Skills & Custom Tools

In CoderX, Skills are self-contained plugins that combine execution scripts, system prompts, API definitions, and contextual resources. By adding skills, you extend the vocabulary of tools available to the AI agent, allowing it to perform complex, domain-specific tasks (like analyzing genomics structures, fetching clinical trials, or querying custom databases).

Skill Architecture

Every skill resides in its own folder and contains at least a SKILL.md file defining its metadata and behavior:

• SKILL.md (Required): The entry point containing frontmatter configuration (name, description, required packages) and detailed instructions guiding the agent on when and how to invoke the skill.
• scripts/: Executable Python or Shell scripts that perform actual API connections or processing tasks.
• resources/: static assets, reference guides, database schemas, or code templates.

Dynamic Skill Distillation

Instead of writing skills from scratch, you can use the Dynamic Skill Creator to package any successful terminal workflow or sub-task session into a reusable skill:

Writing a Custom SKILL.md

Here is an example structure of a custom skill manifest (SKILL.md):

---
name: db-schema-analyzer
description: Inspect local Postgres schemas and suggest indexing optimizations.
required_tools:
  - run_command
  - write_file
---

# Instructions for the Agent

Use this skill whenever the user asks to analyze database performance, optimize sql queries, or explain schemas.

## Step-by-Step Execution
1. Query the local Postgres schema by running the script: `python scripts/dump_schema.py`
2. Save the schema details into a temporary file.
3. Compare the indexes in the schema against common bottleneck query patterns and print recommended indexing commands in a markdown table.

Managing Your Skills

[!TIP] Keep your skill descriptions highly descriptive. CoderX uses the skill's description frontmatter to determine which skill is relevant to a user request during the planning phase.

Skills Marketplace & Local Registry

• Local Plugins Path: All dynamic and manually added skills are located at: C:\Users\<user>\.gemini\config\plugins\
• Disabling Skills: To disable a skill, delete its folder or rename the directory prefixing it with an underscore (e.g. _alphafold-database).
• Refreshing Registry: The agent automatically hot-reloads the local directory when a new skill is registered; no editor restarts are necessary.