#Hermes Agent Skills

Skills are the vehicle for Hermes's "self-improvement": they distill problems you've solved into reusable, shareable units of capability that get stronger with use.

#What Is a Skill?

A skill is a reusable procedure/capability packaged in a standard format under ~/.hermes/skills/. Unlike a one-off tool call, a skill is named, saved, and searchable:

• Reusable: next time a similar problem appears, just invoke it
• Shareable: follows the agentskills.io open standard for export/import
• Auto-generated: after solving a complex task, Hermes writes the method into a skill document
• Self-improving: refines more reliable paths through use

Hit a hard problem → Hermes works out a solution → writes SKILL.md → reuse next time

#SKILL.md Format

Skills are described in SKILL.md / .skill files following the open standard. A skill typically contains:

• Name and description: used to judge relevance during retrieval
• Trigger / applicability
• Steps: which tools to call, in what order
• (optional) Script: an executable definition in Python/YAML

Because it follows the agentskills.io open standard, community skills are reusable across agents — a key value of the Hermes skill ecosystem.

#Three Ways to Get Skills

#Using Skills in Conversation

Browse and run skills with slash commands:

/skills            # List available skills
/<skill-name>      # Run a specific skill

For example:

/skills            # See what's available
/github-pr         # Run a "create PR" skill (illustrative)

Hermes can also invoke a fitting skill automatically when it judges it relevant.

#Auto-Generated Skills: The Heart of Self-Improvement

This is what sets Hermes apart from ordinary assistants:

1. You hand it a new, complex task
2. It explores step by step, calling tools, and eventually solves it
3. It writes "how to do it" into a SKILL.md
4. Next similar task → invoke that skill directly, fast and reliable

Over time, your Hermes accumulates a skill library tailored to your workflow — the essence of a "growing agent."

#Writing Your Own Skills

You can also create skill files by hand under ~/.hermes/skills/. Recommendations:

• Clear name, precise description: retrieval relies on the description
• Single responsibility: one skill does one thing, easy to compose
• Composable: build complex flows from small skills
• Verify with /skills that it can be found and run

#Practical Tips

• Prioritize distilling things you ask Hermes to do repeatedly into skills
• Use community skills to avoid reinventing the wheel
• Periodically review your skill library; prune stale/low-quality ones (keep signal high)
• Teams can share one skill set for a consistent workflow

#Next Steps

• Memory System — skills handle "doing," memory handles "remembering"
• Slash Commands — /skills and related commands
• Multi-Agent — run skills in parallel across sub-agents