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Skills are YAML files with additional instructions that Skaro injects into LLM prompts during phase execution. They teach the LLM framework-specific patterns, testing conventions, and architectural rules — beyond what the constitution covers. The constitution defines what your project uses (stack, standards, constraints). Skills define how the LLM should write code for that stack.

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How Skills Work

When a phase runs, Skaro builds a system prompt for the LLM. Skills are injected between the constitution and architectural invariants:
Each skill is filtered by the current phase and role before injection. A skill that targets implement + coder won’t appear in the tests phase run by the reviewer role.

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Skill Sources

Skills come from three places, in priority order (last wins on name conflicts): If a global skill and a bundled skill have the same name, the global one wins. Project skills override everything.

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Activation

A skill must be explicitly activated to take effect. There are two ways:

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Preset Activation

When you select a constitution preset (e.g., React, FastAPI), Skaro automatically activates the skills linked to that preset. The mapping is defined in templates/skills/_registry.yaml. For example, selecting the React preset activates:
  • typescript-strict — strict TypeScript practices
  • react-components — component design patterns
  • react-testing — testing with Vitest + Testing Library
  • react-state — state management patterns
You can disable any preset skill individually without losing the others.

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Manual Activation

From the dashboard (Settings → Skills) or CLI, you can enable any skill from the full catalog — regardless of which preset is active. This is useful when:
  • Your project doesn’t use a preset (you wrote the constitution manually)
  • You need skills from multiple presets (e.g., React frontend + FastAPI backend)
  • You created custom skills

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Browsing the Catalog

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Dashboard

Go to Settings → Skills to see all available skills. Each entry shows:
  • Status icon — ✓ active, ✗ disabled, ○ available
  • Name — skill identifier
  • Source badge — preset, global, project, or framework badges (react, fastapi, …)
  • Phases — which phases the skill applies to
Click a skill name to expand and view its full instructions. Click the status icon to toggle activation.

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CLI

Output:
Shows the full instructions content.

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Bundled Skills Reference

Skaro ships 28 skills organized by stack:

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Shared Skills

These are reused across multiple presets:

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Per-Preset Skills

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Configuration in config.yaml

The skills state is stored in .skaro/config.yaml:
  • preset — set automatically when you select a constitution preset
  • active — skills you enabled manually (bundled, global, or project)
  • disabled — preset skills you turned off