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Magnitude supports the open source Agent Skills standard — a cross-agent convention for defining reusable agent behaviors. Skills you create work in any agent that supports the standard.

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What are skills?

A skill is a markdown file (SKILL.md) that defines a reusable behavior the agent can activate. Each skill lives in its own directory and contains instructions that modify how the agent approaches a task.

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Adding a skill

Create a SKILL.md file in one of the scan directories: 
.agents/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md

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SKILL.md format

---
name: my-skill
description: A brief description of what this skill does
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent when this skill is active.

## Rules

1. Do this
2. Don't do that
3. Follow this pattern
The YAML frontmatter requires:
  • name — skill identifier (used as the slash command)
  • description — what the skill does

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Activating a skill

Type /<skill-name> in the chat to activate a skill. Skills show up alongside built-in commands in the autocomplete.

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Scan locations

Magnitude scans these directories for skills, in order of priority (later overrides earlier):
LocationScope
~/.agents/skills/Global (cross-agent standard)
~/.magnitude/skills/Global (Magnitude-specific)
<project>/.agents/skills/Project-local (cross-agent standard)
<project>/.magnitude/skills/Project-local (Magnitude-specific)
Project-local skills override global skills with the same name. Magnitude-specific directories override cross-agent directories.

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Example: Debug skill

---
name: debug
description: Take a scientific approach to debugging a problem
---

# Debug

You are debugging a difficult issue.
Approach with a scientific method — collect evidence, form hypotheses,
and verify them before declaring a root cause.

## Rules

1. Never jump to conclusions without a reproduction
2. Collect as much information as possible
3. Record evidence in `.magnitude/bugs/<date>/<title>.md`
4. Only pull the user in if absolutely necessary
Learn more about the Agent Skills standard at agentskills.io.