Agent Skills

The WorkflowFramework.Extensions.Agents.Skills package implements the Agent Skills standard — a convention for packaging reusable agent instructions as SKILL.md files with YAML frontmatter.

Installation

dotnet add package WorkflowFramework.Extensions.Agents.Skills

Key Types

Type	Purpose
SkillDefinition	Parsed skill with metadata and body
SkillLoader	Parses SKILL.md files (YAML frontmatter + markdown body)
SkillDiscovery	Scans standard and custom paths for skills
SkillToolProvider	Exposes skills as invocable tools
SkillContextSource	Injects skill instructions into agent prompts

SKILL.md Format

A skill file consists of YAML frontmatter followed by markdown instructions:

---
name: code-review
description: Reviews code for bugs, style issues, and best practices
license: MIT
compatibility: Claude, GPT-4, Qwen
allowed-tools:
  - read_file
  - list_directory
metadata:
  author: team
  version: 1.0
---

# Code Review Skill

When asked to review code:

1. Read the file with `read_file`
2. Check for common bugs and anti-patterns
3. Verify naming conventions and code style
4. Suggest improvements with specific line references
5. Rate severity: critical / warning / info

SkillLoader

Parses SKILL.md content or files:

// Parse from file
SkillDefinition skill = SkillLoader.ParseFile("./skills/code-review/SKILL.md");

// Parse from string
SkillDefinition skill = SkillLoader.Parse(markdownContent);

Console.WriteLine(skill.Name);           // "code-review"
Console.WriteLine(skill.Description);    // "Reviews code for bugs..."
Console.WriteLine(skill.License);        // "MIT"
Console.WriteLine(skill.AllowedTools);   // ["read_file", "list_directory"]
Console.WriteLine(skill.Body);           // The markdown body after frontmatter
Console.WriteLine(skill.SourcePath);     // File path (when parsed from file)

SkillDiscovery

Scans directories for SKILL.md files. Standard paths follow the Agent Skills convention:

var discovery = new SkillDiscovery(
    scanStandardPaths: true,
    additionalPaths: new[] { "./project-skills", "/shared/skills" }
);

// Discover all skills
IReadOnlyList<SkillDefinition> skills = discovery.DiscoverAll();

// Or scan a specific directory
IReadOnlyList<SkillDefinition> projectSkills = discovery.ScanDirectory("./project-skills");

Standard paths scanned (when scanStandardPaths: true):

• ~/.agents/skills/
• ~/.claude/skills/
• ./.agents/skills/
• ./.claude/skills/

Each path is searched recursively for SKILL.md files.

SkillToolProvider

Exposes discovered skills as tools in the ToolRegistry. When invoked, a skill tool returns its body (the markdown instructions):

var skills = discovery.DiscoverAll();
var toolProvider = new SkillToolProvider(skills);

registry.Register(toolProvider);

// Skills appear as tools
var tools = await toolProvider.ListToolsAsync();
// [{ Name: "code-review", Description: "Reviews code for bugs..." }]

// Invoking returns the skill body
var result = await toolProvider.InvokeToolAsync("code-review", "{}");
// result.Content = "# Code Review Skill\n\nWhen asked to review code:..."

SkillContextSource

Injects skill instructions directly into agent prompts as context:

var contextSource = new SkillContextSource(skills);

var workflow = new WorkflowBuilder()
    .AgentLoop(provider, registry, options =>
    {
        options.ContextSources.Add(contextSource);
    })
    .Build();

Each skill becomes a ContextDocument with:

• Name = skill name
• Content = skill body (markdown)
• Source = file path
• Metadata["description"] = skill description

DI Registration

services.AddAgentSkills(options =>
{
    options.ScanStandardPaths = true;
    options.AutoDiscover = true;
    options.AdditionalPaths.Add("./custom-skills");
});

services.AddAgentTooling(); // Auto-discovers SkillToolProvider

AddAgentSkills() registers:

• SkillOptions and SkillDiscovery as singletons
• Auto-discovered IReadOnlyList<SkillDefinition>
• SkillToolProvider as IToolProvider
• SkillContextSource as IContextSource

Complete Example

// Directory structure:
// ./skills/
//   code-review/SKILL.md
//   summarize/SKILL.md
//   translate/SKILL.md

var discovery = new SkillDiscovery(
    scanStandardPaths: false,
    additionalPaths: new[] { "./skills" }
);

var skills = discovery.DiscoverAll();
Console.WriteLine($"Found {skills.Count} skills");

var registry = new ToolRegistry();
registry.Register(new SkillToolProvider(skills));
registry.Register(new FileSystemToolProvider());

var workflow = new WorkflowBuilder()
    .AgentLoop(provider, registry, options =>
    {
        options.SystemPrompt = "You have access to specialized skills. " +
            "Use them to guide your work on complex tasks.";
        options.ContextSources.Add(new SkillContextSource(skills));
        options.MaxIterations = 20;
    })
    .Build();

await workflow.RunAsync(context);