Skills system

Skills are Hermes' procedural memory: packaged instructions, scripts, and resources the agent creates, reuses, and improves over time.

How skills work

1. Hermes encounters a repeatable task.
2. It packages the procedure into a skill directory with a SKILL.md.
3. Next time a similar task appears, Hermes loads the skill automatically.
4. During use, the skill gets refined.

Skills follow the agentskills.io open standard, so they're portable across compatible agents.

Skill anatomy

~/.hermes/skills/update-vitepress-sidebar/
├── SKILL.md           # when to use + procedure
├── references/
│   └── config-format.md
└── scripts/
    └── add-sidebar-entry.sh

Viewing skills

/skills
/skills update-vitepress-sidebar

Creating skills manually

You can write skills yourself instead of waiting for Hermes to create them:

---
name: build-vitepress-docs
description: Use when the user asks to build or preview VitePress documentation.
---

# Build VitePress Docs

## Steps
1. cd to project root (check AGENTS.md for path)
2. Run `npm run build`
3. Report any errors with file and line number
4. If successful, note output path: docs/.vitepress/dist

Save to ~/.hermes/skills/build-vitepress-docs/SKILL.md.

Skills Hub

Hermes can pull community skills from the Skills Hub. Useful for common tasks, but review before installing (especially for offline/security-sensitive setups).

Real example from my workflow

After adding pages to this handbook several times, I created a skill that:

1. Creates the markdown file in the right folder.
2. Adds the sidebar entry to config.mts.
3. Runs npm run build to verify no dead links.

Now I say "add a page about X" and Hermes follows the full procedure.

Tips

• One skill, one job.
• Write clear description in frontmatter (Hermes uses it to decide when to load).
• Review agent-created skills before relying on them for destructive operations.

Next: Built-in tools.