Reusable context and instructions for AI agents — loaded on demand, not crammed into prompts.
Skills are packages of instructions, reference docs, and scripts that agents retrieve when relevant. Instead of a massive system prompt that slows every response, your agent sees a short list of available skills and loads what it needs.
How Skills Work
When you add skills to an agent:
- The agent's
skill_gettool lists available skills (name + description) - When relevant, the agent calls
skill_get("skill-name")to load the full content - Supporting files (references, scripts, examples) are loaded on demand via
skill_get("skill-name", "references/api-docs.md")
This progressive disclosure pattern keeps the context window focused. The same approach is used by Claude Code, Cursor, and other leading agents.
1User: "Review this pull request"23Agent: [calls skill_get(skill="code-review")]4 → loads code review guidelines56Agent: "Based on our code review guidelines, here's my analysis..."The Agent Skills Standard
Skills follow the Agent Skills open standard — a shared format that works across tools. A skill is a directory with a SKILL.md entry point plus optional supporting files:
1my-skill/2├── SKILL.md # entry point — yaml frontmatter + markdown instructions3├── references/ # domain docs, API specs — loaded on demand4│ └── api-docs.md5├── scripts/ # executables the agent can run6│ └── helper.py7├── examples/ # example outputs showing expected format8│ └── sample.md9└── templates/ # templates for the agent to fill in10 └── template.mdinference.sh implements this standard natively — skills you create here work on inference.sh agents, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any tool that supports the spec.
Two Ways to Consume Skills
| inference.sh agents | Local agents (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Agent calls skill_get → content fetched from URL at runtime | Skill directory on local filesystem, agent discovers by scanning |
| Loading | On-demand via HTTP | On-demand from disk |
| No setup needed | Just add the skill to your agent config | Install the skill directory to ~/.claude/skills/ |
| Paths work everywhere | skill_get("my-skill", "references/api-docs.md") | Relative path from SKILL.md: references/api-docs.md |
The same paths work in both models. SKILL.md says references/api-docs.md — that works as a skill_get argument against our API and as a relative filesystem path locally.
What's Next
- Creating skills — build and publish skills on inference.sh
- The registry — browse, search, and share public skills
- Adding skills to agents — attach skills to your inference.sh agents
- Using with other agents — install skills to Claude Code, Cursor, and more