Agent Skills Repo Publishing

Agent Skills Repo Publishing

Publish battle-tested skills to davidtoby/agent-skills in a way that keeps the repo valid and the local Hermes copy in sync.

Quick start

1. Work in the local clone at ~/.Hermes/workspace/output/skill_repo_cache/agent-skills.
2. Add or edit the skill under skills/<skill-name>/.
3. Update repo indexes (README.md, skills/README.md) so the new skill is discoverable.
4. Rebuild affected .skill packages with scripts/rebuild_all_packages.py --skill ....
5. If validation fails because another package is stale, rebuild that package too.
6. Copy the final skill folder into local Hermes skills under ~/.hermes/skills/user-imports/.
7. Commit, fetch/rebase, and push via SSH to git@github.com:davidtoby/agent-skills.git.
8. Verify the pushed commit on GitHub.

Repo-specific workflow

Working repo

Use:

~/.Hermes/workspace/output/skill_repo_cache/agent-skills

This repo contains:

• skills/ source-of-truth folders
• packages/*.skill packaged artifacts
• scripts/rebuild_all_packages.py
• scripts/validate_skills_repo.py

Add or update a skill

Required files:

• skills/<name>/SKILL.md
• optional references/, scripts/, assets/

Important repo-specific mapping:

• the GitHub skills repo uses a flat skills/<name>/ layout
• local Hermes may store the same skill under namespaced paths such as ~/.Hermes/skills/user-imports/<name>/ or ~/.Hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/<name>/
• when publishing an update that was made locally first, sync the local skill folder into the repo path explicitly rather than assuming the repo mirrors the local namespace structure

Typical sync pattern:

rsync -a --delete ~/.Hermes/skills/user-imports/<name>/ \
  ~/.Hermes/workspace/output/skill_repo_cache/agent-skills/skills/<name>/

# or, for an OpenClaw-imported skill
rsync -a --delete ~/.Hermes/skills/openclaw-imports/<name>/ \
  ~/.Hermes/workspace/output/skill_repo_cache/agent-skills/skills/<name>/

When adding a new skill, also update:

• README.md
• skills/README.md

The repo validator requires all listed skills to be mentioned in both indexes.

Rebuild packages correctly

Preferred command:

python3 scripts/rebuild_all_packages.py --skill <skill-name>

This does three things:

1. packages the requested skill
2. syncs the package-list blocks in README files
3. runs full repo validation

Important pitfall: validation checks the whole repo, not just your new skill

Real issue encountered:

• adding one new skill caused validation to fail because chinese-pdf-report.skill was stale from an earlier edit
• the new skill itself was valid, but the repo still failed

Guideline:

• if rebuild_all_packages.py --skill <new-skill> fails on another package, rebuild the stale package too
• do not assume the failure belongs to the new skill you just added

Example recovery:

python3 scripts/rebuild_all_packages.py --skill chinese-pdf-report --skill github-auth-recovery

Important pitfall: generated cache files can make package validation look stale

Real issue encountered:

• updating video-bilingual-subtitle-delivery produced/left scripts/__pycache__/...pyc under the skill source folder
• rebuild_all_packages.py --skill video-bilingual-subtitle-delivery created a package without the __pycache__ file, but full validation compared against the source tree and failed with a stale file-list mismatch
• deleting the generated cache directory and rebuilding fixed validation

Guideline:

• before packaging, remove generated caches and build artifacts inside the skill source folder
• especially check __pycache__/, .DS_Store, temporary nested duplicate skill folders, and other generated files under skills/<skill-name>/
• if validation says a package file list is stale and mentions __pycache__, delete the cache directory and rerun the rebuild

Example recovery:

rm -rf skills/<skill-name>/scripts/__pycache__
rm -rf skills/<skill-name>/__pycache__
python3 scripts/rebuild_all_packages.py --skill <skill-name>

Sync local Hermes copy

After the repo version is final, copy it into local Hermes skills:

cp -R ~/.Hermes/workspace/output/skill_repo_cache/agent-skills/skills/<skill-name> \
      ~/.hermes/skills/user-imports/<skill-name>

This keeps local reusable skills aligned with the published repo version.

Git push method for this machine

On Toby's current machine:

• GitHub SSH works for account davidtoby
• gh may be logged out
• HTTPS push may fail

Preferred push flow:

git fetch origin main
git rebase origin/main
git push git@github.com:davidtoby/agent-skills.git HEAD:main

Recommended publish checklist

• skill folder created or updated under skills/
• README.md mentions the skill
• skills/README.md mentions the skill
• .skill package rebuilt
• full repo validation passes
• local Hermes copy synced under ~/.hermes/skills/user-imports/
• commit created
• fetch/rebase done
• pushed via SSH
• remote commit URL verified

Output standard

When reporting a publish, include:

1. skill name
2. whether it was new or updated
3. commit SHA
4. commit URL
5. whether local Hermes copy was synced