Skills & plugins

Skills

A skill is a markdown playbook the agent can load on demand — instructions, templates, and optionally bundled scripts. Skills use progressive disclosure: only names + descriptions sit in the system prompt; the full playbook loads only when invoked (by you via /skill, or by the model via the Skill tool when it recognizes a matching task).

Layers (what you get where)

Layer	Location	How it arrives
L0 — binary-bundled	Embedded in the binary	Always present: agent-team rubrics (evaluation-rubric, optimization-rubric, team-design-rubric) plus a thin docx fallback
L1 — default pack	Shipped as default-skills/ next to the release binary; synced into ~/.hipmmcode/skills/	Documents + design pack (see below). Installed automatically on npm / install.sh / first launch, or manually
L2 — user / project / Claude	~/.hipmmcode/skills/, project .hipmmcode/skills/, and (with compat) ~/.claude/skills/	Your installs, repo skills, Claude Code imports

Load order: user/project (and legion) win over L1; L0 only fills names not already provided by disk.

Default skills pack (L1)

From v0.14.1 release tarballs include a default skills pack (documents + design) so a fresh install is useful without cloning a third-party skill repo.

Category	Skills
Documents	docx, pptx, xlsx, pdf
Design	frontend-design, canvas-design, theme-factory, brand-guidelines
Meta	skill-creator

How they install (all channels share one path)

release tarball / npm extract
  hipmmcode                 (binary)
  default-skills/           (L1 pack: MANIFEST.toml + skill dirs)
        │
        ▼  first launch  OR  `hipmmcode skill install-defaults`
  ~/.hipmmcode/skills/<name>/
        │
        ▼  load_skills()

Channel	When L1 is synced
npm @hipmmai/hipmmcode	postinstall runs skill install-defaults
install.sh (curl)	After install, same command
First launch of any binary that can see the pack	Quiet missing-only sync
Manual	hipmmcode skill install-defaults

Manual install / repair

hipmmcode skill install-defaults          # missing-only; safe to re-run
hipmmcode skill defaults                  # alias
hipmmcode skill install-defaults --force  # overwrite even user-owned same-named dirs
hipmmcode skill install-defaults --dry-run
hipmmcode skills                          # list what's available

Overwrite rules

Destination	Behavior
Skill missing	Install from pack
Has .hipmmcode-default-pack marker	Upgrade when pack version is newer
Exists without marker (you installed/edited it)	Skip unless --force

If the CLI says the pack was not found

The binary looks for a pack in this order:

1. HIPMMCODE_DEFAULT_SKILLS_DIR
2. {exe_dir}/default-skills/ (release / npm layout)
3. {exe_dir}/../share/hipmmcode/default-skills/ (Homebrew-style)
4. Dev: crates/sc-skills/default-pack when running from a source tree

# Point at an explicit pack directory, then sync
export HIPMMCODE_DEFAULT_SKILLS_DIR=/path/to/default-skills
hipmmcode skill install-defaults

Keep default-skills/ next to the hipmmcode binary when you untar a release manually (do not install only the binary file).

Installing extra skills

hipmmcode skill add anthropics/skills        # a GitHub repo (owner/repo or full URL)
hipmmcode skill add QianWen-AI/qianwen-ai    # official QianWen AI skill pack
hipmmcode skill add https://…/SKILL.md       # a raw markdown URL
hipmmcode skill add ./my-skill               # a local path
hipmmcode skill add owner/repo --name docx   # override the installed name
hipmmcode skill list
hipmmcode skill rm theme-factory

Custom skills land in ~/.hipmmcode/skills/. Repos can carry one skill (root SKILL.md) or many (a skills/ directory). Categorized packs such as skills/image/<skill>/SKILL.md are discovered recursively; once a skill root is found, its references and scripts stay part of that skill rather than being installed separately.

The official QianWen pack's execution scripts are separate pay-as-you-go workflows and require a standard sk-... key via DASHSCOPE_API_KEY or QIANWEN_API_KEY; they do not consume a provider credential saved by hipmmcode model. On direct qwen-token-plan and qwen-token-plan-anthropic channels, native GenerateImage, GenerateVideo, and GenerateSpeech instead reuse the configured Token Plan sk-sp-... key through their dedicated multimodal endpoints—no Skill is required.

Using

Surface	Behavior
/skills	Interactive menu — one skill per line, Enter for details
/skill <name> [args]	Load a skill's playbook into the conversation now
Skill tool	The model invokes matching skills itself
/reload-skills (/reload)	Re-scan disk without restarting

With claudeCodeCompat=true (or /compat on), skills are additionally discovered from ~/.claude/skills/ and the project's .claude/skills/.

Discovery order (detail)

1. Active legion …/legions/<name>/skills/ (if any)
2. Project .hipmmcode/skills/
3. User ~/.hipmmcode/skills/ (L1 pack + your adds)
4. Claude compat .claude/skills/ (user + project) when enabled
5. Plugins
6. L0 binary-bundled fallback

Custom slash commands

Every markdown file in .hipmmcode/commands/ or .claude/commands/ (project or home) becomes a /<name> command in the REPL — the file body is the prompt template. Subdirectories namespace: commands/deploy/staging.md → /deploy:staging.

hipmmcode commands           # list what's discovered

Templates support argument interpolation, and !`cmd` shell interpolation (disable org-wide with the disableSkillShellExecution policy).

/alias adds personal shorthands on top: /alias co=code-review.

Output styles

/output-style switches how the agent writes (concise / explanatory / learning, plus your custom styles as markdown files). Persisted via outputStyle.

Plugins

A plugin bundles commands, agents, skills, hooks, and MCP servers as one installable unit.

hipmmcode plugin list                     # discovered plugins + what each contributes
hipmmcode plugin details <name>           # components + on-disk location
hipmmcode plugin add ./my-plugin          # install from a local path
hipmmcode plugin init my-plugin           # scaffold a new one
hipmmcode plugin enable|disable <id>      # toggle without uninstalling
hipmmcode plugin uninstall name@marketplace

In the REPL: /plugins lists installed plugins and their contributions.

Marketplaces

hipmmcode plugin marketplace add owner/repo     # register (repo, URL, marketplace.json, or local path)
hipmmcode plugin marketplace list
hipmmcode plugin install name@marketplace       # --scope user|project|local
hipmmcode plugin marketplace remove <name>

Every install shows a trust tag — official, local, or third-party — with an advisory for third-party sources, so you can see at a glance where the code you're about to run comes from. Name-squatting of official plugins is blocked.