Agent Skills

Portable Expertisefor Any AI Agent.

Give agents modular, reusable capabilities using the open Agent Skills standard. Write a SKILL.md once and use it everywhere. Skills from Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and VS Code work out of the box with LM-Kit.NET.

Add Skills to Your Agent Skills API

Open Standard Progressive Disclosure Hot Reload

SKILL.md

---
name: code-reviewer
description: Review code for quality, security, and best practices
license: Apache-2.0
metadata:
  author: lm-kit
  version: "1.0"
  tags: [code, review, security]
---
# Code Review Skill
When reviewing code, follow these guidelines:
## Security
- Check OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
- Validate all input boundaries
## Quality
- Follow patterns in references/style-guide.md
- Verify error handling completeness

Adopted by: OpenAI Codex Microsoft GitHub Cursor VS Code Figma Atlassian

Portable Expertise for Any Agent

Agent Skills are self-contained folders containing instructions, scripts, and resources that agents discover and load dynamically. Each skill is defined by a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter for metadata and Markdown for instructions. Skills can include reference files, templates, and scripts that agents use to perform specialized tasks.

Skills use progressive disclosure to keep context windows efficient. At startup, agents load only the skill name and description from the YAML frontmatter. Full Markdown instructions and associated resources load only when a skill activates, minimizing token usage across large registries.

LM-Kit.NET implements the agentskills.io specification, ensuring your skills are compatible across any platform that supports the standard. Write a SKILL.md once and use it everywhere.

YAML + Markdown Format

Each skill is a SKILL.md file. YAML frontmatter holds metadata (name, description, tags). Markdown body contains the agent instructions.

Progressive Disclosure

At startup, only skill name and description load. Full instructions and resources activate on demand, keeping context windows efficient.

Local or Remote

Load skills from local directories, URLs, ZIP archives, or GitHub repositories. Fetch community skills and update them dynamically.

Hot Reload

SkillWatcher monitors your skill directories. Edit a SKILL.md and changes reflect instantly without restarting the agent.

How Skills Work

The complete skill lifecycle, from discovery through hot-reload during development.

SkillRegistry

Central registry for skill discovery, matching, and lifecycle management. Load from directories or remote URLs.

SkillParser

Parse SKILL.md files with YAML frontmatter and Markdown instructions following the agentskills.io spec.

SkillWatcher

Hot-reload skills during development. Changes to SKILL.md files are detected and reloaded automatically.

SkillRemoteLoader

Load skills from URLs, ZIP archives, or GitHub repositories. Fetch community skills directly.

Skills in Action

Load, build, and register skills with just a few lines of C#.

LoadSkills.cs

using LMKit.Agents.Skills;

// Load all SKILL.md files from a directory
var registry = new SkillRegistry();
registry.LoadFromDirectory("./skills");

// List available skills
foreach (var skill in registry.Skills)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{skill.Name}: {skill.Description}");
}

// Find a specific skill
var codeReview = registry.FindByName("code-reviewer");
Console.WriteLine($"Found: {codeReview.Name}");

BuildSkill.cs

using LMKit.Agents.Skills;

// Build a skill programmatically
var skill = new SkillBuilder()
    .WithName("api-tester")
    .WithDescription("Test REST APIs and validate responses")
    .WithInstruction(@"
        When testing APIs:
        1. Validate request parameters
        2. Check response status codes
        3. Verify response body schema
    ")
    .WithResource("references/openapi-spec.json")
    .Build();

AgentWithSkills.cs

using LMKit.Model;
using LMKit.Agents;
using LMKit.Agents.Skills;

using LM model = LM.LoadFromModelID("qwen3:8b");

var registry = new SkillRegistry();
registry.LoadFromDirectory("./skills");

// Create agent with skills
var agent = Agent.CreateBuilder(model)
    .WithSkills(registry)
    .WithPlanning(PlanningStrategy.ReAct)
    .Build();

// Agent activates skills based on the task
var result = await agent.ExecuteAsync(
    "Review this pull request for security issues");
// Activates "code-reviewer" skill automatically

Key API Classes

The building blocks for skill-powered agents in LM-Kit.NET.

AgentSkill

Modular capability with instructions, metadata, and optional resources.

SkillActivator

Handles activation and context injection for conversations.

SkillBuilder

Fluent builder for creating skills programmatically in code.

SkillContext

Encapsulates activation info, user context, and available resources.

SkillResource

Scripts, templates, and reference files loaded lazily on demand.

SkillTool

ITool implementation exposing skills to models with progressive disclosure.

Browse the Full Skills API Reference

Demo Applications

Explore ready-to-run examples that showcase Agent Skills in real scenarios.

Skill-Based Assistant

Skills

Load SKILL.md files, register skills with SkillRegistry, switch between Code Reviewer, Technical Writer, and Data Analyst skills at runtime.

Tool Calling Assistant

Tools

Dynamic function invocation with [LMFunction] attribute alongside skill-based capabilities.

Research Assistant

Agent

Supervisor pattern using skills to define research methodologies and output formats.

Persistent Memory Assistant

Memory

Combine skills with persistent memory for long-running assistant workflows.

View Documentation View on GitHub Agent Skills Spec

How-To Guides

Step-by-step tutorials to get started with skills and agents.

Add Skills to Your AI Assistant Create an AI Agent with Tools Build a Function-Calling Agent Build a Conversational Assistant with Memory Connect to MCP Servers Build a Multi-Agent Workflow

Glossary

Key concepts for understanding agent skills and orchestration.

AI Agent Skills AI Agents Agent Tools Function Calling Agent Memory Agent Planning Prompt Engineering Context Windows

Browse the Full Glossary

Give Your Agents Superpowers with Skills

Start building skill-powered agents today with LM-Kit.NET. Load community skills, create your own, and compose modular AI workflows.

Download LM-Kit.NET Read the Skills Guide

Building Custom Skills? Talk to our team