CodeBuddy Code Skills (Skills System)

Skills are CodeBuddy Code's extension capability system that allows you to create specialized domain knowledge and workflow templates, enabling the AI assistant to handle specific types of tasks with greater expertise.

What are Skills

Skills are like "professional training" for the AI assistant. With Skills, you can:

Encapsulate specialized knowledge: Package domain-specific best practices and operational procedures into reusable capabilities
Provide workflow templates: Define standardized task processing flows to improve work efficiency
Extend AI capabilities: Enable the AI assistant to handle more specialized and complex tasks
Share team collaboration: Project-level Skills allow teams to share specialized knowledge among members

Skills vs Slash Commands

Feature	Skills	Slash Commands
Invocation	Automatically identified and invoked by the AI model	Manually entered by the user
Use Case	Specialized domain task processing	Quick operations and workflows
Permission Control	Supports tool allowlist restrictions	No special permission control
Working Directory	Supports custom base directory	Uses current working directory
Visibility	Transparent to user, AI makes decisions automatically	Actively initiated by user

In simple terms:

Slash Commands are shortcuts actively invoked by users
Skills are specialized capabilities automatically selected by the AI based on task requirements

Creating Skills

Directory Structure

Skills are defined by creating a SKILL.md file in specific directories:

Project-level Skills: .codebuddy/skills/ (in project root)
User-level Skills: ~/.codebuddy/skills/ (in user home directory)

Each Skill has its own directory containing a SKILL.md file:

.codebuddy/skills/
├── pdf/
│   └── SKILL.md
├── data-analysis/
│   └── SKILL.md
└── code-review/
    └── SKILL.md

SKILL.md Format

Skill files use Markdown format and support YAML Frontmatter for defining metadata:

markdown

---
name: pdf
description: PDF document processing expert
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash, WebFetch
---

You are a PDF document processing expert, skilled in:
- Parsing and extracting PDF content
- Converting PDFs to other formats
- Generating PDF reports

When users need to handle PDF-related tasks, use the following workflow:
1. First check if the PDF file exists
2. Use appropriate tools to extract content
3. Process according to requirements
4. Generate result reports

Available tools:
- pdftotext: Extract text content
- pdfinfo: Get PDF information

Frontmatter Fields

Field	Required	Description	Example
`name`	No	Skill name, uses directory name if not specified	`pdf`
`description`	No	Skill description, helps AI understand when to use it	`PDF document processing expert (project)`
`allowed-tools`	No	Allowlist of permitted tools, comma-separated	`Read, Write, Bash`

Usage Examples

Example 1: PDF Processing Skill

File: .codebuddy/skills/pdf/SKILL.md

markdown

---
name: pdf
description: PDF document processing and conversion expert
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash, WebFetch
---

# PDF Processing Expert

You are a professional PDF document processing expert.

## Core Capabilities
- Extract PDF text content
- Convert PDFs to Markdown, HTML and other formats
- Merge and split PDF files
- Extract PDF metadata and bookmarks

## Workflow
1. Check if the PDF file exists and is accessible
2. Use pdftotext or pdfinfo to get basic information
3. Select appropriate processing tools based on task type
4. Validate completeness of output results

## Available Tools
- pdftotext: Extract plain text
- pdfinfo: Get document information
- pdftk: Merge and split operations

Usage: When a user asks "Help me extract the content from this PDF", the AI will automatically recognize the need for PDF processing capabilities and invoke this Skill.

Example 2: Data Analysis Skill

File: ~/.codebuddy/skills/data-analysis/SKILL.md

markdown

---
name: data-analysis
description: Data analysis and visualization expert
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash, WebFetch, NotebookEdit
---

# Data Analysis Expert

You are a professional data analyst skilled in using Python and related tools for data analysis.

## Core Capabilities
- Data cleaning and preprocessing
- Statistical analysis and modeling
- Data visualization
- Generate analysis reports

## Analysis Workflow
1. Understand data structure and quality
2. Clean and preprocess data
3. Perform statistical analysis
4. Create visualization charts
5. Generate analytical conclusions

## Toolset
- pandas: Data processing
- numpy: Numerical computation
- matplotlib/seaborn: Visualization
- scikit-learn: Machine learning

## Best Practices
- Always explore data quality first
- Use Jupyter Notebook for interactive analysis
- Save intermediate results to avoid redundant computation

Example 3: Code Review Skill

File: .codebuddy/skills/code-review/SKILL.md

markdown

---
name: code-review
description: Code review and quality inspection expert
allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Bash, Edit
---

# Code Review Expert

You are an experienced code reviewer who follows industry best practices.

## Review Focus
1. **Code Quality**
   - Naming conventions
   - Code complexity
   - Code duplication

2. **Security**
   - SQL injection risks
   - XSS vulnerabilities
   - Authentication and authorization issues

3. **Performance**
   - Algorithm efficiency
   - Resource usage
   - Caching strategies

4. **Maintainability**
   - Code comments
   - Modular design
   - Test coverage

## Review Process
1. Understand the purpose of code changes
2. Check code style and conventions
3. Analyze potential bugs and performance issues
4. Verify security
5. Provide constructive improvement suggestions

## Output Format
- ✅ Strengths: List what was done well
- ⚠️ Issues: Point out areas needing improvement
- 💡 Suggestions: Provide specific improvement recommendations

How AI Selects Skills

The AI decides whether to invoke a Skill based on the following factors:

Task Matching: Relevance between task description and Skill description
Tool Requirements: Whether required tools are within the allowed-tools scope
Context Relevance: Whether the current conversation context is suitable for using the Skill
Skill Source: Project-level Skills have priority over user-level Skills

Permission Control

allowed-tools Allowlist

Restrict which tools a Skill can use via the allowed-tools field:

yaml

allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash(git:*), Grep

Supported tool pattern matching:

Bash(git:*) - Only allow git-related commands
Edit(src/**/*.ts) - Only allow editing specific path files

Working Directory Restrictions

Each Skill has its own baseDirectory (the directory containing SKILL.md), which can be referenced in Skill instructions:

markdown

When processing files, prioritize searching for related resources in the {baseDirectory} directory.

Best Practices

1. Clear Skill Description

yaml

# ❌ Poor
description: Process files

# ✅ Good
description: PDF document parsing and conversion expert, supports text extraction and format conversion (project)

2. Detailed Instruction Content

Provide detailed:

Core capability descriptions
Standard workflow procedures
Available tool lists
Common scenario handling methods
Output format requirements

3. Reasonable Tool Permissions

Only grant necessary tool permissions:

yaml

# ❌ Excessive permissions
allowed-tools: Bash

# ✅ Precise control
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Bash(git:status,git:diff), Grep

4. Organize Skill Directories

Organize Skills by functional domains:

.codebuddy/skills/
├── document/
│   ├── pdf/SKILL.md
│   └── markdown/SKILL.md
├── data/
│   ├── analysis/SKILL.md
│   └── visualization/SKILL.md
└── code/
    ├── review/SKILL.md
    └── refactor/SKILL.md

Debugging Skills

View Loaded Skills

Use the /skills command to view all currently loaded Skills:

/skills

The Skills panel will display:

User skills: User-level Skills (~/.codebuddy/skills/)
Project skills: Project-level Skills (.codebuddy/skills/)
Plugin skills: Skills provided by plugins

Each Skill will show its name and estimated token count.

Common Issues

Q: Skill not being triggered?

Check if description clearly describes the Skill's functionality
Confirm task description matches Skill capabilities
Verify allowed-tools includes required tools

Q: Skill has insufficient permissions?

Check allowed-tools configuration
Confirm tool names are spelled correctly
Use pattern matching for precise permission control

Q: Project-level and user-level Skill conflict?

Project-level Skills have higher priority
Use different names to avoid conflicts

Integration with Other Features

Skills + Memory

Skills can access information stored in the Memory system:

markdown

When performing data analysis, refer to data schemas and business rules saved in Memory.

Skills + Slash Commands

Slash Commands can reference Skills:

markdown

<!-- .codebuddy/commands/analyze-data.md -->
Please use the data-analysis skill to analyze file: $1

Skills + MCP

Skills can invoke external tools provided by MCP (if included in allowed-tools).

Next Steps

Slash Commands - Learn about user-initiated commands
Settings Configuration - Configure tool permissions
MCP Integration - Extend external tool capabilities

Skills - Making AI a domain expert

CodeBuddy Code Skills (Skills System) ​

What are Skills ​

Skills vs Slash Commands ​

Creating Skills ​

Directory Structure ​

SKILL.md Format ​

Frontmatter Fields ​

Usage Examples ​

Example 1: PDF Processing Skill ​

Example 2: Data Analysis Skill ​

Example 3: Code Review Skill ​

How AI Selects Skills ​

Permission Control ​

allowed-tools Allowlist ​

Working Directory Restrictions ​

Best Practices ​

1. Clear Skill Description ​

2. Detailed Instruction Content ​

3. Reasonable Tool Permissions ​

4. Organize Skill Directories ​

Debugging Skills ​

View Loaded Skills ​

Common Issues ​

Integration with Other Features ​

Skills + Memory ​

Skills + Slash Commands ​

Skills + MCP ​

Next Steps ​

CodeBuddy Code Skills (Skills System)

What are Skills

Skills vs Slash Commands

Creating Skills

Directory Structure

SKILL.md Format

Frontmatter Fields

Usage Examples

Example 1: PDF Processing Skill

Example 2: Data Analysis Skill

Example 3: Code Review Skill

How AI Selects Skills

Permission Control

allowed-tools Allowlist

Working Directory Restrictions

Best Practices

1. Clear Skill Description

2. Detailed Instruction Content

3. Reasonable Tool Permissions

4. Organize Skill Directories

Debugging Skills

View Loaded Skills

Common Issues

Integration with Other Features

Skills + Memory

Skills + Slash Commands

Skills + MCP

Next Steps