Skills

Skills let you teach Ruri new tricks. A skill is simply a Markdown file that tells the AI how to behave for a specific task — like reviewing code, writing documentation, or translating text.

What Are Skills?

Think of skills as custom instructions you give the AI. Each skill defines:

• What the AI should do — The instructions written in Markdown
• When to use it — Triggers that tell the AI when this skill is relevant
• Which tools it can use — Limit or expand the AI's capabilities for this skill
• What model to use — Optionally use a different AI model for this skill

For example, you could create a "Code Review" skill that:

• Only uses file-reading tools (no writing)
• Uses a high-effort model for thorough analysis
• Automatically kicks in when you ask about code quality

Creating Your First Skill

Let's walk through creating a practical skill from scratch. We'll make a "Summarize" skill that reads any file and gives you a clear summary.

Step 1: Open the Skills Page

Navigate to Skills in the sidebar and click Add Skill (or create a new skill).

Step 2: Fill in the Frontmatter

The frontmatter is the configuration at the top of your skill file, between the --- markers:

---
name: "summarize"
description: "Summarize the content of any file or text"
when_to_use: "When the user asks for a summary of a file, document, or text"
argument_hint: "path to the file to summarize"
user_invocable: true
allowed_tools:
  - read_file
  - search_files
  - list_directory
---

You are a summarization expert. When given a file or text:

1. Read the content carefully
2. Identify the main topics and key points
3. Write a clear, concise summary in bullet points
4. Highlight any important details, decisions, or action items
5. Keep the summary under 200 words unless the user asks for more detail

Step 3: Save and Activate

1. Click Save to create the skill
2. Toggle the skill on using the switch on the Skills page
3. Try it out! In a chat, ask: "Summarize my README.md"

提示

The allowed_tools field is important — by only listing read_file, search_files, and list_directory, you're telling the AI it can look at files but NOT modify them. This makes the skill safe to use.

Skill Frontmatter Reference

Here's a quick reference for the fields you can use in a skill:

Field	Required	What It Does
name	Yes	Unique name for the skill
description	Yes	What the skill does (shown in the UI)
when_to_use	No	When the AI should automatically use this skill
argument_hint	No	Hint for what arguments the user should provide
arguments	No	Define specific arguments the skill accepts
user_invocable	No	Whether users can manually trigger it (default: true)
allowed_tools	No	List of tools this skill can use (default: all)
model	No	Override the active model for this skill
effort	No	Reasoning effort: low, medium, or high
context	No	Extra files to include when the skill runs
hooks	No	Run custom logic before or after the skill executes
paths	No	File patterns that trigger this skill automatically

Arguments

You can define arguments that the skill expects:

arguments:

- name: "path"
  description: "File or directory path to review"
  required: true

Effort Levels

The effort field controls how much thinking the model does:

• low — Quick, lightweight responses
• medium — Balanced (default)
• high — Thorough, detailed analysis (great for code reviews or complex tasks)

Skill Examples

Code Review Skill

---
name: "code-review"
description: "Review code changes and provide feedback"
when_to_use: "When the user asks for a code review"
allowed_tools:
  - read_file
  - search_files
  - list_directory
effort: "high"
---

You are a code reviewer. Analyze the code and provide:

1. A summary of what the code does
2. Potential bugs or issues
3. Suggestions for improvement
4. Code style observations

Translation Skill

---
name: "translate"
description: "Translate text between languages"
argument_hint: "text to translate and target language"
allowed_tools: []
---

You are a professional translator. Translate the given text naturally,
preserving the tone and meaning. If no target language is specified,
ask the user which language they want.

Managing Skills

Via Web UI

1. Go to Skills in the sidebar
2. Browse your installed skills
3. Toggle skills on/off with the switch
4. Add new skills manually or upload a skill package
5. Edit any skill by clicking on it
6. Delete skills you no longer need

Skill Packages

You can package multiple skills as a ZIP file for easy sharing:

1. Create your skill Markdown files
2. Place them in a folder
3. Compress the folder into a ZIP archive
4. Upload the ZIP on the Skills page

This is great for sharing skill sets with your team or across different Ruri instances.

提示

When creating skill packages, make sure each Markdown file has valid frontmatter with at least name and description fields.

Skill Activation

Deactivated skills are preserved but won't be available to the AI or the user. You can also control which skills are active per Config Profile — for example, enable coding skills only in your "Development" profile.

Tips

• Start simple — Create a basic skill first, test it, then add complexity
• Limit tools — Only give a skill the tools it needs. A translation skill doesn't need file write access!
• Use effort wisely — Set effort: high for analysis tasks, effort: low for quick lookups
• Write clear when_to_use — This helps the AI know when to automatically invoke your skill
• Iterate — Test your skills and refine the prompts based on the results