Skill Evolution

Skill Evolution

Use this skill before creating, editing, or deciding whether to update any AI coding agent skill in this repository.

When to Update Skills

Update a skill when any of the following happens:

• A user corrects agent behavior in a way that should generalize.
• A command fails and the recovery path should be remembered.
• A reference link, command, component _type, or installation instruction is stale.
• Task routing is too broad, too narrow, or points to the wrong skill.
• A repeated instruction appears in multiple skills and should move to a shared entry point.
• A skill contains too much detail and should move detail into focused references.

Do not update skills for one-off user preferences, temporary local environment quirks, or speculative guidance that was not validated.

Update Workflow

• Finish the user's requested task first unless the skill update is the task.
• Identify the smallest skill that should change.
• Keep each SKILL.md concise and task-oriented.
• Move detailed examples or long reference material into that skill's references/ directory.
• Update AGENTS.md when a new skill is added or task routing changes.
• Run Markdown link checks through pre-commit on the changed skill files.

Naming and Layout

Use the flat skills layout:

skills/
  nat-installation/
    SKILL.md
    references/
  nat-workflow-creation/
    SKILL.md
    references/

Each skill folder must contain one SKILL.md with frontmatter:

---
name: skill-name
description: Use when ...
author: NVIDIA Corporation and Affiliates
license: Apache-2.0
---

Use author and license frontmatter instead of long license headers in SKILL.md files.

Use specific names that describe the task surface. Avoid catch-all folders that hide routing information.

Quality Bar

• Skills should tell agents what to do, what to read next, and what to validate.
• Prefer canonical repository docs over copied long-form explanations.
• Keep cross-skill links relative and valid.
• Use "NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit" on first prose use, then "NeMo Agent Toolkit" or "the toolkit".
• Use nat only for technical identifiers such as the CLI, package name, Python namespace, paths, and environment variables.