Acquiring Skills

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:

bashCopy code
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:

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

bashCopy code
# 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, security, ...

# Or clone and browse locally
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent.git /tmp/hermes-browse
ls /tmp/hermes-browse/optional-skills/
ls /tmp/hermes-browse/optional-skills/finance/
rm -rf /tmp/hermes-browse

Installing Hermes skills into Letta uses the official/ prefix (for official optional skills):

bashCopy code
letta skills install official/finance/stocks
letta skills install official/blockchain/solana
letta skills install official/research/duckduckgo-search
letta skills install official/mlops/flash-attention
letta skills install official/creative/meme-generation

The official/<category>/<skill> form clones NousResearch/hermes-agent and copies from optional-skills/<category>/<skill>.

For non-official Hermes hub skills, use the GitHub URL or shorthand form to install into Letta (e.g., letta skills install openai/skills/k8s).

2. ClawHub (OpenClaw)

ClawHub (https://clawhub.ai) is the public registry for OpenClaw skills and plugins. It hosts community-contributed skills with versioning, security scans, and search.

Searching ClawHub skills:

bashCopy code
# Browse the web registry
# https://clawhub.ai

# Or use the clawhub CLI if installed
clawhub search "calendar"
clawhub search "screenshot"
clawhub explore

# Or search via the API directly
curl -s "https://clawhub.ai/api/v1/skills?q=calendar" | jq '.items[].slug'

Installing ClawHub skills uses the clawhub/ or clawhub: prefix:

bashCopy code
letta skills install clawhub/nano-banana-pro
letta skills install clawhub:nano-banana-pro
letta skills install clawhub:nano-banana-pro@1.0.1      # pin a version
letta skills install https://clawhub.ai/skills/my-skill  # URL form also works

Note: A bare slug like letta skills install nano-banana-pro will NOT resolve through ClawHub — you must include the clawhub/ or clawhub: prefix.

3. GitHub Repositories

Any GitHub repository containing a SKILL.md can be installed directly.

bashCopy code
# Full repo (installs from repo root)
letta skills install https://github.com/owner/repo

# Subdirectory (tree URL)
letta skills install https://github.com/owner/repo/tree/main/path/to/skill

# SKILL.md blob URL (installs parent directory)
letta skills install https://github.com/owner/repo/blob/main/path/to/skill/SKILL.md

# Shorthand: owner/repo/path
letta skills install owner/repo/path/to/skill

4. Letta & Anthropic Community Repos

These can be installed via the GitHub URL forms above, or manually cloned and copied.

The letta skills install Command

The CLI handles downloading, placing the skill in the agent's memory, and committing the change:

bashCopy code
letta skills install <source> --agent $AGENT_ID [--force]

Your agent ID is always available as $AGENT_ID in the environment. Pass it explicitly with --agent to install into your own memfs:

bashCopy code
letta skills install official/finance/stocks --agent $AGENT_ID
letta skills install clawhub/nano-banana-pro --agent $AGENT_ID

Also available as a top-level alias: letta install <source> --agent $AGENT_ID.

Managing installed skills:

bashCopy code
letta skills list --agent $AGENT_ID
letta skills delete <skill-name> --agent $AGENT_ID

Installation Locations

When using letta skills install, skills are placed in the agent's memfs at <memory-dir>/skills/<skill-name>/.

For manual installation:

Rule: Default to agent-scoped. Use project for repo-specific skills. Use global only if all agents should inherit the skill.

Manual Download (When CLI Install Isn't Available)

Skills are directories containing SKILL.md and optionally scripts/, references/, examples/.

bashCopy code
# Clone, copy, cleanup
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/skills /tmp/skills-temp
cp -r /tmp/skills-temp/skills/webapp-testing ~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/memory/skills/
rm -rf /tmp/skills-temp

Registering New Skills

After installing (via CLI or manual copy), skills are automatically discovered on the next message. Skills are discovered from ~/.letta/skills/, .skills/, and agent-scoped ~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/memory/skills/ directories.

Search Strategy

When looking for a skill to solve a user's problem:

1. Search Hermes Skills Hub first — hermes skills search <query> searches 88k+ skills across all registries. If Hermes CLI isn't available, browse the official optional-skills on GitHub (finance, mlops, blockchain, devops, research, creative, security, etc.).
2. Search ClawHub — community registry with versioning. Use clawhub search or the web UI.
3. Search GitHub — look for repos with SKILL.md files. Try github.com/letta-ai/skills and github.com/anthropics/skills first.
4. Ask the user — they may know of a specific skill repo or have preferences about sources.

Complete Example

User asks: "Can you help me track stock prices?"

1. Recognize opportunity: Stock/finance data — Hermes has a stocks skill
2. Ask user: "Hermes has an official stocks skill that covers quotes, history, search, and crypto via Yahoo. Want me to install it?"
3. If user agrees, install:

   bashCopy code
   letta skills install official/finance/stocks --agent $AGENT_ID
   

4. Review for compatibility: Read the installed SKILL.md. Check for harness-specific commands, paths, or tools that need adaptation (see Cross-Harness Compatibility above). Confirm the skill's instructions make sense in Letta before using it.
5. Invoke: Skill(skill: "stocks")
6. Use: Follow the skill's instructions, adapting any harness-specific details as needed

User asks: "Can you generate images with Nano Banana Pro?"

1. Recognize opportunity: Image generation skill on ClawHub
2. Ask user: "There's a nano-banana-pro skill on ClawHub. Want me to install it?"
3. Install:

   bashCopy code
   letta skills install clawhub/nano-banana-pro --agent $AGENT_ID
   

4. Review for compatibility: Read the SKILL.md, check for any OpenClaw-specific commands or setup, adapt as needed.
5. Invoke: Skill(skill: "nano-banana-pro")