Skills System

Skills are reusable knowledge packages that teach Mona new workflows, domain expertise, and integrations. They are the primary way to extend what Mona knows without writing code.

What is a skill?

A skill is a collection of Markdown documents that describe:

• What the skill does
• When to use it
• How to perform the workflow step-by-step
• Examples of input and output

Skills are loaded on-demand — Mona only reads them when relevant to the current conversation.

Built-in and official optional skills

MonoClaw Runtime ships 89 default bundled skills (the skills/ tree, copied into ~/.monoclaw/skills/ on install) plus 71 official optional skills under optional-skills/ that you can search and install via the Skills Hub (160 official manifests total). Third-party Hub skills are additional.

The website’s six-category featured list below highlights the commercial baseline modules used in checkout and legal Schedule B — not the full open-source catalog.

Installing skills

Search the Skills Hub:

monoclaw skills search kubernetes
monoclaw skills search obsidian

Install a skill:

monoclaw skills install openai/skills/k8s
monoclaw skills install monoclaw/skills/obsidian

Or inside a chat:

/skills install kubernetes

Using skills

Load a skill for the current session:

Use the kubernetes skill to debug why this pod is crashing.

Or load multiple skills:

Load skills: arxiv, obsidian
Search arXiv for LLM reasoning papers and save the top 3 as Obsidian notes.

Skill format

Skills are Markdown files with frontmatter:

---
title: Kubernetes Debugging
description: Debug Kubernetes pods, services, and deployments.
triggers: ["kubernetes", "k8s", "pod", "deployment"]
---

## When to use this skill

Use this skill when the user asks about Kubernetes issues.

## Workflow

1. Get pod status: `kubectl get pods`
2. Check logs: `kubectl logs <pod-name>`
3. Describe resource: `kubectl describe <resource> <name>`
4. Check events: `kubectl get events --sort-by=.lastTimestamp`

## Examples

```bash
# User: "My pod is stuck in Pending"
kubectl describe pod my-pod
# Look for: node affinity, resource limits, PVC binding

## Creating skills

Create a skill locally:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/.monoclaw/skills/my-skill

Add a SKILL.md file with the format above.

Skill guidelines

• Be specific — Describe exact commands and parameters
• Include examples — Show real input/output pairs
• Define triggers — Help Mona know when to load the skill
• Keep it focused — One skill per domain or workflow
• Version it — Add a version header for tracking changes

Skill curation

The Curator maintains your skills automatically:

• Tracks which skills are used
• Archives stale skills
• Suggests improvements based on usage patterns

See the Curator guide for details.

Sharing skills

Skills can be shared via:

• GitHub — Store in a repo and install with monoclaw skills install owner/repo
• Local files — Copy to ~/.monoclaw/skills/
• Skills Hub — Submit to the public Skills Hub for others to use

Skill permissions

Skills run with the same permissions as Mona. A skill can:

• Read files in the project directory
• Execute terminal commands (if approved)
• Access the web
• Use other tools

Review skills before installing from untrusted sources.