Skills

A skill is a reusable capability bundle for an agent. In Lobu, skills can add:

markdown instructions
MCP servers
system packages
network requirements

You declare an agent’s skills explicitly in lobu.config.ts. Bundled skills are enabled from the agent settings UI; local skills live in your project so you can commit and customize them.

Lobu Starter Skill

The bundled Lobu skill teaches an agent the project layout, lobu.config.ts, prompt files, evals, memory tools, watchers, and client setup. Two places to install it:

In your coding agent

Drop SKILL.md into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, or OpenClaw with one command:

npx skills add lobu-ai/lobu --skill lobu

The vercel-labs/skills CLI auto-detects your editor and writes to the right directory. Pin one host with -a <agent> (e.g. -a claude-code, -a cursor).

In a Lobu agent

Enable the bundled skill from the agent settings UI in app.lobu.ai. Local skills are declared on the agent in lobu.config.ts; see Declaring Skills below.

Starter Skills

Lobu ships one starter skill. Lobu also discovers local skills from skills/<name>/SKILL.md or agents/<agent-id>/skills/<name>/SKILL.md.

Product	Install	What it adds
Lobu	`Enable from the agent settings UI`	The Lobu starter skill in skills/lobu/ (includes memory guidance)
Local skill	`skills/<name>/SKILL.md` or `agents/<agent-id>/skills/<name>/SKILL.md`	A project-owned custom skill discovered automatically

Declaring Skills

List an agent’s skills explicitly via defineAgent({ skills: [...] }). Build each one two ways, both producing the same skill:

import { defineAgent, defineSkill, skillFromFile } from "@lobu/cli/config";

defineAgent({
  id: "support",
  skills: [
    // Inline: the body is a string, the rest is frontmatter as fields.
    defineSkill({
      name: "greet",
      description: "Greet a customer.",
      content: "Generate a warm, personalized greeting.",
    }),
    // From a file: reads a SKILL.md (a folder holding one, or a .md path),
    // resolved relative to lobu.config.ts.
    skillFromFile("./agents/support/skills/internal-api"),
  ],
});

Share a skill across agents by referencing the same handle in more than one agent’s skills. Skills are deduped by name. There is no folder auto-discovery: a SKILL.md is loaded only when an agent references it with skillFromFile.

Minimal Example

---
name: Internal API
description: Query our internal support API
nixPackages:
  - jq
network:
  allow:
    - api.example.com
mcpServers:
  support-api:
    url: https://api.example.com/mcp
    type: sse
---

# Internal API

Use the support API tools for account lookups and ticket status checks.

For instruction-only skills, omit frontmatter and keep only the markdown body.

What Does Not Belong In A Skill

Tool visibility and MCP approval bypasses belong in lobu.config.ts, not in SKILL.md
Destructive MCP tools still follow the normal approval flow unless the operator configures the agent tools.preApproved list

See Tool Policy for that split.

Skills Vs Memory

Skills teach the agent how to work and what capabilities to request.
Memory is the long-term, shared knowledge surface, enabled per-project via defineConfig({ org }) in lobu.config.ts.

Installing the Lobu starter skill teaches the workflow; the memory wiring itself lives in lobu.config.ts. See Memory.