Overview

Skills are specialized prompts that enhance OpenHands with domain-specific knowledge, expert guidance, and automated task handling.

Skills are specialized prompts that enhance OpenHands with domain-specific knowledge, expert guidance, and automated task handling. They provide consistent practices across projects and can be triggered automatically based on keywords or context.

Official Skill Registry

The official global skill registry is maintained at github.com/OpenHands/skills. This repository contains community-shared skills that can be used by all OpenHands agents. You can browse available skills, contribute your own, and learn from examples created by the community.

How Skills Work

Skills inject additional context and rules into the agent’s behavior. To customize OpenHands’ behavior, create a .openhands/skills/ directory in the root of your repository and add <skill_name>.md files inside.

Loaded skills take up space in the context window. These skills, alongside user messages, inform OpenHands about the task and the environment.

Example Repository Structure

some-repository/
└── .openhands/
    └── skills/
        └── repo.md            # General guidelines
        └── trigger_this.md    # Skill triggered by specific keywords
        └── trigger_that.md    # Skill triggered by specific keywords

Skill Types

Currently supported skill types:

• General Skills: Repository-wide guidelines and best practices. For repository-specific guidelines, you can ask OpenHands to analyze your repository and create a repo.md file.
• Keyword-Triggered Skills: Guidelines activated by specific keywords in user prompts.
• Organization Skills: Team or organization-wide standards.
• Global Skills: Community-shared skills and templates.

Skills Frontmatter Requirements

Each skill file may include frontmatter that provides additional information. In some cases, this frontmatter is required:

Skill Type	Required
General Skills	No
Keyword-Triggered Skills	Yes

Skills Support Matrix

Platform	Support Level	Configuration Method	Implementation	Documentation
CLI	✅ Full Support	.openhands/skills/ directory	File-based markdown	This guide
SDK	✅ Full Support	Programmatic Skill objects	Code-based configuration	SDK Skills Guide
Local GUI	✅ Full Support	.openhands/skills/ + UI	File-based with UI management	Local Setup
OpenHands Cloud	✅ Full Support	Cloud UI + repository integration	Managed skill library	Cloud UI

Platform-Specific Differences

CLI

• File-based configuration in .openhands/skills/ directory
• Markdown format for skill definitions
• Manual file management required
• Supports both general and keyword-triggered skills

SDK

• Programmatic Skill objects in code
• Dynamic skill creation and management
• Integration with custom workflows
• Full control over skill lifecycle

Local GUI

• Visual skill management through UI
• File-based storage with GUI editing
• Real-time skill status display
• Drag-and-drop skill organization

OpenHands Cloud

• Cloud-based skill library management
• Team-wide skill sharing and templates
• Organization-level skill policies
• Integrated skill marketplace

Learn More

• For SDK integration: See SDK Skills Guide
• For architecture details: See Skills Architecture
• For specific skill types: See Repository Skills, Keyword Skills, Organization Skills, and Global Skills