Skills system

Procedural memory that grows with you — autonomous skill creation, self-improvement, and the Skills Hub

Skills are markdown files containing instructions that Hermes loads on demand. They are the agent’s procedural memory: each skill captures a proven, reusable approach to a specific type of task — not general facts, but step-by-step know-how.

What skills are

A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file plus optional supporting files (references, templates, scripts, assets). When you invoke a skill — either by name or via /skills — the agent injects its contents into the conversation as a user message, preserving Anthropic prompt caching.

Skills are distinct from MEMORY.md (broad declarative facts) and USER.md (your profile). A skill answers the question: how do I do this specific type of task?

Skills location

All skills live in ~/.hermes/skills/. The directory is organized by category:

~/.hermes/skills/
├── my-skill/
│   ├── SKILL.md
│   ├── references/
│   ├── templates/
│   └── scripts/
└── category-name/
    └── another-skill/
        └── SKILL.md

Built-in skill categories

Hermes ships with a library of bundled skills covering common categories:

Category	Description
software-development	Coding workflows, debugging, PR review, architecture
research	Literature search, summarization, citation
productivity	Task planning, meeting prep, writing assistance
data-science	Data analysis, visualization, ML workflows
diagramming	Mermaid, PlantUML, architecture diagrams
creative	Writing, brainstorming, ideation
email	Email drafting and triage
github	Repository management, issue triage, PR workflows
media	Image, audio, and video processing
note-taking	Structured note capture and organization
social-media	Content creation and scheduling
mlops	Model training, deployment, monitoring
smart-home	Home Assistant automations and controls
domain	Domain-specific professional workflows

Autonomous skill creation

After completing a complex task, Hermes may offer to save the approach as a new skill. This happens when the agent determines the solution is novel enough to be worth keeping — a self-curating learning loop.

You can also ask the agent to create a skill at any time:

Save what we just did as a skill called "deploy-to-fly"

The agent will create ~/.hermes/skills/deploy-to-fly/SKILL.md with structured instructions, code examples, and any relevant references.

Skills self-improvement

When you use a skill and the agent finds a better approach, it can update the skill in place. This means skills improve over time through use — the instructions become more accurate, edge cases get documented, and outdated steps get removed.

The /skills slash command

The /skills command is your interactive interface for the skills library. Use it both in the CLI and on messaging platforms:

Subcommand	Description
/skills	Open the interactive browser
/skills search <query>	Search skills by name or description
/skills install <name>	Install a skill from the Hub
/skills inspect <name>	View a skill’s full contents
/skills enable <name>	Enable a bundled or installed skill
/skills disable <name>	Disable a skill from autoloading

Installing a skill from the Hub

1. Search the Hub

   Run /skills search <topic> to find community skills on agentskills.io. Results show the skill name, description, author, and trust level.

2. Inspect before installing

   Run /skills inspect <identifier> to read the full SKILL.md before installing. Skills are security-scanned automatically.

3. Install the skill

   Run /skills install <identifier> to download and install the skill to ~/.hermes/skills/. Hub skills are saved under a subdirectory matching their source.

4. Invoke the skill

   Either type /<skill-name> as a slash command, or ask Hermes directly: “use the deploy-to-fly skill”.

Skills Hub

The Skills Hub at agentskills.io hosts community-contributed skills. Skills are tagged by category and trust level:

• Official — bundled with Hermes, maintained by Nous Research
• Trusted — vetted community contributions
• Community — unvetted community contributions (inspect before installing)

All skills downloaded from the Hub are scanned for injection and exfiltration patterns before installation.

Creating custom skills manually

Create a directory in ~/.hermes/skills/ with a SKILL.md file:

mkdir -p ~/.hermes/skills/my-workflow

SKILL.md format

A well-structured skill file includes:

# Skill name

Brief description of what this skill is for.

## When to use this skill

- Use case 1
- Use case 2

## Steps

1. First step with specific commands or instructions
2. Second step
3. ...

## Notes

- Edge cases, caveats, or warnings
- Known issues and workarounds

## References

- Link or file reference

Supporting files go in references/, templates/, scripts/, or assets/ subdirectories.

Optional skills directory

You can point Hermes at an additional skills directory using the HERMES_OPTIONAL_SKILLS_DIR environment variable. This is useful for team-shared skills stored in a repository:

export HERMES_OPTIONAL_SKILLS_DIR=/path/to/team-skills

Skills in the optional directory appear alongside skills in ~/.hermes/skills/.

Compatibility

Hermes skills follow the agentskills.io open standard. Skills you create or install are portable to any agent that implements this standard.