Skills (On-Demand Instructions)

Skills package task-specific instructions that the agent pulls in only when a task calls for them. Each skill is a directory in the Agent Skills format: a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (name, description) followed by the instructions, plus optional references/, scripts/, and assets/ subdirectories for supporting files. Rather than inlining every skill into the system prompt, AURA appends only a catalog of names and descriptions. The LLM calls the load_skill tool to fetch a skill’s full instructions on demand, and read_skill_file to fetch individual resource files. read_skill_file resolves symlinks and rejects any path that escapes the skill directory.

Configuration

See [agent.skills] in the configuration reference for the full field table.

[agent.skills]
local = [
  { source = "./skills" },               # relative paths resolve from the process CWD
  { source = "/opt/aura/shared-skills" }
]

Each source is a directory containing skill subdirectories:

skills/
└── code-review/
    ├── SKILL.md       # required: frontmatter (name, description) + instructions
    ├── references/    # optional resources, fetched via read_skill_file
    ├── scripts/
    └── assets/

Discovery and validation

Discovery runs at agent build time and validates each skill against the specification; the frontmatter name must match the directory name. Directories without a SKILL.md are skipped. When two sources provide the same skill name, the first one loaded wins and a warning is logged. Relative sources resolve from the process current working directory in every mode (web server, standalone CLI, and A2A). CONFIG_PATH / --config locate the TOML file only; they do not change how paths inside TOML are resolved.

Orchestration inheritance

In orchestration mode the coordinator inherits [agent.skills]. Workers inherit it too, unless [orchestration.worker.<name>.skills] provides their own sources; an explicit empty list disables skills for that worker (see Per-Worker Skills Override for the exact inheritance/override rules):

[orchestration.worker.knowledge.skills]
local = [{ source = "./knowledge-skills" }]   # worker-specific skills

[orchestration.worker.operations.skills]
local = []                                    # no skills for this worker

Getting Started

Configuration

Features

CLI Reference

Web Server Reference

Skills (On-Demand Instructions)

Configuration

Discovery and validation

Orchestration inheritance

​Configuration

​Discovery and validation

​Orchestration inheritance

Configuration

Discovery and validation

Orchestration inheritance