🤖 Robotics Agent Skills
Production-grade robotics knowledge for AI coding agents.
Drop these SKILL.md files into Claude Code, Autohand Code, Cursor, Copilot-style
agents, or custom agent frameworks to make them generate better ROS1/ROS2 software:
safer nodes, correct QoS, lifecycle patterns, tests, launch files, Docker, bringup,
perception, and security.
Why This Exists
General-purpose coding agents know ROS syntax, but they often miss the robotics details
that matter in production: QoS compatibility, deterministic startup, bounded callbacks,
sensor health checks, safe shutdown, launch ergonomics, and testability.
This repo is the missing robotics engineering layer for AI coding agents.
Evidence: Same Prompt, With and Without Skills
The evals/ directory compares the same ROS2 package prompt run once with no skills and
once with the robotics skills loaded as context.
| Result | Without Skills | With Skills |
|---|
| Node architecture | Plain rclpy.Node; setup in constructor | Lifecycle node with configure/activate/deactivate/cleanup/shutdown |
| Sensor QoS | Default depth 10 for everything | Sensor QoS for camera/joints, reliable QoS for status |
| Sensor handling | Latest-message assignment | Thread-safe bounded buffers, drop counts, watchdogs |
| Timestamp sync | None | Sync offset checks and dropped-frame accounting |
| Tests | 0 lines | 601 lines |
| Structure | Single node module | Separate writer module and cleaner responsibilities |
| Config surface | 4 parameters | 13 parameters |
Full report: evals/EVAL_REPORT.md
Quick Start
Install selected skills into a project:
git clone https://github.com/arpitg1304/robotics-agent-skills.git
cd robotics-agent-skills
./install.sh --target /path/to/your/robot/.claude/skills --skills ros2 robotics-testing robot-bringup
For Autohand Code project skills:
./install.sh --target /path/to/your/robot/.autohand/skills --skills ros2 robotics-testing robot-bringup
Or copy manually:
cp -R skills/ros2 /path/to/your/robot/.claude/skills/
cp -R skills/robotics-testing /path/to/your/robot/.claude/skills/
Recommended Bundles
| Bundle | Skills |
|---|
| ROS2 application | ros2, robotics-software-principles, robotics-testing, robot-bringup |
| Robot perception | ros2, robot-perception, robotics-testing, docker-ros2-development |
| Production robot | ros2, robot-bringup, robotics-security, robotics-testing |
| Web dashboard | ros2, ros2-web-integration, robotics-security, robot-bringup |
| ROS1 maintenance | ros1, robotics-software-principles, robotics-testing |
Skills
| Skill | Description | Key Topics |
|---|
| robotics-software-principles | Design principles | SOLID for robotics, fail-safe defaults, rate separation, composability, graceful degradation |
| ros1 | ROS1 development | catkin, rospy, roscpp, nodelets, tf, actionlib, launch XML, migration |
| ros2 | ROS2 development | rclpy, rclcpp, DDS, QoS, lifecycle nodes, components, Python launch |
| robotics-design-patterns | Architecture patterns | Behavior trees, FSMs, HAL, safety systems, sensor fusion, sim-to-real |
| robot-perception | Perception systems | Cameras, LiDAR, depth, calibration, point clouds, detection, tracking, sensor fusion |
| robotics-testing | Testing strategies | pytest + ROS, launch_testing, mock hardware, golden files, CI/CD |
| docker-ros2-development | Docker + ROS2 | Multi-stage Dockerfiles, compose, DDS across containers, GPU passthrough, devcontainers |
| ros2-web-integration | Web integration | rosbridge, FastAPI/Flask bridges, WebSocket streaming, REST APIs, MJPEG/WebRTC, security |
| robot-bringup | System bringup | systemd services, launch composition, udev rules, watchdogs, log rotation, graceful shutdown |
How Agents Use These Skills
Claude Code
Copy or symlink the skills you need into your project's .claude/skills/ directory.
Claude Code auto-discovers SKILL.md files and triggers them based on the YAML
description field.
Autohand Code
Copy or symlink the skills you need into your project's .autohand/skills/
directory. User-level skills live under ~/.autohand/skills/; project-level
skills live under <project>/.autohand/skills/.
Claude Projects
Place the skill directories in your project's /mnt/skills/user/ directory.
Custom Agent Frameworks
Load the relevant SKILL.md as system-prompt context when a task matches the skill:
from pathlib import Path
SKILLS = {
"ros2": "skills/ros2/SKILL.md",
"testing": "skills/robotics-testing/SKILL.md",
"perception": "skills/robot-perception/SKILL.md",
"bringup": "skills/robot-bringup/SKILL.md",
"security": "skills/robotics-security/SKILL.md",
}
def load_skill(task_description: str) -> str:
text = task_description.lower()
for trigger, path in SKILLS.items():
if trigger in text:
return Path(path).read_text()
return ""
What Good Skills Contain
- Specific trigger descriptions so agents know when to load them.
- Working examples, not just prose.
- Robotics failure modes: QoS mismatches, stale transforms, unsafe shutdown, blocking callbacks.
- Production defaults: bounded queues, lifecycle management, observability, tests.
- Anti-patterns that show what to avoid.
Coverage Map
Robot System Architecture
├── Design Principles ---- robotics-software-principles/ (SOLID, safety, composability)
├── Middleware ----------- ros1/, ros2/
├── Behaviors ----------- robotics-design-patterns/ (BT, FSM)
├── Perception ---------- robot-perception/ (cameras, LiDAR, depth, calibration, fusion)
├── Planning ------------ robotics-design-patterns/ (motion planning)
├── Control ------------- robotics-design-patterns/ (control loops)
├── Safety -------------- robotics-design-patterns/ (watchdogs, limits)
├── Testing ------------- robotics-testing/ (unit, integration, sim)
├── Containerization ---- docker-ros2-development/ (Dockerfiles, compose, DDS, GPU)
├── Web Interfaces ------ ros2-web-integration/ (REST, WebSocket, streaming, dashboards)
├── System Bringup ------ robot-bringup/ (systemd, udev, watchdogs, boot sequence)
├── Security ------------ robotics-security/ (SROS2, hardening, e-stop isolation)
└── Deployment ---------- ros2/ (production checklist, CI/CD)
Roadmap
High-impact skills to add next:
robot-navigation/ - Nav2, SLAM, localization, costmaps, planners, recovery behaviors.robot-manipulation/ - MoveIt2, grasp planning, planning scenes, TF, pick-and-place.ros2-control/ - hardware interfaces, controllers, update loops, real-time pitfalls.robot-simulation/ - Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, sim clock, resets, domain randomization.robot-description/ - URDF, Xacro, inertials, collision meshes, robot_state_publisher.robot-debugging/ - ros2 doctor, rqt, tracing, rosbag replay, diagnostics.robotics-data-pipelines/ - RLDS, LeRobot, Zarr, dataset curation, format conversion.multi-robot-systems/ - namespaces, fleets, DDS partitions, task allocation.
Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the skill format
and review checklist.
