Skills
On-demand procedural memory, not a second system-prompt dump.
What a skill is
A skill is a reusable instruction package (SKILL.md). Front matter names and describes it; the body teaches the procedure. Hermes sees names and descriptions first: a vague description means the right skill may never load.
Skills use progressive disclosure: the catalog stays cheap; only the selected body enters the prompt. That is how a large library avoids burning the context window every turn.
- Skill = procedure / knowledge package (agentskills-compatible).
- Plugin / MCP = executable surface or product hooks, a different layer.
- Slash commands (for example /plan) and /learn can capture workflows as skills when supported.
- Install narrowly; run security scans on hub skills before trust.
- Pin or curator: critical skills should not vanish to automated cleanup when you outgrow defaults.
Desktop first
Skills tax the fixed budget
The skills index and every enabled tool schema load into the empty-session budget (see module 06, prompt-size). A large "install for later" catalog costs tokens before any task starts.
Proof
You listed skills for this profile, ran or inspected one, and wrote skills-notes.md with name and when to use it.
Stored on this device only, not sent anywhere.