> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.10et.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Skills

> Reusable AI instructions that improve through usage

Skills are instruction files that help AI agents do specific tasks better. They live in `.claude/skills/` and get loaded when a task matches their trigger.

## How Skills Work

```
Agent gets task → reads SKILL.md → follows instructions → produces output
                                                              ↓
Journal captures what worked/didn't → skill-learner harvests learnings
                                                              ↓
Behavioral eval measures: did the skill help? → build agent improves SKILL.md
                                                              ↓
Better skill → better outcomes → loop compounds
```

## Quick Start

```bash theme={null}
# See what skills you have
tenet skills list

# Check skill health (usage stats + learnings)
tenet skills status

# Install a skill from the registry
tenet skills install pretext

# Harvest learnings from your journal
tenet skills harvest brand-architect

# Improve a skill using behavioral eval
tenet skills improve pretext
```

## Skill Levels

| Level        | Location                                            | Description                   |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| **Global**   | Ships with `@10et/cli`                              | 24 skills everyone gets       |
| **Project**  | `.claude/skills/`                                   | Specific to this project      |
| **Registry** | [10et-ai/skills](https://github.com/10et-ai/skills) | Community skills, installable |

## Writing a Skill

Create `.claude/skills/my-skill/SKILL.md`:

```markdown theme={null}
---
name: my-skill
description: What this skill helps agents do
---

# My Skill

Instructions for the agent...

## When to Use
- trigger phrase 1
- trigger phrase 2

## How to Do It
1. Step one
2. Step two

## Anti-Patterns
- ❌ Don't do this
- ❌ Don't do that

## Learnings (auto-accumulated)
- Things learned from real usage get appended here
```

## The Improvement Loop

Skills get better automatically through usage:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Agent uses skill">
    Session reads SKILL.md, follows instructions, produces output.
    `skill-tracker.ts` logs the read event.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Journal captures outcome">
    Session journal records what worked, what failed, what the human fixed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Harvest learnings">
    `tenet skills harvest <name>` extracts learnings from journals.
    Patterns: fixes after skill use, decisions overriding defaults, discoveries.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Behavioral eval measures">
    Eval tests: does using this skill produce working output?
    NOT: does SKILL.md contain specific strings.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Build agent improves">
    `tenet skills improve <name>` runs a build agent that rewrites SKILL.md
    using accumulated learnings + behavioral eval as the reward function.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Behavioral Evals

Skills have evals that test **outcomes, not implementation**:

```typescript theme={null}
// ❌ BAD — tests what SKILL.md says
checks.push({ pass: skillMd.includes("layoutNextLine") })

// ✅ GOOD — tests what the skill produces
checks.push({ pass: outputFileExists && pageLoadsWithoutError })
```

Current skill evals:

| Skill           | Score | Checks                                       |
| --------------- | ----- | -------------------------------------------- |
| pretext         | 10/10 | API docs, examples, anti-patterns, learnings |
| content-creator | 7/7   | Hook, platform, voice, CTA, content types    |
| brand-architect | 5/8   | Needs color/typography/quality guidance      |

## Publishing Skills

Share your improved skill with the community:

```bash theme={null}
tenet skills publish my-skill
```

This clones the [registry](https://github.com/10et-ai/skills), adds your skill, and creates a PR.

## See Also

* [Build Evals](/learning/build-evals) — the eval pattern skills use
* [tenet build](/cli/build) — generate build agents from specs
* [tenet skills](/cli/skills) — CLI reference