Skills

Skills are reusable instruction bundles that extend Ripperdoc's capabilities for specific tasks.

What are Skills?

Skills provide:

• Specialized instructions for the AI
• Tool restrictions or allowances
• Custom model hints
• Domain-specific knowledge

Skill Locations

Skills are loaded from:

1. User skills: ~/.ripperdoc/skills/<name>/SKILL.md
2. Project skills: .ripperdoc/skills/<name>/SKILL.md

Using Skills

Load a skill during a session:

> /skill pdf

Or invoke via the Skill tool:

Load the pdf skill to process this document

Skill Structure

A skill is a directory containing SKILL.md:

~/.ripperdoc/skills/pdf/
├── SKILL.md
└── reference.md (optional)

SKILL.md Format

---
name: pdf
description: Process and extract content from PDF files
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Bash
model: main
max-thinking-tokens: 8000
---

# PDF Processing Skill

You are an expert at processing PDF files...

## Instructions

1. Use `pdftotext` for text extraction
2. Use `pdftoppm` for image extraction
...

Frontmatter Options

Built-in Skills

Ripperdoc includes several example skills:

PDF Processing

> /skill pdf

Extract text, tables, and images from PDF files.

PPTX Presentations

> /skill pptx

Create and modify PowerPoint presentations.

XLSX Spreadsheets

> /skill xlsx

Work with Excel spreadsheets.

Creating Custom Skills

Step 1: Create the Directory

mkdir -p ~/.ripperdoc/skills/myskill

Step 2: Write SKILL.md

---
name: myskill
description: My custom skill
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Edit
  - Bash
---

# My Custom Skill

You are an expert at [domain]...

## Workflow

1. First, analyze...
2. Then, implement...
3. Finally, verify...

## Examples

[Include examples of expected behavior]

Step 3: Test the Skill

> /skill myskill

Skill Best Practices

1. Be specific: Clear instructions produce better results
2. Include examples: Show expected input/output
3. Restrict tools: Only allow necessary tools
4. Add references: Include supporting documentation
5. Test thoroughly: Verify skill behavior with various inputs

Project-Specific Skills

Create project skills in .ripperdoc/skills/:

.ripperdoc/
└── skills/
    └── deploy/
        └── SKILL.md

Project skills override user skills with the same name.

Listing Skills

View available skills:

> /skills