Skills

Skills are instruction guides that teach the agent how to use specific CLI tools and workflows. They provide structured knowledge so the agent can work effectively with tools it encounters.

How skills work

Astonish uses a two-tier hybrid retrieval system — keyword matching combined with vector similarity search. When the agent encounters a tool or workflow it needs guidance on, it automatically looks up relevant skills.

The agent can also use the skill_lookup tool during conversations to load skill instructions on demand.

Bundled skills

Astonish ships with 10 bundled skills covering common tools like git, docker, and other widely-used CLI utilities.

Installing skills from ClawHub

ClawHub is the community skill registry. Install a skill by its slug:

astonish skills install <slug>

Creating custom skills

Generate a skill template in ~/.config/astonish/skills/:

astonish skills create <name>

The skills directory is monitored by a live filesystem watcher. New or updated skill files are indexed automatically — no restart required.

CLI commands

List all available skills:

astonish skills list

Display full skill content:

astonish skills show <name>

Check which skills are eligible for the current environment:

astonish skills check

Install a skill from ClawHub:

astonish skills install <slug>

Create a new skill from template:

astonish skills create <name>

Configuration

These settings can be adjusted through Studio Settings > Skills, or in config.yaml:

skills:
  enabled: true
  user_dir: ~/.config/astonish/skills
  extra_dirs:
    - /path/to/additional/skills
  allowlist:
    - skill-name