• Guides & Tutorials
• Working with Skills

Working with Skills

Skills are on-demand knowledge documents that teach Hermes how to handle specific tasks — from generating ASCII art to managing GitHub PRs. This guide walks you through using them day to day.

For the full technical reference, seeSkills System.

Finding Skills​

Every Hermes installation ships with bundled skills. See what’s available:

# In any chat session:/skills# Or from the CLI:hermes skills list

This shows a compact list with names and descriptions:

ascii-art         Generate ASCII art using pyfiglet, cowsay, boxes...arxiv             Search and retrieve academic papers from arXiv...github-pr-workflow Full PR lifecycle — create branches, commit...plan              Plan mode — inspect context, write a markdown...excalidraw        Create hand-drawn style diagrams using Excalidraw...

Searching for a Skill​

# Search by keyword/skills search docker/skills search music

The Skills Hub​

Official optional skills (heavier or niche skills not active by default) are available via the Hub:

# Browse official optional skills/skills browse# Search the hub/skills search blockchain

Using a Skill​

Every installed skill is automatically a slash command. Just type its name:

# Load a skill and give it a task/ascii-art Make a banner that says "HELLO WORLD"/plan Design a REST API for a todo app/github-pr-workflow Create a PR for the auth refactor# Just the skill name (no task) loads it and lets you describe what you need/excalidraw

You can also trigger skills through natural conversation — ask Hermes to use a specific skill, and it will load it via theskill_viewtool.

skill_view

Progressive Disclosure​

Skills use a token-efficient loading pattern. The agent doesn’t load everything at once:

1. skills_list()— compact list of all skills (~3k tokens). Loaded at session start.
2. skill_view(name)— full SKILL.md content for one skill. Loaded when the agent decides it needs that skill.
3. skill_view(name, file_path)— a specific reference file within the skill. Only loaded if needed.

skills_list() skill_view(name) skill_view(name, file_path)

This means skills don’t cost tokens until they’re actually used.

Installing from the Hub​

Official optional skills ship with Hermes but aren’t active by default. Install them explicitly:

# Install an official optional skillhermes skills install official/research/arxiv# Install from the hub in a chat session/skills install official/creative/songwriting-and-ai-music# Install a single-file SKILL.md directly from any HTTP(S) URLhermes skills install https://sharethis.chat/SKILL.md/skills install https://example.com/SKILL.md --name my-skill

What happens:

1. The skill directory is copied to~/.hermes/skills/
2. It appears in yourskills_listoutput
3. It becomes available as a slash command

~/.hermes/skills/ skills_list

Installed skills take effect in new sessions. If you want it available in the current session, use/resetto start fresh, or add–nowto invalidate the prompt cache immediately (costs more tokens on the next turn).

/reset --now

Verifying Installation​

# Check it's therehermes skills list | grep arxiv# Or in chat/skills search arxiv

Plugin-Provided Skills​

Plugins can bundle their own skills using namespaced names (plugin:skill). This prevents name collisions with built-in skills.

plugin:skill

# Load a plugin skill by its qualified nameskill_view("superpowers:writing-plans")# Built-in skill with the same base name is unaffectedskill_view("writing-plans")

Plugin skills arenotlisted in the system prompt and don’t appear inskills_list. They’re opt-in — load them explicitly when you know a plugin provides one. When loaded, the agent sees a banner listing sibling skills from the same plugin.

skills_list

For how to ship skills in your own plugin, seeBuild a Hermes Plugin → Bundle skills.

Configuring Skill Settings​

Some skills declare configuration they need in their frontmatter:

metadata:  hermes:    config:      - key: tenor.api_key        description: "Tenor API key for GIF search"        prompt: "Enter your Tenor API key"        url: "https://developers.google.com/tenor/guides/quickstart"

When a skill with config is first loaded, Hermes prompts you for the values. They’re stored inconfig.yamlunderskills.config.*.

config.yaml skills.config.*

Manage skill config from the CLI:

# Interactive config for a specific skillhermes skills config gif-search# View all skill confighermes config show | grep '^skills\.config'

Creating Your Own Skill​

Skills are just markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Creating one takes under five minutes.

1. Create the Directory​

mkdir -p ~/.hermes/skills/my-category/my-skill

2. Write SKILL.md​

---name: my-skilldescription: Brief description of what this skill doesversion: 1.0.0metadata:  hermes:    tags: [my-tag, automation]    category: my-category---# My Skill## When to UseUse this skill when the user asks about [specific topic] or needs to [specific task].## Procedure1. First, check if [prerequisite] is available2. Run `command --with-flags`3. Parse the output and present results## Pitfalls- Common failure: [description]. Fix: [solution]- Watch out for [edge case]## VerificationRun `check-command` to confirm the result is correct.

3. Add Reference Files (Optional)​

Skills can include supporting files the agent loads on demand:

my-skill/├── SKILL.md                    # Main skill document├── references/│   ├── api-docs.md             # API reference the agent can consult│   └── examples.md             # Example inputs/outputs├── templates/│   └── config.yaml             # Template files the agent can use└── scripts/    └── setup.sh                # Scripts the agent can execute

Reference these in your SKILL.md:

For API details, load the reference: `skill_view("my-skill", "references/api-docs.md")`

4. Test It​

Start a new session and try your skill:

hermes chat -q "/my-skill help me with the thing"

The skill appears automatically — no registration needed. Drop it in~/.hermes/skills/and it’s live.

~/.hermes/skills/

The agent can also create and update skills itself usingskill_manage. After solving a complex problem, Hermes may offer to save the approach as a skill for next time.

skill_manage

Per-Platform Skill Management​

Control which skills are available on which platforms:

hermes skills

This opens an interactive TUI where you can enable or disable skills per platform (CLI, Telegram, Discord, etc.). Useful when you want certain skills only available in specific contexts — for example, keeping development skills off Telegram.

Skills vs Memory​

Both are persistent across sessions, but they serve different purposes:

Rule of thumb:If you’d put it in a reference document, it’s a skill. If you’d put it on a sticky note, it’s memory.

Tips​

Keep skills focused.A skill that tries to cover “all of DevOps” will be too long and too vague. A skill that covers “deploy a Python app to Fly.io” is specific enough to be genuinely useful.

Let the agent create skills.After a complex multi-step task, Hermes will often offer to save the approach as a skill. Say yes — these agent-authored skills capture the exact workflow including pitfalls that were discovered along the way.

Use categories.Organize skills into subdirectories (~/.hermes/skills/devops/,~/.hermes/skills/research/, etc.). This keeps the list manageable and helps the agent find relevant skills faster.

~/.hermes/skills/devops/ ~/.hermes/skills/research/

Update skills when they go stale.If you use a skill and hit issues not covered by it, tell Hermes to update the skill with what you learned. Skills that aren’t maintained become liabilities.

For the complete skills reference — frontmatter fields, conditional activation, external directories, and more — seeSkills System.