Going further · 13

Skills

Skills are packaged AI agent capabilities per the Agent Skills spec. Each skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and Markdown instructions. The framework discovers skills through a pluggable backend, injects a compact catalog into the system prompt (~50 tokens/skill), and supports both activation channels the spec describes: the LLM activates skills on demand through a tool, and your application injects skills the user asked for as conversation content (see User-Triggered Activation).

Creating a Skill

Create a directory with a SKILL.md file:

.skills/
  code-review/
    SKILL.md
  data-analysis/
    SKILL.md

Each SKILL.md has YAML frontmatter and a Markdown body:

---
name: code-review
description: Reviews code for quality, style, and potential issues.
---

You are a code review assistant.

Review the code for:

- Style issues
- Potential bugs
- Performance problems

Required frontmatter fields:

• name — lowercase alphanumeric with hyphens, 1-64 chars (must match directory name)
• description — 1-1024 chars, helps the LLM decide when to activate

Optional frontmatter fields:

• disable-model-invocation — when true, the skill is hidden from the catalog and the LLM cannot activate it via the skill_activate tool. It stays reachable through the programmatic activate config (see Activated Skills) and through activation_prompt (see User-Triggered Activation), so you can inject it under your own logic instead of the model’s. Only the literal value true disables invocation; any other value (or its absence) leaves the skill model-invocable.

Any other frontmatter keys are passed through as metadata.

Configuring an Agent

Use the skills block DSL to configure skills:

class MyAgent < Riffer::Agent
  model "openai/gpt-5-mini"
  instructions "You are a helpful assistant."
  skills do
    backend Riffer::Skills::FilesystemBackend.new(".skills")
  end
end

Multiple directories can be scanned (first-path-wins for duplicates):

skills do
  backend Riffer::Skills::FilesystemBackend.new(".skills", "~/.riffer/skills")
end

Dynamic Backend via Proc

skills do
  backend ->(context) { tenant_backend(context[:tenant_id]) }
end

Custom Adapter

The adapter controls how the skill catalog is rendered in the system prompt and which tool the LLM calls to activate a skill. The adapter is auto-selected by provider, with model-aware fallback for proxy providers — Markdown for most providers, XML for Anthropic, and XML for Anthropic models routed through Amazon Bedrock (e.g. us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6). Override with:

skills do
  backend Riffer::Skills::FilesystemBackend.new(".skills")
  adapter Riffer::Skills::XmlAdapter
end

Activated Skills

Load skill instructions into the system prompt at startup (no tool call needed). Use this for skills that should govern the whole session — for skills the user requests mid-conversation, prefer User-Triggered Activation, which keeps the system prompt (and its provider-side cache) stable:

skills do
  backend Riffer::Skills::FilesystemBackend.new(".skills")
  activate ["code-review"]
end

Accepts a Proc for dynamic resolution:

skills do
  backend Riffer::Skills::FilesystemBackend.new(".skills")
  activate ->(context) { context[:active_skills] || [] }
end

How It Works

1. Discovery — At the start of generate/stream, the backend’s list_skills returns frontmatter for all available skills.
2. Catalog injection — The adapter formats the catalog and appends it to the system prompt.
3. Activation — When the LLM matches a task to a skill, it calls the skill_activate tool with the skill name. The tool returns the full SKILL.md body wrapped in <skill_content name="..."> tags.
4. Execution — The LLM follows the skill’s instructions to complete the task.
5. Deduplication — Re-activating an already-active skill returns a short pointer (“already active”) instead of the body again, so repeated activations don’t fill the context with duplicate instructions. This applies whichever channel activated the skill first — tool call, activation_prompt, or the activate config.

Activation state lives in memory on the Riffer::Skills::Context, not in the session. When you rebuild an agent from a persisted session, the first re-activation of each skill returns the full body again (the conversation history still carries the earlier copy); deduplication resumes from there. If you prune skill content out of a session yourself, call deactivate(name) so the next activation returns the body instead of a pointer to content that no longer exists.

User-Triggered Activation

When a user explicitly invokes a skill (a slash command, a button, a mention), don’t wait for the model to discover it — inject the skill body into the conversation as a user message. activation_prompt returns the body wrapped for injection and records the activation, so a later model-side skill_activate call for the same skill gets the pointer instead of a duplicate body:

agent = MyAgent.new
skills = agent.context.skills

# User typed: /code-review focus on security
if skills.activated?("code-review")
  agent.generate("The code-review skill was invoked again — its instructions are above. focus on security")
else
  agent.generate("#{skills.activation_prompt("code-review")}\n\nfocus on security")
end

activation_prompt("code-review") returns:

<skill_content name="code-review">
You are a code review assistant.
...
</skill_content>

How a repeat invocation behaves is your choice — re-inject the full body (activation_prompt always returns it), or send a short reference as above. The check via activated? covers both channels, so a skill the model already activated through the tool counts too.

For reading a skill body without recording an activation — a UI preview, or delegating the skill to a subagent whose context is separate — use read:

body = skills.read("code-review") # no activation recorded

Custom Backends

Implement Riffer::Skills::Backend for non-filesystem storage:

class DatabaseBackend < Riffer::Skills::Backend
  def list_skills
    # Return Array[Riffer::Skills::Frontmatter]
  end

  def read_skill(name)
    # Return String (skill body)
    # Raise Riffer::ArgumentError if not found
  end
end

Custom Adapters

Subclass Riffer::Skills::Adapter to customize how the skill catalog is rendered in the system prompt:

class CustomAdapter < Riffer::Skills::Adapter
  def render_catalog(skills)
    # Return String (skill catalog for the system prompt)
    # Use `skill_activate_tool.name` to reference the activation tool the LLM should call
  end
end

The activation tool is set on the adapter at construction (Riffer::Skills::Adapter.new(skill_activate_tool: ...)) and exposed via the skill_activate_tool reader. The agent wires this up automatically — custom adapters that override initialize must call super.

The built-in adapters are Riffer::Skills::MarkdownAdapter (default) and Riffer::Skills::XmlAdapter (used by Anthropic).

Custom Activation Tool

The activation tool is global. Set it once via Riffer.config.skills.default_activate_tool to apply across all agents, or override per-agent inside the skills block.

The recommended approach is to subclass Riffer::Skills::ActivateTool so the identifier, description, params, and timeout are inherited — you only override the behavior you need to change:

# Wrap the default behavior with telemetry
class InstrumentedActivateTool < Riffer::Skills::ActivateTool
  def call(context:, name:)
    Telemetry.measure("skill_activate", skill: name) { super }
  end
end

# Change what a re-activation returns (default: a short "already active" pointer)
class CustomPointerActivateTool < Riffer::Skills::ActivateTool
  private

  def already_active_message(name)
    "'#{name}' is loaded — scroll up for its instructions."
  end
end

# Return the full body on every activation (no deduplication)
class AlwaysFullBodyActivateTool < Riffer::Skills::ActivateTool
  def call(context:, name:)
    skills_context = context&.skills
    return error("Skills not configured") unless skills_context
    return error("Unknown skill: '#{name}'") unless skills_context.model_invocable?(name)

    text(skills_context.activation_prompt(name))
  rescue Riffer::ArgumentError => e
    error(e.message)
  end
end

# Global default
Riffer.config.skills.default_activate_tool = InstrumentedActivateTool

# Per-agent override
class MyAgent < Riffer::Agent
  skills do
    backend Riffer::Skills::FilesystemBackend.new(".skills")
    activate_tool InstrumentedActivateTool
  end
end

If you need a different parameter shape entirely, subclass Riffer::Tool directly and provide your own identifier, description, params, and call.

Accessing Skills in Tools

The skills context (Riffer::Skills::Context) is available via context[:skills] during execution:

class SkillSearchTool < Riffer::Tool
  identifier "skill_search"
  description "Searches available skills."

  params do
    required :query, String
  end

  def call(context:, query:)
    skills_context = context[:skills]  # Riffer::Skills::Context
    matches = skills_context.skills.values.select { |s| s.description.include?(query) }
    json(matches.map { |s| {name: s.name, description: s.description} })
  end
end