How-To Series · 6: Working While You Sleep
Hermes · Skill Authoring
Author in-repo SKILL.md files that ship with the package. Frontmatter, structure, size limits, and the six-step workflow.
After this videoYou can author, validate, and commit in-repo SKILL.md files that match peer conventions and ship with hermes-agent.
There are two places a Hermes skill can live: user-local in ~/.hermes/skills, or in-repo under skills/category/name in the hermes-agent repository. This episode covers the in-repo path. Every SKILL.md needs frontmatter starting with three dashes, with name and description fields (under 1024 chars). Peer-matched skills add version, author, license, and metadata. Size sweet spot is 8-14k chars. The six-step workflow is: survey peers, draft with write_file, validate locally, git add, commit, and note that the current session won't see the new skill until a fresh session.
About these resources. Every convention in this video comes from the Hermes Agent Skill Authoring doc.
New words here · Plain English
one sentence each · full glossaryIn-repo skillA SKILL.md file committed to the hermes-agent repository under skills/category/name. Ships with the package, shared with all users.
User-local skillA SKILL.md file in ~/.hermes/skills. Personal to your machine, not shared with others.
FrontmatterThe YAML block at the top of a SKILL.md file, between two lines of three dashes. Must have name and description fields.
Trigger classThe type of situation that makes a skill relevant. Descriptions should start with 'Use when' and describe the trigger, not the task.
Sources · What this video distills
1 docs page · every command below traces to itCommands shown · Copy and paste
each shows the source doc it came fromls skills/software-development/python3 -c "import yaml; ..."git add skills/category/name/SKILL.md