Octocode Skills
Operate on standalone Agent Skill folders: SKILL.md plus optional references, scripts, and assets.
Flow: UNDERSTAND → DISCOVER → INSPECT → JUDGE → RECOMMEND → USER GATE → ACT → CLEANUP → REVIEW → VERIFY.
Lobby rules
SKILL.mdowns workflows, hard gates, and routes; each reference owns one concept and never restates the flow.- The lobby lists every reference and every script with when and how to use it, plus the workflows — no chunk is discoverable only by opening another file.
- MUST read and navigate between routed reference files to understand the complete flow; this skill is intentionally simplified into reference units for efficiency, including reference-to-reference handoffs.
- Inspect the real
SKILL.mdbefore quoting, judging, or installing; identify candidates by path and gate every write. - Stop when one fit is clear, two High candidates need a winner, three angles add nothing, or user/auth approval is pending.
- Ship a standalone folder with one owner per concept; prune dead or duplicated material before done. Assume no sibling skill is installed: name a sibling to load, never depend on its files.
Smart routes — load only what the current step needs
- When discovering, load
references/search-playbook.md; choose a source withreferences/discovery-surfaces.md, parse manifests withreferences/discovery-manifests.md, and recover withreferences/recovery.md— search broadly enough without inventing candidates. - When judging, load
references/quality-rubric.mdfor content fit andreferences/quality-signals.mdfor adoption/recency; when recommending, present throughreferences/output-format.md— rank evidence, not popularity alone. - When designing structure, load
references/skill-anatomy.md; write withreferences/skill-authoring.md, extract deterministic work withreferences/skill-scripts.md, and tune activation withreferences/description-tuning.md— keep the lobby lean and triggers strong. - When improving, load
references/skill-improve.md; choose review/refactor mode withreferences/self-improvement.md, clean withreferences/skill-cleanup.md, and usereferences/improve-loop.mdonly ifoctocode-graph-evalis unavailable — preserve intent and require measurable acceptance. - Before done, load
references/skill-review.md; interpret findings withreferences/skill-review-rules.md— enforce structure, navigation (lobby shows every chunk, routes state when/why, chunks declare entry and next hop, flow phases routed), prose, and standalone-folder gates. - When reviewing lifecycle automation, load
references/hooks.md; when adding it, loadreferences/hooks-add.mdand useassets/hooks/— map the correct host event and avoid silent no-ops. - When installing, load
references/install-gates.md, thenreferences/install-destinations.md; remote sources usereferences/fetch-remote.md, local creation usesreferences/create-local-skill.md, and vendor links usereferences/skill-sync.md— secure approval, destination, and provenance before writes. - When evidence needs code/package/repository research, load
references/octocode.md— delegate research mechanics instead of duplicating them. - When tracing source provenance, load
references/references.md; when authoring a source appendix, start fromreferences/references-template.md— keep claims auditable without bloating instructions.
Related routes
- Use
octocode-researchto verify candidates;octocode-prompt-optimizerto improve wording;octocode-graph-evalto measure behavior. - Use
octocode-rfc-generatorbefore a large skill-system redesign.
Scripts and done gate
- Run
scripts/skill-review.mjsafter any create/edit — zero ERROR is required. - Run
scripts/skill-sync.mjsonly after a dry-run and human approval — synchronize one source safely. scripts/skill-lint.mjsis an alias forscripts/skill-review.mjs— same gate under the older name.- A skill script needing Octocode home or env imports
./octocode-config.mjs, a build artifact injected bypackages/octocode-configinto every skill that imports it relatively — never import@octocodeai/configfrom a skill, or the folder breaks once installed alone. - When wiring a hook, copy
assets/hooks/example-hook.shintoscripts/hooks/and route it from frontmatter.
Installation
When creating or installing, follow the routed approval and destination gates, then run the review before reporting done.