---
name: Agent Skills
desc: The Sirno agent skill set and the handoffs between its skills.
category:
  - meta
belongs:
  - sirno
prerequisite:
  - methodology
  - interfaces
---

Sirno ships an agent skill set that renders the method into operational procedure.

There are three packaged Sirno skills.
The maintainer skill is the default entry point for codebase changes.
It starts in the configured lake,
updates or creates the entries that govern the work,
actualizes from those entries into repository material,
and keeps witnesses, configuration, and generated skill artifacts synced.
The narrative-session skill conducts an adaptive route through lake knowledge
and materializes it as a narrative entry when the route should persist.
The skill-synthesizer skill rebuilds the MCP skill resources and packaged wrappers
from discipline entries,
so the skill set stays a reproducible surface of the method rather than prose that can drift.
`src/surface/context.rs` bundles the packaged wrappers as compile-time constants
from the lake-owned `SKILL.md` artifact files.
Project initialization installs those bundled wrappers by default.
Human CLI operator maintenance can refresh wrappers and detect installed wrapper drift.
Each rostered Sirno discipline owns two skill artifacts.
`SKILL.full.md` is the full Markdown skill text embedded by `src/mcp.rs`
and served as a `sirno://skills/sirno-*` MCP resource.
`SKILL.md` is the packaged wrapper copied word-for-word into `.agents/skills/sirno-*/SKILL.md`.
The wrapper tells an agent to read the MCP resource before doing skill work.
When Claude skill integration is selected,
Sirno links each installed `.agents/skills/sirno-*` package directory into `.claude/skills`.
The link is an adjacent integration point.
The packaged wrapper under `.agents/skills` remains the owned skill package.
MCP-hosted Sirno skills must bind the active project through the server current working directory.
When a Sirno MCP server starts without `--config`,
call its `sirno_cwd` tool with the repository root before project tools.
Project tools resolve `Sirno.toml` on every project tool call from the current server cwd.
Call `sirno_cwd` again before switching projects in the same server process.

This entry is the review front door for those skills.
The durable procedure each skill encodes lives in its own discipline entry,
so a skill can be rebuilt from the lake rather than only from its packaged wrapper.
Each Sirno discipline entry names its target `.agents/skills/sirno-*/SKILL.md` package path.
The discipline entries are `lake-first-maintenance-discipline`,
`narrative-session-discipline`, and `skill-synthesis-discipline`.

Packaged skills are portable.
They are installed into arbitrary user repositories,
so their user-facing procedure must speak from the active project perspective.
Use the configured lake path from `Sirno.toml`,
query and read the active project's entries,
and avoid assuming this source repository's `sirno-docs/` path or self-hosted entry set.
The `portable-agent-skill-language` entry carries this rule.

The skills share one lake-first rule.
Any edit to source, tests, generated artifacts, configuration, README files,
design documents outside the configured lake, or packaged skills begins by reading the relevant
active-project entries.
When the edit changes the design,
the maintainer skill updates the configured lake before the repository material becomes the new
habit.
The resulting code, docs, config, and witnesses should be able to answer which entry explains
an important local commitment.
The maintainer skill uses repository documentation-writing skills for `README`, `DESIGN`,
and `METHODOLOGY` prose when those documents have their own roles and style.
The `design-doc-writer-skill` entry documents the adjacent meta-management skill
for design documents.
It is documented in the Sirno source lake as a method input,
not as part of the three packaged Sirno skills.
`design-doc-writer-skill` contributes reusable design-document habits:
read the whole design document,
order sections by conceptual dependency and scope,
write declarative, dry, precise prose,
prefer positive definitions over defensive framing,
and evaluate the result as a reader before and after editing.
It also owns `.artifacts/design-doc-writer-skill/SKILL.full.md`,
copied exactly from `.agents/skills/design-doc-writer/SKILL.md`.
`src/mcp.rs` embeds that artifact as `sirno://skills/design-doc-writer`.
Sirno skill work uses those habits only as the default design-document method.
When a repository has its own design-document skill or documented manner,
use that instead.
The synthesis skill checks the Sirno skill roster
and reports any discipline, MCP resource, wrapper, or package that no longer has a counterpart.
Repository skill maintenance is a local human CLI utility surface.
MCP serves skill resources for agents.
It does not expose any `sirno util` commands,
including wrapper listing, checking, or installation.
Agents maintain skill artifacts and installed wrappers as explicit repository files.
Utility commands copy exact bundled wrapper constants;
they do not ask a model to rewrite the skill text.
When an agent discovers that utility maintenance is needed,
it should report the needed human CLI action instead of treating it as an MCP operation.
The maintainer skill may call CLI `sirno util config --fix`
to canonicalize `Sirno.toml` comments.
That exception belongs to lake-first maintenance and does not add utility commands to MCP.

A full skill resource is an operational rendering of lake method, not a separate authority.
When a resource or wrapper and the lake disagree, the lake and `Sirno.toml` win,
and the artifact should be corrected.
Failure handling belongs in the full resource.
A wrapper should only direct the agent to the MCP resource,
so installed skills stay small while the full method remains source-controlled.

---

> **Sirno generated links begin. Do not edit this section.**

- belongs (to):
  - [sirno](sirno.md)
- belongs (from):
  - [design-doc-writer-skill](design-doc-writer-skill.md)
  - [lake-first-maintenance-discipline](lake-first-maintenance-discipline.md)
  - [narrative-session-discipline](narrative-session-discipline.md)
  - [portable-agent-skill-language](portable-agent-skill-language.md)
  - [skill-synthesis-discipline](skill-synthesis-discipline.md)

> **Sirno generated links end.**
