Install Skill

Install Skill

You install a SKILL.md the user supplied — pasted text, a URL, or a file path — into the runtime's user-skills directory. You also review risk and surface the credentials the new skill will need.

When To Use

• User says "install this skill" with content attached.
• User says "add this skill from this URL".
• User asks you to import a Hermes / OpenClaw / Claude-Code skill.

Procedure

1. Acquire the SKILL.md text:

   • If the user pasted it, use the pasted content verbatim.
   • If they supplied a URL, fetch with curl -fsSL <url>. Refuse if the host is not HTTPS unless it's localhost.
   • If they supplied a file path, read the file.

2. Validate the SKILL.md against the spec without writing to disk:

   bun run gini skill validate /tmp/incoming-skill.md
   

   • Exit code 0 → spec-compliant; continue.
   • Exit code non-zero → repair the obvious issues (kebab-case the name, trim the description, move legacy fields under metadata.gini.*). If the issues are substantive (referencing a credential that isn't configured), see step 4.

3. Review the scripts and the body for risk. Read every sidecar file the user provided. Summarize for the user:

   • Which commands the skill runs (bash, curl, psql, …).
   • Which env vars / secrets it reads.
   • Whether it can write outside its workspace.
   • Whether it makes outbound network calls and to which hosts.

4. Resolve the credential requirements declared under metadata.gini.requires.credentials (a list of credential names). An incoming skill may instead carry the legacy metadata.gini.requires.connectors (with provider: items); that form is still accepted, but rewrite it to requires.credentials names (e.g. linear → LINEAR_API_KEY, google-oauth-desktop → google-workspace-oauth) when you install:

   • For each credential name, check GET /api/connectors to see whether the user already has a healthy credential with that name.
   • If the skill only needs local commands or an already-authenticated CLI and does not need a credential-managed account, credential, remote API, or local integration, remove the credential requirement. Record command requirements under metadata.gini.prerequisites.commands.
   • If a required credential is NOT yet configured: Default to forward motion — but forward motion means "install, then prompt," not "install, then stop." Keep the requirement and install the skill (step 6). You MUST then prompt for the missing credential(s) in chat at step 7 (which is mandatory); do not present an install / hold-off binary choice, and do not treat installation as the finish line.

5. Surface the allowed-tools declaration to the user. Read the skill's frontmatter allowed-tools value (space-separated) and summarize for the user: "This skill declares it will use: <tool list>. The audit trail records every invocation."

6. Install via the API:

   curl -sS -X POST http://localhost:<runtime-port>/api/skills \
     -H "authorization: Bearer $GINI_TOKEN" \
     -H "content-type: application/json" \
     -d "$(jq -nc \
       --arg body "$(cat /tmp/incoming-skill.md)" \
       '{ body: $body }')"
   

   The endpoint writes the file flat under ~/.gini/instances/<instance>/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, triggers a loader reload, and returns the new enabled SkillRecord. User-installed skills never nest under a category subfolder.

7. MANDATORY — prompt for every missing credential before you report the skill ready. Installing the skill is NOT the end of the task. The install response (step 6) returns the new SkillRecord — use its id as the skillId. Then:

   1. Re-read the installed skill's metadata.gini.requires.credentials list.
   2. For EACH credential name in that list, check GET /api/connectors for an existing healthy credential with that name.
   3. For EACH credential that is still missing, you MUST call request_connector so the user enters it securely. Do this for every missing credential — do not skip any, do not batch them into prose, do not defer to "the next time the skill runs":
      • Registered provider (the credential name maps to a known module, e.g. LINEAR_API_KEY → linear): request_connector with that provider id plus skillId.
      • No registered provider (a brand-new service): request_connector with {name: "<CREDENTIAL_NAME>", type: "<api-key|oauth2>", skillId: "<installed skill id>", reason: "<what the credential is for and where to get it>"}. Infer type from the name: an UPPER_SNAKE env-var token (e.g. SOME_SERVICE_API_KEY) is api-key; a kebab handle is oauth2.

   Do not stop after "installed." A skill with a missing required credential is NOT ready to use — it stays inactive until the credential is granted. You may report the skill as ready ONLY when either every required credential has been provided (each request_connector card completed) OR the user has explicitly declined to provide it. If the user has not yet responded to a card, the task is still in progress; wait for it, do not declare completion.

   Completing the card stores the credential as a typed record AND grants it to the installed skill — the skill activates once all its credentials are granted, so there is no separate grant step and no /skills trip. The secure card captures the secret server-side; the value never enters the chat transcript.

   The /skills page (find the installed skill's row, click the inline [Set up <Credential>] button) is a fallback only — use it if the secure card cannot render (e.g. the conversation is not in the web chat).

Rules

• Always validate before writing. Never install an invalid SKILL.md.
• Always review the scripts for risk before installing. If you can't read the scripts (binary blobs, opaque URLs), refuse the install and tell the user why.
• Keep an unconfigured credential requirement and install anyway; do not stop the install flow to ask permission. Do not add a credential requirement for skills that only need local commands or an already-authenticated CLI.
• After a successful install, prompting for each missing required credential via request_connector (step 7) is MANDATORY, not optional. Never report the skill as installed/ready and then stop while a required credential is still missing — the skill is inactive until it is granted. The post-install prompt must happen in the SAME turn as the install, not deferred to a later on-demand run.
• Never embed the user's secret values in the SKILL.md you write.
• Never POST a secret to /api/connectors (or any endpoint) from a shell command. A secret on a command line lands in your context, the audit trail, and process listings. Always use request_connector so the value is captured server-side through the secure card and never enters the transcript.
• Bundled vendored skills are off-limits to this skill — install only user-source records.