diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 98534c1..247e4a1 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,21 +1,58 @@ # Agent Skills -[Agent Skills](https://agentskills.io) are a simple, open format for giving agents new capabilities and expertise. +[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/badge/Discord-Join-5865F2?logo=discord&logoColor=white)](https://discord.gg/MKPE9g8aUy) -Skills are folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that agents can discover and use to perform better at specific tasks. Write once, use everywhere. +A standardized way to give AI agents new capabilities and expertise. -## Getting Started +## What are Agent Skills? + +Agent Skills are a lightweight, open format for extending AI agent capabilities with specialized knowledge and workflows. + +At its core, a skill is a folder containing a `SKILL.md` file. This file includes metadata (`name` and `description`, at minimum) and instructions that tell an agent how to perform a specific task. Skills can also bundle scripts, reference materials, templates, and other resources. + +``` +my-skill/ +├── SKILL.md # Required: metadata + instructions +├── scripts/ # Optional: executable code +├── references/ # Optional: documentation +├── assets/ # Optional: templates, resources +└── ... # Any additional files or directories +``` + +## Why Agent Skills? + +Agents are increasingly capable, but often don't have the context they need to do real work reliably. Skills solve this by packaging procedural knowledge and company-, team-, and user-specific context into portable, version-controlled folders that agents load on demand. This gives agents: + +- **Domain expertise**: Capture specialized knowledge — from legal review processes to data analysis pipelines to presentation formatting — as reusable instructions and resources. +- **Repeatable workflows**: Turn multi-step tasks into consistent, auditable procedures. +- **Cross-product reuse**: Build a skill once and use it across any skills-compatible agent. + +## How do Agent Skills work? + +Agents load skills through **progressive disclosure**, in three stages: + +1. **Discovery**: At startup, agents load only the name and description of each available skill, just enough to know when it might be relevant. + +2. **Activation**: When a task matches a skill's description, the agent reads the full `SKILL.md` instructions into context. + +3. **Execution**: The agent follows the instructions, optionally executing bundled code or loading referenced files as needed. + +Full instructions load only when a task calls for them, so agents can keep many skills on hand with only a small context footprint. + +## Where can I use Agent Skills? + +Agent Skills are supported by a large number of AI tools and agentic clients — see the [Client Showcase](https://agentskills.io/clients) to explore some of them! + +## Getting started - **[Documentation](https://agentskills.io)** — Guides and tutorials - **[Specification](https://agentskills.io/specification)** — Format details - **[Example Skills](https://github.com/anthropics/skills)** — See what's possible -- **[Discord](https://discord.gg/MKPE9g8aUy)** — Join the discussion! +- **[Discord](https://discord.gg/MKPE9g8aUy)** — Share what you're building! -This repo contains the specification, documentation, and reference SDK. Also see a list of example skills [here](https://github.com/anthropics/skills). +## Open development -## About - -Agent Skills is an open format maintained by [Anthropic](https://anthropic.com) and open to contributions from the community. +The Agent Skills format was originally developed by [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/), released as an open standard, and has been adopted by a growing number of agent products. The standard is open to contributions from the broader ecosystem — see [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md) for how to get involved. ## License