Skills
Skills are the agent’s “capability manuals”: write the how-to, constraints, and steps for a class of tasks into a file, and the agent loads it on demand when a related task appears. Skills don’t sit in context permanently—they’re read only when needed, so installing many skills never slows down daily conversations.
What Skills Are Good For
- Consistent output: encode team design specs, document templates, or brand requirements as a skill so every deliverable matches
- Repeating workflows: weekly-report formats, data-cleaning steps, release checklists—write once, trigger with one sentence
- Sharing expertise: your hard-won methods can be shared with the team; the skill marketplace lets you install skills others published
Skills vs Project Context vs Connectors
| Skills | Project context | Connectors | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loading | On demand, only for related tasks | Fully injected every session | Provide callable tools |
| Form | SKILL.md + scripts/templates | AGENTS.md / RULES.md | Standalone programs + authorization |
| Best for | Scenario-specific methodologies | Project-wide constraints | External services |
Project context is the “team rulebook”, always in effect; a skill is a “specialist handbook”, opened only when needed.
Four Tiers
| Tier | Source | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in | Built into LanMate | Core capabilities, always available |
| builtin | LanMate bundled | 32 official lanmate-* skills |
| user | User installed | Marketplace downloads or local imports |
| global | Shared | ~/.agents/skills/ shared across agents |
Skills Page
Browse by category, search by name/description, toggle enable/disable (next session), and view details.
Installation
- Find a skill in the marketplace
- Click “Install” — downloads and extracts to user directory
- Security audit runs automatically before installation
Security Audit
Scans SKILL.md and bundled scripts for:
- Reading keys/credentials
- Remote execution commands
- Hidden instructions (prompt injection)
Failing skills cannot be installed, with the reason displayed.
Invoking Skills
The agent auto-matches skills to tasks. Force-invoke explicitly:
Use /lanmate-docx to generate a contractBuilt-in Tools vs Skills
Common office backends (Word/Excel/PPT/PDF/OCR/Charts) are wrapped as first-class tools with stable parameters and auditable approval. Structured tools are preferred; skills serve as fallback and extension.