steipete/tap/gogcli) and authenticated (gog auth add [email protected]).

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Viewing Skills

/skills
Lists all installed skills with name, source tier (bundled/local/global), and description.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.max/api-token)" \
  http://localhost:7777/skills

User: What skills do you have?
Max:  [calls list_skills] ...

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