Tentaflake — Skill Index

Source: docs/03-skill-index.md at 2081f31a099e · docs version 0.4.0

Hermes skills are procedural knowledge packs that extend the agent’s capabilities. Unlike memory (facts), skills are how-to — multi-step workflows loaded on demand.

What Are Hermes Skills?

Skills = procedures (“how to configure a provider”, “how to debug a gateway”)
Memory = facts (“user prefers Claude”, “the API key is in /run/secrets/”)

Skills live as SKILL.md files. The agent loads them automatically from $HERMES_HOME/skills/ at startup. Load on demand with:

/skill-name

Or from the CLI:

hermes skills list
hermes skills load skill-name

Bundled Skills

These skills are in .agents/skills/ at the repo root. They serve two purposes:

Development-agent skills — instructions for AI agents working on this repo
Hermes container skills — reference docs available inside running agent containers (when seedDir points to them or they’re installed via hermes skills install)

Skill	Purpose	Type
handle-the-host	Tailscale SSH, NixOS rebuilds, container ops on deployed machines	tentaflake-specific
tentaflake-repo-guidance	Full repo reference: all modules, options, lib, ISOs, build targets	tentaflake-specific
hermes-config-manager	Config structure, profiles, env vars, `hermes config set`	Hermes generic
hermes-provider-setup	LLM provider setup, model selection, OpenRouter/Nous/Anthropic	Hermes generic
hermes-memory-personality	MEMORY.md, USER.md, SOUL.md — identity and persistence	Hermes generic
hermes-tools-config	Tool/toolset enable/disable, backends, truncation	Hermes generic

Note about Hermes-generic skills: These describe the interactive hermes config set workflow used inside a running agent container. If you defined your agent with a settings attrset in my-agents.nix, the config.yaml inside the container is read-only — interactive changes are lost on restart. Use my-agents.nix.example for the declarative approach instead.

Skill details

handle-the-host

Tailscale SSH connection to deployed tentaflake machines
NixOS rebuild and rollback commands
Docker container management (logs, restart, exec)
Passwordless sudo setup for remote operations
Tailscale Serve for exposing services

tentaflake-repo-guidance

Full repo layout, file tree, and module structure
Complete tentaflake.* options reference with defaults
mkHermesAgent parameter reference
ISO build targets and commands
How to consume as a flake input

hermes-config-manager

Config directory layout (~/.hermes/)
Profile management (hermes profile create, hermes -p work chat)
Terminal backend switching (local/docker/ssh/modal)
Config migration after update

hermes-provider-setup

Provider selection guide (Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.)
API key configuration
Multi-provider fallback
Custom endpoints (Ollama, vLLM, SGLang)
Model selection and switching mid-session

hermes-memory-personality

MEMORY.md vs USER.md — what to store where
Memory tool actions (add, replace, remove)
Capacity limits (2,200 chars memory, 1,375 chars user)
SOUL.md personality configuration
Context files (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md)

hermes-tools-config

Tool vs Toolset distinction
Per-platform tool enable/disable (CLI, Telegram, Discord, Slack)
Browser backend configuration
Code execution sandboxing
Output truncation limits

How Skills Auto-Discover

Agents scan $HERMES_HOME/skills/ at startup. Each SKILL.md file in that directory is registered. The agent can then invoke them via:

Use the hermes-config-manager skill to set up my model provider.

No manual import needed. Drop a SKILL.md into the agent’s skills dir and restart:

sudo docker restart hermes-coding

Available via Taps (Installable)

These skills are not bundled but available from community taps. Install them at runtime.

Skill	Purpose	Category
hermes-debug-diagnose	Doctor, provider connectivity, session recovery	devops
hermes-gateway-setup	Telegram/Discord/Slack/WhatsApp/Signal	devops
hermes-mcp-integration	MCP server config, tool filtering, OAuth	devops
hermes-security-hardening	Approval modes, sandboxing, SSRF protection	security
hermes-skill-author	Create new skills, test, bundle	productivity
hermes-skill-tap-publisher	Publish skill taps to GitHub	devops

Install via:

# Inside the agent container
hermes skills install hermes-debug-diagnose
hermes skills install hermes-gateway-setup
hermes skills install hermes-mcp-integration
hermes skills install hermes-security-hardening
hermes skills install hermes-skill-author
hermes skills install hermes-skill-tap-publisher

Or by tap URL:

hermes skills install https://github.com/username/hermes-skill-tap

Skill reference

hermes-debug-diagnose

hermes doctor — full system health check
Provider error diagnosis (400, 401, 429, empty responses)
Gateway connectivity tests
Session resume and recovery

hermes-gateway-setup

Telegram bot token setup
Discord bot configuration
Slack app integration
WhatsApp business API
User allowlists and DM pairing
Cron job management

hermes-mcp-integration

Add MCP servers (GitHub, filesystem, Stripe, etc.)
Tool allow/block filtering
OAuth-authenticated MCP servers
mTLS configuration

hermes-security-hardening

Dangerous command approval mode
Container sandboxing (Bubblewrap)
SSRF protection
Tirith security scanning
MCP tool filtering

hermes-skill-author

SKILL.md anatomy (frontmatter, sections)
Config, env vars, ref files
Skill testing
Bundle packaging

hermes-skill-tap-publisher

GitHub tap repo layout
Trust levels (official, verified, community)
Update lifecycle
Security scanning

Finding More Skills

# Search official skill hub
hermes skills search web-automation
hermes skills search gateway
hermes skills search security

# List installed
hermes skills list

Community sources:

GitHub topic: hermes-agent-skill
Nous Research Discord skill-sharing channels
Self-published taps (GitHub repos with skill bundles)

Creating Your Own Skills

Minimal SKILL.md:

---
name: my-custom-task
description: Do a specific thing
version: 1.0.0
metadata:
  hermes:
    tags: [custom, automation]
    category: productivity
---

# My Custom Task

## Procedure

### 1. First step

```bash
some command

2. Second step

Check output, do thing.

Place it in the agent's skills dir:

```bash
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/hermes-coding/skills/my-custom-task
sudo vi /var/lib/hermes-coding/skills/my-custom-task/SKILL.md
sudo docker restart hermes-coding

Use the hermes-skill-author skill for advanced authoring, testing, and packaging.

External References

The following are dev-machine-only reference docs (not on the target machine — stored on the development workstation):

~/docs/qp-hermes-analyze.md — Quick-profile analysis workflow
~/docs/agency-inbox-operator.md — Multi-agent inbox orchestration

These describe dev workflows, not operational procedures. They live on the machine where you fork this repo, not on the deployed agent host.