Agent Skills

Source: https://kiro.dev/docs/cli/skills/

Portable instruction packages that extend what Kiro knows. Follows the open Agent Skills standard.

How skills work

Kiro discovers skills by reading names/descriptions at session start. When your request matches, Kiro loads full instructions automatically. No slash command needed.

> /context show    # see available skills

Skill locations

Location	Scope	Use case
.kiro/skills/	Workspace	Project-specific workflows
~/.kiro/skills/	Global	Personal workflows across projects

Workspace skills take priority. Default agent loads both automatically.

Custom agents

Must explicitly add skills:

{
  "resources": [
    "skill://.kiro/skills/*/SKILL.md",
    "skill://~/.kiro/skills/*/SKILL.md"
  ]
}

Creating a skill

pr-review/
├── SKILL.md           # Required
└── references/        # Optional
    └── checklist.md

SKILL.md format

---
name: pr-review
description: Review pull requests for code quality, security issues, and test coverage.
---

## Review checklist
1. Check for vulnerabilities, injection risks, exposed secrets
2. Verify edge cases and failure modes
3. Confirm new code has tests
4. Ensure clear naming

Frontmatter fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens. Max 64 chars.
description	Yes	When to activate. Max 1024 chars.

Reference files

Put extensive docs in references/ folder. Kiro loads them only when instructions direct it to.