Skills are Markdown files that teach your agent how to use external services, APIs, and tools. They are not executable code — they are knowledge. The agent reads a skill and understands how to act; the skill itself does nothing on its own.
How skills work
When a skill is installed in your agent’s workspace, it appears in the Capabilities catalog (part of the agent’s system prompt). The agent sees the skill’s name, description, and — when the skill is relevant — reads the full SKILL.md file to understand how to use that service.
Skills follow a two-level loading pattern:
- Discovery: All installed skills appear in the Capabilities catalog as a compact entry (~100 chars). Zero token overhead for skills you are not currently using.
- On demand: When the user asks something that matches a skill, the agent loads the full
SKILL.md and follows its instructions.
Where skills live
GenosOS looks for skills in three locations, in order:
| Location | Description |
|---|
~/.genosv1/skills/ | User-global skills, available to all agents |
<workspace>/skills/ | Workspace-local skills, available to agents in that workspace |
| Custom directories | Configured via config_manage skills paths add <dir> |
Bundled skills
GenosOS ships with 60+ bundled skills. They are auto-discovered and available immediately — no installation step required.
Productivity
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
obsidian | Read, create, and edit notes in Obsidian vaults |
notion | Query and update Notion databases and pages |
things-mac | Manage tasks and projects in Things 3 (macOS) |
apple-notes | Create and read Apple Notes |
apple-reminders | Set and manage Apple Reminders |
bear-notes | Read and write Bear notes with tags |
Development
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
github | GitHub repos, pull requests, issues, and Actions |
gh-issues | Focused GitHub issue triage and management |
coding-agent | Code review, refactoring, and test generation patterns |
tmux | Terminal multiplexer session management |
Services
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
hubspot | HubSpot CRM — contacts, deals, companies, notes |
trello | Trello boards, lists, and cards |
slack | Slack messages, channels, and user lookups |
discord | Discord messages and server management |
Google
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
google-calendar | Calendar events, availability, and scheduling |
gsc-analytics | Google Search Console — rankings, impressions, queries |
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
spotify-player | Play, pause, skip, and search Spotify |
songsee | Lyric search and song identification |
video-frames | Extract frames from video files for analysis |
gifgrep | Search and extract GIF content |
AI and images
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
openai-image-gen | Generate images via DALL·E |
openai-whisper | Transcribe audio via Whisper |
peekaboo | macOS screen capture and visual analysis |
gemini | Gemini-specific multi-modal capabilities |
Voice
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
voice-call | Initiate and manage voice calls via Twilio/Telnyx |
twilio | Twilio SMS, calls, and messaging API |
sherpa-onnx-tts | Local on-device text-to-speech with Sherpa ONNX |
Utilities
| Skill | What it teaches |
|---|
weather | Current conditions and forecasts |
healthcheck | System and service health probes |
summarize | Document and conversation summarization patterns |
nano-pdf | Read and extract content from PDF files |
Installing skills from ClawHub
ClawHub is the community skill registry. To install a skill:
config_manage skills install <name>
"Install the HubSpot skill"
Security scanning
Every skill — bundled, community, or custom — is scanned by a static analyzer before installation. The scanner runs 8 rules that detect:
- Shell command execution (
exec, spawn, eval)
- Cryptocurrency mining patterns
- Data exfiltration attempts
- Suspicious network calls
- Obfuscated code
Skills that fail any rule are rejected with a clear reason. The scanner runs at install time and on gateway startup.
Skills are Markdown files and do not run code themselves. However, a malicious skill could instruct your agent to run harmful commands via existing tools. Always review skills from untrusted sources before installing.
Creating custom skills
A skill is a directory with a SKILL.md file. The file must start with YAML frontmatter:
skills/
└── my-service/
└── SKILL.md
SKILL.md frontmatter
---
name: my-service
description: Teach the agent how to use My Service API.
---
The skill-creator bundled skill can help you write a new skill. Tell your assistant: “Help me create a skill for [service name]” and it will guide you through the structure.
Auto-discovery
Any skill placed in a watched directory is automatically discovered on the next gateway restart. No registration or config change needed — the skill appears in the Capabilities catalog immediately.
Skill-equipped agent templates
Business agent templates declare a Skills: section that lists which skills to auto-install during agent creation. For example, the SEO specialist template automatically installs gsc-analytics and site-auditor into the new agent’s workspace.
You can add skills to any agent after creation:
"Install the HubSpot skill for the dental clinic agent"
