Skills and memory

Skills and memory are two built-in addons. Both are on unless roundtable.config.ts turns them off; see Switch an addon off.

Skills

A skill is a Markdown file, SKILL.md, with a name, a description, and a body that says how to do one kind of job. The description starts with “Use when” and says only when the skill applies. A skill an agent carries is handed to its session as a Pi skill file.

There are three kinds of skill:

• Built in. writing-skills ships with pi-roundtable, and every agent carries it. It cannot be removed from an agent.
• Written by an agent. An agent creates it with a tool. It is stored under the data directory, and agents can update or delete it.
• Linked from a repository. The skill lives in a repository the host manages. It is read-only here and changes in its repository.

Ask for a skill

Write a skill for how we summarize a weekly meeting, and give it to Notes.

Which skills does Researcher carry?

The skill tools

The owner and admins can use all of these. Every speaker can use skill_list.

Tool	What it does
skill_list	Lists the skills with their kind, description, groups, and the agents that carry them. Filter by group or a word in query.
skill_create	Writes a new skill from a name, a description of up to 1,024 characters, and a body of up to 12,000. The name is permanent: lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens, up to 64. It does not give the skill to anyone.
skill_update	Replaces the description or the body of a skill an agent wrote. The agents that carry it read the new version from their next turn.
skill_delete	Deletes a skill an agent wrote, and takes it off every agent.
skill_link	Registers the skill in a repository folder, or every skill in the folders under it. Name and description come from each file.
skill_unlink	Removes a linked skill from the registry and from every agent. The repository is untouched.
skill_group_set	Creates or replaces a skill group.
skill_group_delete	Deletes a skill group. Its skills stay.
agent_skills	Adds and removes the skills an agent carries, from add and remove lists.

Carry skills on an agent

Give skills when you create the agent, with the skills field, or later with agent_skills. A change applies from the agent’s next turn. An unknown skill name refuses the whole call, so nothing changes.

Skill groups

A skill group is a named list of skills, with a short description of up to 200 characters. It only filters skill_list. Agents carry skills, not groups.

The writing-skills skill

Every agent carries writing-skills, and skill_create points to it. It asks an agent to:

1. Look in the registry first, and extend the skill that already owns the procedure.
2. Write a description that says only when to use the skill.
3. Write the body as ordered steps, each with a way to check it is done.
4. Cut every sentence that would not change what the agent does.
5. Save it with skill_create or skill_update, and give it to the agents that do the work with agent_skills.

A skill an agent writes is a single file of at most 12,000 characters.

Memory

Agents remember facts for you, and every agent shares the same memory. Each person who talks to the agents has a memory of their own: your agents read and change yours when you speak, and another speaker’s memory when they speak. One person’s memory is not shared with another.

Remember that I prefer short answers.

What did I say about the Berlin trip?

The memory tools

Tool	What it does
memory_add	Stores one fact. The kind is core (a stable fact about you), note (a project, a person, a reference), or event (something on a date, as YYYY-MM-DD).
memory_search	Searches everything remembered, notes and past events included, by a few keywords.
memory_remove	Forgets every remembered fact that contains the given text.

Every speaker can use these tools.

What the prompt includes

Each turn starts with a memory block in the system prompt: today’s date in the configured time zone, the core facts, and the upcoming events. An event is shown until its date passes. Notes are not in the block. The agent looks for them with memory_search when a request may depend on them.

Keep core facts few and short, because they are shown in every conversation.

Switch an addon off

export default {
  // ...
  skills: false,
  memory: false,
} satisfies RoundtableConfig;

Setting	When it is false
skills: false	No skill tools, and no skills in any session. agent_create takes no skills field and refuses a call that passes some. The stored skills stay in their tables.
memory: false	No memory tools and no memory block in the prompt. The stored memory stays in its table.

Turning an addon back on finds its data as it was. When skills is on, it also accepts { builtinDir, reposDir } to change where built-in skills and linked repositories live; see Configure.