Skills

Skills are reusable instruction sets Hermes can load automatically. Think of them as playbooks for repeatable tasks: research a competitor, build a landing page, write a content batch, audit design tokens.

A skill is usually a folder with a SKILL.md file. Hermes reads it before the task and follows the workflow inside.

Where skills live

• ~/.hermes/skills/ — skills available to every project
• your-project/.hermes/skills/ — skills scoped to one project
• ~/.hermes/shared-skills/ — shared across profiles

How to install a skill

Just ask Hermes:

add the idea-workflow skill from github.com/AkoliteZA/hermes-agent-idea-workflow

Hermes handles the clone, the folder placement, and the availability check. If you are inside a project directory, it can scope the skill to that project or make it global.

How to use a skill

Most skills load automatically when your prompt matches their topic. You can also call one directly:

use the idea-research-reflection skill to stress-test this landing page concept

Designer starter workflow

You do not need 50 skills. Start with these four moves:

1. Idea → spec Use the idea-workflow skill. Throw in a raw idea and get back a packed spec.

2. Design baseline Execute the spec as your baseline design. Don’t polish yet. Get the whole flow on the screen first.

3. Iterate with Agentation Install Agentation to click and annotate what needs to change. It turns visual feedback into a list the agent can patch.

4. Pick a canvas Need a visual tool? We keep three in rotation:

   • Figma — exploration, components, handoff
   • Paper Design — AI-native design and design-to-code
   • PenDev — prompt-to-interface experiments

Make your own skill

Create one when you solve the same problem twice. Just describe it to Hermes:

save this as a skill called "landing-page-review"

trigger: when someone asks to review a landing page

steps:
1. check the hero headline is useful, urgent, unique, and specific
2. look for one clear CTA above the fold
3. flag any paragraph longer than 3 lines
4. suggest one mobile-specific improvement

pitfalls:
- don't rewrite the whole page, only the weak spots
- if there's no analytics data, say so

Hermes writes the SKILL.md in the right folder. Next time, it loads automatically.

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Designer Tip:

The best first skill solves one annoying repeat task. Not “design everything” — “export Figma variables to a CSS file” or “rewrite a headline in five tones”.

Pitfalls

• Drift-prone skills. A skill that references a CLI flag that no longer exists, or a URL that changed, will silently give wrong output. Update it when it breaks, or delete it.
• Prune vs maintain. Keep only skills you actually use. A stale skill is worse than no skill because you trust it without thinking. Delete or rewrite, don’t let it rot.
• Overpacking. One skill should do one workflow. If it needs a table of contents, split it.