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. Skill bodies don’t live in context permanently, but each skill’s name + when_to_use summary enters the session with the catalog (about a 20KB budget); installing too many squeezes that catalog budget and makes selection worse, so disable the ones you don’t use often.
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 — fixed SOPs like these trigger with one sentence once written as a skill
- 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.
Skill Sources
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Built into LanMate | Ships with the app, ready out of the box |
| User installed | Installed from the skill marketplace or imported locally |
| Organization distributed | Enabled centrally by admins |
| Connector/plugin companion | Installed automatically with the matching connector or plugin |
| Project skill | .lanmate/agent/skills/ inside a project, effective only for that project |
| Globally shared | ~/.agents/skills, available to all projects; the Skills page has a separate tab and a master switch |
Installing a connector or plugin tries to install its companion skills too; if that fails or a skill shows “installed but unmanaged”, the extensions page flags it and you can click “Take over” to fill the gap.
Skills Page
Open the extensions management page from “Extensions” in the sidebar and switch to the “Skills” tab:
- Browse by category (writing / project management / analysis / design / automation, and more)
- Search by skill name or description
- Toggle enable/disable (takes effect next session)
- Click a skill card for details (description, version, how to use)
Installation
- Find the skill in the marketplace
- Click “Install” — the zip is downloaded and extracted to the user directory
- A security audit runs automatically before installation
You can also import a local zip manually.
Security Audit
Installation scans SKILL.md and bundled scripts for:
- Instructions that read keys/credentials
- Remote execution or download commands
- Instructions hidden from the user (prompt injection)
Skills that fail the audit cannot be installed, with the specific reason displayed.
Invoking Skills
The agent matches skills to tasks automatically. You can also be explicit:
Use the weekly report skill to generate this week's reportWhen a skill is named explicitly, installed skills take priority over built-in structured tools. You can also type / in the input box and pick the target skill from the skills section to force-invoke it, or use /skill:<skill-name> to invoke that skill directly.
Built-in Tools vs Skills
LanMate wraps its Office capabilities as a set of structured tools: docx / xlsx / pptx / pdf dispatch by operation; open files use office_read / office_edit, while closed files use office_file for conversion, template filling, revision comparison, and external-link maintenance. Charts and diagrams use chart_create / diagram_create, and OCR uses ocr_image / ocr_pdf. Parameters are stable and approvals auditable; unless a skill is named explicitly, structured tools take precedence, with skills as fallback and extension.