Skill: Discover Skills

Purpose

Use Cases

• Initial bootstrap: The Agent starts with only this skill, then recommends which skills to install for the current task.
• On-demand extension: When a task requires a Skill that is not available, suggest the best matches and how to install them.
• Capability discovery: Help users find relevant skills from local indexes or public catalogs.

Behavior

1. Discovery: Prefer local

   skills/INDEX.md

   and

   manifest.json

   for the capability map. If the user asks for external options and network access is available, search a public catalog (e.g. SkillsMP).
2. Matching: Match the user task to

   name

   ,

   description

   , and

   tags

   ; select the best 1–3 skills.
3. Recommendation: Explain why each skill matches and whether it is local or external.
4. Installation guidance: Provide the exact install command for each recommended skill (e.g.

   npx skills add owner/repo --skill name

   ).
5. Confirmation: If the user asks the Agent to install, request explicit confirmation before running any command.

Input & Output

• Input:
  • Description of the current task.
  • Optional: list of already installed skills.
  • Optional: allowed sources (local only vs public catalogs).
• Output:
  • Recommended skills with rationale.
  • Install commands for each recommendation.

Restrictions

• No auto-install: Do not execute install commands without explicit user confirmation.
• No auto-injection: Do not fetch or inject remote SKILL.md content automatically.
• No bulk discovery: Avoid listing large catalogs; return only the top 1–3 matches.

Self-Check

• Relevance: Are the recommendations strongly related to the current task?
• Actionable: Are install commands concrete and correct?
• Consent: Did the Agent avoid running installs without explicit confirmation?

Examples

Example 1: Recommend a local skill

• Scenario: User asks for a standardized README.
• Steps:
  1. Agent checks

     skills/INDEX.md

     .
  2. Finds

     generate-standard-readme

     .
  3. Recommends it and provides:

     npx skills add nesnilnehc/ai-cortex --skill generate-standard-readme

     .

Example 2: Edge case - no local match

• Scenario: The task is niche and no local skill matches.
• Expected: Offer 1–3 external suggestions (if allowed) with install commands, or say "no match found" and ask for clarification. Do not install automatically.

Appendix: Output contract

npx skills add owner/repo --skill name

skills/INDEX.md

manifest.json