Creating a Skillset¶

Build your own geno-{name} skillset that geno-tools can install, update, and manage.

Minimum viable skillset¶

geno-myskill/
├── genotools.yaml      # required — the manifest
├── SKILL.md            # umbrella description for the agent
└── commands/
    └── gt-myskill.md   # at least one slash command

The manifest — `genotools.yaml`¶

This is the only required file by name. Everything else is whatever the manifest points at.

name: myskill                    # "geno-" prefix stripped if present
version: 0.1.0
description: Short description of what this skillset does

# Optional — skip for skillsets with no Python dependencies
venv:
  name: default
  python: ">=3.10"
  deps: ["some-package>=1.0"]

# Optional — symlink runtime scripts
runtime:
  - { src: runtime/process.py, dst: process.py }
  - { src: runtime/helpers,    dst: helpers, recursive: true }

# Optional — copy-once config defaults (preserved across updates)
config:
  - { src: config/defaults/settings.yaml, dst: settings.yaml }

# Optional — override the commands directory (default: "commands/")
commands:
  source: commands/

Required fields¶

Field	Description
`name`	Skillset name. The `geno-` prefix is stripped if present.
`version`	Semantic version string
`description`	One-line description

Optional sections¶

`venv`¶

Declares an isolated Python environment:

Field	Description
`name`	Venv name (default: `default`)
`python`	Python version constraint
`deps`	List of pip requirements

`runtime`¶

Symlinks from repo into ~/.geno-tools/geno-{name}/scripts/:

Field	Description
`src`	Path relative to repo root
`dst`	Path relative to scripts dir
`recursive`	`true` to symlink a directory tree

`config`¶

Copy-once files into ~/.geno-tools/geno-{name}/configs/. Only created if missing — user edits are never overwritten.

Field	Description
`src`	Path relative to repo root
`dst`	Path relative to configs dir

SKILL.md¶

The umbrella manifest that describes your skillset to the agent. Use YAML frontmatter:

---
name: geno-myskill
description: >-
  What this skillset does and when to use it.
  Use when user says /gt-myskill.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: your-username
  version: "0.1.0"
---

# geno-myskill

Description, install instructions, command table, runtime notes.

Slash commands¶

Each .md file in commands/ becomes a /gt-* slash command. The filename (minus .md) is the command name.

Write these as instructions for the agent — what to do when the user invokes the command, what tools to use, what output to produce.

Testing locally¶

Use dev to link your local checkout:

geno-tools dev myskill ~/src/geno-myskill

Edits take effect immediately. When you're happy, push to a git remote and others can install it:

geno-tools install https://github.com/you/geno-myskill.git

Adding to the registry¶

To add your skillset to the built-in registry, submit a PR adding an entry to genotools/registry.py:

_REGISTRY: dict[str, str] = {
    # ...existing entries...
    "myskill": "https://github.com/you/geno-myskill.git",
}

Skillsets vs. plugins

Ecosystem skillsets use the skills format (SKILL.md + commands/*.md) and are installed via geno-tools install. Only geno-tools itself ships as a Claude Code plugin (.claude-plugin/plugin.json) to provide the /gt-install, /gt-remove, /gt-ls, and /gt-update slash commands.