acquiring-skills

name	acquiring-skills
description	Guide for safely discovering and installing skills from external repositories. Use when a user asks for something where a specialized skill likely exists (browser testing, PDF processing, document generation, etc.) and you want to bootstrap your understanding rather than starting from scratch.

Acquiring New Skills

This skill teaches you how to safely discover and install skills from external sources.

SAFETY - READ THIS FIRST

Skills can contain:

• Markdown files (.md) - Risk: prompt injection, misleading instructions
• Scripts (Python, TypeScript, Bash) - Risk: malicious code execution

Trusted Sources (no user approval needed for download)

• https://github.com/letta-ai/skills - Letta's community skills
• https://github.com/anthropics/skills - Anthropic's official skills

Untrusted Sources (ALWAYS verify with user)

For ANY source other than letta-ai or anthropics:

1. Ask the user before downloading
2. Explain where the skill comes from
3. Get explicit approval

Script Safety

Even for skills from trusted sources, ALWAYS:

1. Read and inspect any scripts before executing them
2. Understand what the script does
3. Be wary of network calls, file operations, or system commands

When to Use This Skill

DO use when:

• User asks for something where a skill likely exists (e.g., "help me test this webapp", "generate a PDF report")
• You think "there's probably a skill that would bootstrap my understanding"
• User explicitly asks about available skills or extending capabilities

DON'T use for:

• General coding tasks you can already handle
• Simple bug fixes or feature implementations
• Tasks where you have sufficient knowledge

Ask Before Searching (Interactive Mode)

If you recognize a task that might have an associated skill, ask the user first:

"This sounds like something where a community skill might help (e.g., webapp testing with Playwright). Would you like me to look for available skills in the Letta or Anthropic repositories? This might take a minute, or I can start coding right away if you prefer."

The user may prefer to start immediately rather than wait for skill discovery.

Only proceed with skill acquisition if the user agrees.

Skill Repositories

Repository	Description
https://github.com/letta-ai/skills	Community skills for Letta agents
https://github.com/anthropics/skills	Anthropic's official Agent Skills

Browse these repositories to discover available skills. Check the README for skill listings.

Installation Locations

Location	Path	When to Use
Agent-scoped	~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/skills/<skill>/	Skills for a single agent (default for agent-specific capabilities)
Global	~/.letta/skills/<skill>/	General-purpose skills useful across projects
Project	.skills/<skill>/	Project-specific skills

Rule: Default to agent-scoped for changes that should apply only to the current agent. Use project for repo-specific skills. Use global only if all agents should inherit the skill.

How to Download Skills

Skills are directories containing SKILL.md and optionally scripts/, references/, examples/.

Method: Clone to /tmp, then copy

# 1. Clone the repo (shallow)
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/skills /tmp/skills-temp

# 2. Copy the skill to your skills directory
# For agent-scoped (recommended default):
cp -r /tmp/skills-temp/skills/webapp-testing ~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/skills/
# For global:
# cp -r /tmp/skills-temp/skills/webapp-testing ~/.letta/skills/
# For project:
# cp -r /tmp/skills-temp/skills/webapp-testing .skills/

# 3. Cleanup
rm -rf /tmp/skills-temp

Alternative: rsync (preserves permissions)

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/skills /tmp/skills-temp
rsync -av /tmp/skills-temp/skills/webapp-testing/ ~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/skills/webapp-testing/
rm -rf /tmp/skills-temp

Registering New Skills

After downloading a skill, it will be automatically discovered on the next message. Skills are discovered from ~/.letta/skills/, .skills/, and agent-scoped ~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/skills/ directories.

Complete Example

User asks: "Can you help me test my React app's UI?"

1. Recognize opportunity: Browser/webapp testing - likely has a skill
2. Ask user: "Would you like me to look for webapp testing skills, or start coding right away?"
3. If user agrees, find skill: Check anthropics/skills for webapp-testing
4. Download (trusted source):

   git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/anthropics/skills /tmp/skills-temp
   cp -r /tmp/skills-temp/skills/webapp-testing ~/.letta/agents/<agent-id>/skills/
   rm -rf /tmp/skills-temp
   

5. Inspect scripts: Read any .py or .ts files before using them
6. Invoke: Skill(skill: "webapp-testing")
7. Use: Follow the skill's instructions for the user's task