Skills extend CLIver’s capabilities through structured SKILL.md files. They follow the Agent Skills specification and are activated by the LLM based on task context.

How Skills Work

A skill is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill helps with
---

# Skill Body

Instructions and context for the LLM when this skill is active.

When the agent encounters a task matching a skill’s description, it calls the skill tool to load the skill’s body into context. The skill’s body becomes part of the system prompt for the duration of the task.

Built-in Skills

Built-in skills:

Skill	Purpose
brainstorm	Collaborative design dialogue before implementation
write-plan	Detailed step-by-step implementation planning
execute-plan	Systematic plan execution with verification checkpoints
wbs-planner	Work breakdown structure for complex projects

Skill Discovery Order

Skills are discovered from multiple locations (higher overrides lower):

1. Built-in — shipped with CLIver (src/cliver/skills/)
2. User-global — ~/.cliver/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/
3. Project-local — .cliver/skills/, .agent/skills/, .claude/skills/, .gemini/skills/

Creating a Skill

Create a SKILL.md file in any discovery directory:

mkdir -p ~/.cliver/skills/my-domain
cat > ~/.cliver/skills/my-domain/SKILL.md <<'EOF'
---
name: my-domain
description: Expert knowledge about my specific domain
---

You are an expert in my domain. When answering questions:
1. Consider the specific constraints of our environment
2. Prefer approach X over approach Y
3. Reference our internal conventions at docs/internal/conventions.md
EOF