Agent Skills - Tembo Docs

Skills are instructions that live in your repository and guide how agents approach work. They help agents follow multi-step processes like research, planning, implementation, and review instead of doing everything in a single pass.

How it works

A skill is a directory that contains an entry file with YAML frontmatter. Place it under the skills directory for your coding agent at the root of your repository. Each agent discovers skills from its own location:

Harness	Skill directory	Entry file
Claude Code	`.claude/skills`	`SKILL.md`
Codex	`.codex/skills`	`SKILL.md`
OpenCode	`.opencode/skills`	`SKILL.md`
Cursor	`.cursor/rules`	`SKILL.mdc`
Amp	`.agents/skills`	`SKILL.md`
Pi	`.agents/skills`	`SKILL.md`

.agents/skills is the agent-agnostic location: it is read by Tembo’s default agent (Pi) and by Amp. The path is one skill directory per skill, for example .claude/skills/code-review/SKILL.md.

Skill file format

Every entry file starts with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: code-review
description: Review the diff for correctness and style before opening a PR.
---

1. Read the full diff and summarize what changed.
2. Check each change against the project's conventions.
3. Flag correctness bugs, missing tests, and style issues.
4. Only open a PR once the checklist passes.

Requirements Tembo enforces when it picks up a skill:

description is required, and must be 1024 characters or fewer.
name is required in SKILL.md files and must exactly match the skill’s directory name. It must be lowercase kebab-case (^[a-z0-9]+(-[a-z0-9]+)*$) and 64 characters or fewer.
Cursor’s SKILL.mdc files take the name from the directory, so only description is required in frontmatter.
The entry file must be UTF-8 text under 1 MB. Files that miss any requirement are skipped silently.

The agent picks up these skills when working on sessions in that repo. You need to instruct the agent to use a skill, either in the session description or after a PR is opened via the feedback loop:

@tembo Use the implementation skill for this session

@tembo Now use the code-review skill to review your changes

Example

A skill that guides the agent through a structured implementation flow, saved as .claude/skills/implementation/SKILL.md:

---
name: implementation
description: Research, plan, implement, and self-review before opening a PR.
---

1. Research the codebase to understand existing patterns
2. Create a plan with specific files and changes
3. Implement the plan following project conventions
4. Run tests and fix any failures
5. Self-review the diff before opening a PR

What skills are good for

Enforcing a research-then-implement workflow
Requiring test coverage before opening a PR
Defining code review checklists the agent runs against its own output
Setting quality thresholds for different session types

What’s coming

We’re building first-party skill support and planning mode so Tembo can handle work in staged steps: Research → Plan → Implement → Review → Iterate This will improve PR quality on larger sessions, where today the agent may need a few iterations before the output is merge-ready. Rule files and skills in dotfile directories are the best way to guide agents today.

Tembo Managed Skills

You can also create and manage skills directly in Tembo. Open Settings → Skills to:

Add a new skill
Give it a name and description
Write the main instructions in SKILL.md
Add extra reference files if needed
Edit or delete existing skills

Tembo managed skills are stored in your workspace settings and loaded into sessions automatically when Tembo runs an agent.

​How it works

​Skill file format

​Example

​What skills are good for

​What’s coming

​Tembo Managed Skills