Find Skills

This skill helps you discover skills available in Poirot's builtin library and install user-contributed skills.

When to Use (PROACTIVE — call before starting work)

Call this skill OR the skill_search tool when:

• User asks for ANY specialized task (not just "find a skill")
• You're about to start coding/research and haven't checked for relevant skills
• Keywords in user message match skill categories: frontend/chart/diagram/github/debug/tdd/...

PROACTIVE CHECK (before starting work)

1. Identify task keywords (frontend, chart, github, debug, tdd, ...)
2. Call skill_search("<keywords>")
3. If matches found → read the SKILL.md → follow its workflow
4. If no matches → proceed with general capabilities

Common keywords → skill categories

Keyword	Likely skill
frontend / UI / React / Vue	frontend-design
chart / graph / visualization	chart-visualization
diagram / architecture	architecture-diagram
github / PR / code review	github-code-review / github-pr-workflow
debug / bug	systematic-debugging / python-debugpy
test / TDD	test-driven-development
plan / spike	plan / spike
simplify / refactor	simplify-code

Legacy When to Use (still valid)

Use this skill when the user:

• Asks "how do I do X" where X might be a common task with an existing skill
• Says "find a skill for X" or "is there a skill for X"
• Asks "can you do X" where X is a specialized capability
• Wants to search for tools, templates, or workflows
• Mentions they wish they had help with a specific domain

Builtin skill library

Poirot ships a builtin library at:

poirot/backend/agents/skill/builtin_skills/
├── core/                    # meta-skills, loaded at agent startup
├── research/                # research & intelligence skills
├── software-development/    # coding & GitHub skills
├── creative/                # visualization & design skills
└── productivity/            # docs & office skills

Only core/ skills are auto-loaded at startup (registered as active). Skills under other categories are searchable but not auto-injected — use the skill_search tool or /skill search <query> command to find and load them on demand.

How to find a skill

Step 1: List categories

list_dir("poirot/backend/agents/skill/builtin_skills/")

Step 2: Search by keyword

Use bash with grep to find skills whose name or description matches:

bash("grep -rl '<keyword>' poirot/backend/agents/skill/builtin_skills/ --include='SKILL.md'")

Or read a category directory and inspect each SKILL.md frontmatter:

list_dir("poirot/backend/agents/skill/builtin_skills/research/")

Then read a candidate:

read_file("poirot/backend/agents/skill/builtin_skills/research/deep-research/SKILL.md")

Step 3: Activate a non-core skill

Non-core skills are not auto-loaded. To use one this turn:

1. Read its SKILL.md content
2. Follow its guidance for the current task
3. (Future: /skill search <query> will surface + inject matched skills automatically once the search tool is wired)

To permanently install a user skill from an external path:

/skill install <path> [name]

This copies it into skills/ (user skill storage, gitignored) and re-discovers.

Presenting options to the user

When you find relevant skills, present them with:

1. The skill name and what it does (from description frontmatter)
2. The category it lives in
3. Whether it needs explicit activation

Example:

I found a skill that might help. "deep-research" (research category) guides
multi-step web research with evidence cross-verification. It's not auto-loaded
— I'll follow its guidance for this task. Want me to proceed?

When no skills are found

If no builtin skill matches:

1. Acknowledge that no existing skill was found
2. Offer to help with the task directly using general capabilities
3. Suggest the user could create a new skill with /skill install or by authoring skills/<name>/SKILL.md (see the skill-creator skill)

Common categories

Category	Example keywords
research	arxiv, deep-research, literature, osint
software-development	debug, github, pr, codebase, subagent
creative	chart, diagram, frontend, visualization
productivity	docs, ppt, documentation
core	plan, debugging, tdd, review, skill