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Skills are reusable instructions that guide how agents approach work. They help agents follow multi-step processes like research, planning, implementation, and review instead of doing everything in a single pass. Tembo loads skills from three places:
  • Repository skills you commit alongside your code
  • Managed skills you create in Settings > Skills
  • Built-in skills that ship with every session

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Repository skills

Place each skill in its own directory inside the skills folder for your coding agent. The folder differs per agent, so use the one that matches the agent running your sessions. A skill directory looks like this:

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Required frontmatter

Every entry file needs YAML frontmatter with name and description. Tembo skips any skill whose frontmatter is missing or invalid.
Constraints Tembo enforces when it indexes a skill:
  • name must be lowercase kebab-case (a-z, 0-9, single hyphens), at most 64 characters
  • name must exactly match the skill’s directory name
  • description must be a non-empty string of at most 1024 characters
  • Entry files larger than 1 MiB, or detected as binary, are skipped
For Cursor skills in .cursor/rules/, the skill name comes from the directory name, so frontmatter name is optional. description is still required.

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Using a skill

Ask the agent to use a skill in the session description, or after a PR is opened via the feedback loop:

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Managed skills

Create and manage skills directly in Tembo when you want them available across every repository, without committing files. Open Settings > Skills to:
  • Add a new skill, then give it a name and description
  • Write the main instructions in SKILL.md
  • Add extra reference files if needed
  • Edit or delete existing skills
  • Browse and install community skills from the marketplace
The entry file must be named SKILL.md. Tembo writes managed skills into the sandbox at /workspace/.tembo/agents/skills/<agent>/<skill-slug>/ and copies them into the running agent’s own skill directory so the agent discovers them normally. For Cursor, the entry file is converted to SKILL.mdc.
Every skill in your workspace is loaded into every session for that workspace. There is no per-repository or per-agent filtering, so keep descriptions specific enough that agents only invoke a skill when it is relevant.

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Built-in skills

These skills ship with Tembo and are available in every session without any setup: tembo-git-instructions picks up the commit and PR title instructions you set in Settings > Instructions. If you leave them blank, Tembo falls back to conventional commit messages.

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What skills are good for

  • Enforcing a research-then-implement workflow
  • Requiring test coverage before opening a PR
  • Defining code review checklists the agent runs against its own output
  • Setting quality thresholds for different session types
For broader project context such as build commands, architecture, and conventions, use a rule file instead. Rule files describe your project; skills describe a procedure.