/acquiring-skills

name: acquiring-skills
description: Discover and install skills from Hermes, ClawHub, GitHub, and other registries. Load this skill whenever a user asks for a capability you don't already have — image generation, social media, email, calendar, finance, DevOps, search, browser automation, etc.

Acquiring New Skills

This skill teaches you how to safely discover and install skills from external sources, including the Hermes Skills Hub, ClawHub (OpenClaw), GitHub repositories, and Letta community repos.

SAFETY - READ THIS FIRST

Skills can contain:

• **Markdown files** (.md) - Risk: prompt injection, misleading instructions
• **Scripts** (Python, TypeScript, Bash) - Risk: malicious code execution

Trusted Sources (no user approval needed for download)

• `https://github.com/letta-ai/skills` - Letta's community skills
• `https://github.com/anthropics/skills` - Anthropic's official skills
• `official/*` - Hermes official optional skills (from `NousResearch/hermes-agent`)

Untrusted Sources (ALWAYS verify with user)

For ANY source other than the above: 1. Ask the user before downloading 2. Explain where the skill comes from 3. Get explicit approval

This includes ClawHub community skills and arbitrary GitHub repos.

Script Safety

Even for skills from trusted sources, ALWAYS: 1. Read and inspect any scripts before executing them 2. Understand what the script does 3. Be wary of network calls, file operations, or system commands

Cross-Harness Compatibility

Skills from Hermes, OpenClaw, and other ecosystems were written for their own harnesses. After installing, **read the full SKILL.md before using it** and watch for:

• **Harness-specific commands** — e.g. `hermes skills config`, `openclaw plugins install`, `/curator`, `/kanban`. These won't exist in Letta. Determine whether the underlying capability can be achieved with Letta tools (Bash, the Skill tool, etc.) or if the skill simply doesn't apply.
• **Harness-specific paths and state** — e.g. `~/.hermes/skills/`, `~/.openclaw/skills/`, `~/.hermes/config.yaml`. Letta stores skills in the agent's memfs (`<memory-dir>/skills/`). Adapt any path references.
• **Toolset assumptions** — some skills assume specific tool names or APIs (e.g. Hermes `web` toolset, OpenClaw `browser` tool). Map these to the equivalent Letta tools or note when no equivalent exists.
• **Platform gating** — skills may declare `platforms: [cli, discord, telegram]` in frontmatter. Ignore platform restrictions that don't apply to Letta.
• **Environment variables** — skills may require API keys or credentials. Check `requires.env` in frontmatter and note any setup the user needs to do.

If a skill's core knowledge (procedures, API references, best practices) is useful but its commands are harness-specific, adapt the instructions mentally or suggest the user install the relevant CLI tool. If a skill is entirely about harness-specific plumbing with no transferable knowledge, skip it and look for an alternative.

When to Use This Skill

**DO use** when:

• User asks for something where a skill likely exists (e.g., "help me test this webapp", "generate a PDF report")
• You think "there's probably a skill that would bootstrap my understanding"
• User explicitly asks about available skills or extending capabilities

**DON'T use** for:

• General coding tasks you can already handle
• Simple bug fixes or feature implementations
• Tasks where you have sufficient knowledge

Ask Before Searching (Interactive Mode)

If you recognize a task that might have an associated skill, **ask the user first**:

> "This sounds like something where a community skill might help. Would you like me to search for available skills? I can check the Hermes catalog, ClawHub, or GitHub. Or I can start coding right away if you prefer."

The user may prefer to start immediately rather than wait for skill discovery.

Only proceed with skill acquisition if the user agrees.

Skill Sources

1. Hermes Skills Hub (NousResearch)

Hermes has a full Skills Hub with 88k+ skills across multiple registries. It includes official optional skills shipped with the project, plus community skills from skills.sh, well-known endpoints, GitHub repos, ClawHub, LobeHub, and browse.sh.

**Searching Hermes skills:**

The Hermes CLI has built-in search and browse:

hermes skills browse                              # Browse all hub skills (official first)
hermes skills browse --source official            # Browse only official optional skills
hermes skills search kubernetes                   # Search all sources
hermes skills search react --source skills-sh     # Search the skills.sh directory
hermes skills search https://mintlify.com/docs --source well-known
hermes skills inspect openai/skills/k8s           # Preview before installing

The web catalog is at https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/skills.

Hermes hub sources:

| Source | Example identifier | Notes | |--------|--------------------|-------| | `official` | `official/security/1password` | Optional skills shipped with Hermes | | `skills-sh` | `skills-sh/vercel-labs/agent-skills/vercel-react-best-practices` | skills.sh directory | | `well-known` | `well-known:https://mintlify.com/docs/.well-known/skills/mintlify` | Skills hosted at `/.well-known/skills/` | | `url` | `https://sharethis.chat/SKILL.md` | Direct URL to a single SKILL.md | | `github` | `openai/skills/k8s` | GitHub repo/path | | `clawhub` | ClawHub registry skills | ClawHub marketplace | | `lobehub` | LobeHub registry skills | LobeHub marketplace | | `browse-sh` | `browse-sh/airbnb.com/search-listings-ddgioa` | browse.sh crawled skills |

If Hermes is not installed, you can browse the official optional skills directly:

# Browse the catalog on GitHub
# https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/tree/main/optional-skills
# Categories: autonomous-ai-agents, blockchain, creative, devops, finance,
#             health, mcp, mlops, productivity, research, secu