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Skills

A skill is a reusable instruction bundle — a SKILL.md with a name, a short description, and a body of guidance the model should follow when the task calls for it. Skills install from the internet and their instructions are injected into agent and primary-runtime context.

Use a skill when you want to teach the workspace how to do something (fill PDF forms, write release notes a certain way, follow a house code style) without repeating the instructions in every message.

Install from the internet

Settings → Skills → Install from the internet fetches a SKILL.md and stores the skill in a per-workspace catalog (.hive/skills.json). The same reference forms as MCP work:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/owner/repo/main/pdf/SKILL.md
https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/main/pdf/SKILL.md   # blob URLs become raw
owner/repo/pdf/SKILL.md                                # shorthand, ref defaults to main
https://skills.sh/some/skill                           # any https host

SKILL.md format

YAML-ish frontmatter (all optional) followed by the instruction body:

---
name: PDF Filler
description: Fill PDF forms from structured data
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash
---
# PDF Filler

Use `pdftk` to fill forms. Always validate the output with
`pdftk … dump_data_fields` before returning.
  • name → the skill's display name (falls back to the folder name).
  • description → the one-line summary shown in the roster.
  • allowed-tools → advisory list of tools the skill expects.
  • Everything after the frontmatter is the instructions body.

No frontmatter is fine — the whole file becomes the instructions and the URL's folder name is used as the skill name.

How skills reach the model (autoload)

Each installed skill has an Autoload toggle:

  • Autoloaded skills inject their full instructions into every turn's system context, as a ## Skill: <name> block — the model follows them when relevant. They're kept at the head of context even when long chats are condensed to fit the model's window.
  • Non-autoloaded skills are listed by name + summary only, so the model knows they exist and can ask to use one, without spending tokens on the full body.

Toggle autoload off for skills you only need occasionally; toggle it on for your house rules.

Where it lives

Installed skills are workspace-level: stored in .hive/skills.json, seeded into every chat in the workspace, and surviving relaunch. Remove a skill from Settings → Skills to drop it from the catalog.

Public skills only, for now

Skill fetches are unauthenticated, so private-repo SKILL.md files aren't supported yet. Host the skill at a public raw URL or via skills.sh.