Skills

A skill is a structured prompt file that encodes a workflow as a slash command. When you type /brainstorm or /work, you’re invoking a skill — a Markdown document with YAML frontmatter that gets loaded into the agent’s context.

How Skills Work

You type /brainstorm in Claude Code
Claude Code finds skills/brainstorm/SKILL.md
The skill’s content is injected into the conversation
The agent follows the skill’s instructions

Skills are not code — they’re prompt programs. They define phases, decision trees, output formats, and validation steps that the agent follows.

Skill Anatomy

Every skill lives in skills/<name>/SKILL.md with this structure:

---
name: brainstorm
description: Explore ambiguous or early-stage ideas interactively
---

# Brainstorm Skill

## Phase 1: Understand the Idea
...

## Phase 2: Explore Constraints
...

The frontmatter defines:

Field	Purpose
`name`	Skill identifier — matches the `/command` name
`description`	One-line summary shown in skill listings

Built-in Skills

Genie ships with 17 skills organized by function:

Core Pipeline

Skill	Command	Purpose
Brainstorm	`/brainstorm`	Explore ideas interactively, track wish-readiness
Wish	`/wish`	Convert a design into a structured WISH.md
Work	`/work`	Execute a wish — dispatch agents per execution group
Review	`/review`	Validate work against criteria — SHIP or FIX-FIRST

Debugging & Fixing

Skill	Command	Purpose
Trace	`/trace`	Investigate unknown issues, isolate root cause
Fix	`/fix`	Apply minimal fix for FIX-FIRST gaps
Report	`/report`	Full bug investigation with GitHub issue creation

Orchestration

Skill	Command	Purpose
PM	`/pm`	Full PM playbook — triage, assign, track, report, escalate
Council	`/council`	10-perspective architectural review
Dream	`/dream`	Batch-execute SHIP-ready wishes overnight
Genie	`/genie`	Transform any session into a Genie orchestrator

Knowledge & Learning

Skill	Command	Purpose
Brain	`/brain`	Knowledge graph engine — search, ingest, analyze
Learn	`/learn`	Behavioral correction from user feedback
Brain Init	`/brain-init`	Initialize and personalize a knowledge brain

Utilities

Skill	Command	Purpose
Wizard	`/wizard`	Guided onboarding — scaffold to first wish
Refine	`/refine`	Optimize prompts via prompt-optimizer
Docs	`/docs`	Audit and generate documentation

The qa-runner agent has been merged into the /qa QA system accessible via genie qa.

Invoking Skills

Skills are invoked as slash commands:

/brainstorm Add a webhook system for real-time notifications

You can pass arguments — the text after the command becomes context for the skill. Some skills are also triggered automatically:

/work is invoked by the team-lead when dispatching execution
/review is invoked after work completion
/fix is invoked when review returns FIX-FIRST

Skill Composition

Skills can delegate to other skills:

/wizard delegates to /brainstorm for identity shaping and /wish for plan creation
/work invokes /review after execution completes
/report cascades through /trace before filing an issue
/dream orchestrates /work → /review loops across multiple wishes

Creating Custom Skills

To add a custom skill:

Create skills/<name>/SKILL.md
Add YAML frontmatter with name and description
Write the skill’s instructions in Markdown
The skill becomes available as /<name>

---
name: deploy
description: Guide deployment to staging and production environments
---

# Deploy Skill

## Phase 1: Pre-flight Checks
- Verify all tests pass
- Check CI status
- Confirm target environment

## Phase 2: Deploy
...

Skills installed via the plugin system (in ~/.claude/plugins/genie/skills/) are available globally across all projects.

Skill vs. Agent

	Skill	Agent
What	A prompt program	A running process
Lifetime	Single conversation turn	Persistent tmux session
State	Stateless (context is the conversation)	Stateful (agent registry, mailbox)
Invocation	`/command`	`genie spawn <role>`
Use case	Structured workflow	Long-running autonomous work

Skills tell agents what to do. Agents are who does it.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

The Genie Loop

Power Skills

CLI Reference

Configuration

Security & Trust

Architecture

Observability

Hacks & Tips

Contributing

Skills

Skills

How Skills Work

Skill Anatomy

Built-in Skills

Core Pipeline

Debugging & Fixing

Orchestration

Knowledge & Learning

Utilities

Invoking Skills

Skill Composition

Creating Custom Skills

Skill vs. Agent

​Skills

​How Skills Work

​Skill Anatomy

​Built-in Skills

​Core Pipeline

​Debugging & Fixing

​Orchestration

​Knowledge & Learning

​Utilities

​Invoking Skills

​Skill Composition

​Creating Custom Skills

​Skill vs. Agent

Skills

How Skills Work

Skill Anatomy

Built-in Skills

Core Pipeline

Debugging & Fixing

Orchestration

Knowledge & Learning

Utilities

Invoking Skills

Skill Composition

Creating Custom Skills

Skill vs. Agent