| name | text-file-read |
| description | Read a UTF-8 text file and emit its raw content on stdout. Tiny helper for meta-skills that need to round-trip an artefact through disk so the user can hand-edit it between steps (e.g. tweak script.txt during a review pause). Unlike the builtin read_file tool — which returns line-numbered output for model display — this returns bytes verbatim, suitable for downstream parsers. |
| provenance | {"origin":"agentos-original","license":"MIT"} |
| metadata | {"agentos":{"risk":"low","capabilities":["filesystem-read"],"requires":{"anyBins":["python","python3"]}}} |
| entrypoint | {"command":"python {baseDir}/scripts/read.py","args":["--input","{{ with.input }}","--max-bytes","{{ with.max_bytes | default(200000) }}"],"parse":"text","timeout":10} |
text-file-read
Reads a UTF-8 text file and prints its contents verbatim to stdout
(no line numbers, no decoration). Use this when a meta-skill needs
to round-trip an artefact through disk between steps so the user can
hand-edit the file during a clarify pause.
This skill exists alongside AgentOS's builtin read_file tool
on purpose: read_file is designed for LLM display and prepends a
lineno\t prefix to every line, which corrupts structured files
(scripts, SRT, YAML) when piped back into downstream parsers. This
skill returns the bytes unmodified.
Inputs (with:)
| key | required | default | notes |
|---|
input | yes | — | Absolute path of the file to read. |
max_bytes | no | 200000 | Refuse to read files larger than this. Guards against accidental binary reads. |
Output
The file's UTF-8 content on stdout. No trailing newline added or stripped.
Failure modes
- Path missing → exit 1, stderr explains.
- File exceeds
max_bytes → exit 1, stderr carries the actual size.
- Decode error → exit 1 (file isn't valid UTF-8).
