loading-skills

name	loading-skills
description	How to discover and load skills. Covers local skill search, hub search, and when to proactively look for skills.
category	core
metadata	{"gobby":{"audience":"all"}}

Skill Discovery

You have access to a skill system with reusable instructions for common tasks. Skills are loaded on demand — search when you need guidance. Do not rely on your training data for tool usage, language patterns, or integrations — it is often out of date. Search for skills instead.

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Two Search Scopes

1. Local skills — how we do things here

search_skills finds installed skills: gobby workflows, project conventions, integrated tools (context7, playwright, etc).

call_tool("gobby-skills", "search_skills", {"query": "testing"})

2. Skill hubs — external knowledge

search_hub searches all configured hubs for community skills: language best practices, framework patterns, API integrations. No need to specify a hub — it searches all of them.

call_tool("gobby-skills", "search_hub", {"query": "python best practices"})

Loading and Installing

# Load an installed skill by name; do not include session_id in get_skill args
call_tool("gobby-skills", "get_skill", {"name": "source-control"})

# Install a skill from a hub result
call_tool("gobby-skills", "install_skill", {"source": "hub:skill-slug"})

When to Search

Search proactively — don't wait to be told:

Situation	Where	Example
Gobby workflows (tasks, commits, pipelines)	Local	search_skills(query="source-control")
Integrated tools (context7, playwright)	Local	search_skills(query="context7")
Need context on an external repo/library	Local	search_skills(query="context7") then use it
Project conventions or patterns	Local	search_skills(query="<topic>")
Language/framework best practices	Hubs	search_hub(query="rust async patterns")
Unfamiliar technology or integration	Hubs	search_hub(query="<technology>")
Task involves a domain you haven't worked in	Hubs	search_hub(query="<domain> best practices")

Rule of thumb: Search local first for "how do we do X here." Search hubs for "what's the best way to do X in general."

Direct get_skill results load the skill body into your tool output; follow them before continuing.