Skills

A skill is a reusable bundle of instructions the agent loads only when a task needs it.

Create one at .houston/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, with frontmatter name and description, and a body of instructions.

How it's loaded (progressive disclosure):

1. The agent sees only each skill's name and description up front, which is cheap.
2. When a task matches, it loads the full body by calling the skill tool.
3. Any other files in the skill's folder (a references/ folder, a template, a helper script) are listed at the end of the skill response. The agent reads or runs them with the file tools when the instructions say to, and only when a task needs them.

Built-in skills:

• houston-guide: this guide.
• render-ui (desktop app): what the agent follows when you ask to see how something looks or will look, using screenshots of the running app or a mockup, shown with show_images.