Skills Installation

Install and configure CLEO skills for Claude Code

Skills Installation

CLEO skills are included with the standard installation. This guide covers configuration and customization.

Included Skills

The following skills are installed automatically with CLEO:

Skill	Location	Purpose
Epic Architect	skills/ct-epic-architect/	Create comprehensive epics
Orchestrator	skills/ct-orchestrator/	Multi-agent coordination
Research Agent	skills/ct-research-agent/	Information gathering
Task Executor	skills/ct-task-executor/	Implementation workflows
Spec Writer	skills/ct-spec-writer/	Technical specifications
Test Writer	skills/ct-test-writer-bats/	BATS test creation

Verification

Check that skills are installed:

ls ~/.cleo/skills/

You should see directories for each skill:

ct-epic-architect/
ct-orchestrator/
ct-research-agent/
ct-task-executor/
ct-spec-writer/
ct-test-writer-bats/

Using Skills in Claude Code

Direct Reference

Reference a skill file in your prompt:

@~/.cleo/skills/ct-epic-architect/SKILL.md

Create an epic for implementing user authentication.

Trigger Phrases

Skills activate automatically with trigger phrases:

"Create an epic for payment processing"
→ Activates Epic Architect

"Research the best practices for JWT tokens"
→ Activates Research Agent

"Orchestrate the implementation of the auth system"
→ Activates Orchestrator

Configuration

Skill Discovery

Skills are discovered from:

1. ~/.cleo/skills/ (global installation)
2. .cleo/skills/ (project-local)
3. Paths in skills.additionalPaths config

Adding Custom Skill Paths

cleo config set skills.additionalPaths '["./custom-skills", "~/team-skills"]'

Disabling Skills

Disable specific skills:

cleo config set skills.disabled '["ct-research-agent"]'

Skill Manifest

The skills/manifest.json defines available skills:

{
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "skills": [
    {
      "id": "ct-epic-architect",
      "name": "Epic Architect",
      "path": "ct-epic-architect/SKILL.md",
      "triggers": ["create epic", "plan epic"]
    }
  ]
}

Updating Skills

Skills are updated with CLEO:

# Update CLEO installation (includes skills)
cd ~/.cleo && git pull

# Verify skill versions
cat ~/.cleo/skills/manifest.json | jq '.version'

Creating Project-Local Skills

Add skills specific to your project:

1. Create Directory

   mkdir -p .cleo/skills/my-project-skill
   
2. Create SKILL.md

   cat > .cleo/skills/my-project-skill/SKILL.md << 'EOF'
   ---
   name: "My Project Skill"
   description: "Project-specific workflow"
   version: "1.0.0"
   triggers:
     - "my workflow"
   ---
   
   # My Project Skill
   
   [Instructions...]
   EOF
   
3. Use the Skill

   @.cleo/skills/my-project-skill/SKILL.md
   
   Execute my workflow for feature X.
   

Troubleshooting

Skill Not Found

# Check skill exists
ls ~/.cleo/skills/ct-epic-architect/

# Verify SKILL.md is present
cat ~/.cleo/skills/ct-epic-architect/SKILL.md | head -20

Triggers Not Working

Verify trigger phrases in skill frontmatter:

grep -A5 "triggers:" ~/.cleo/skills/ct-epic-architect/SKILL.md

Try explicit invocation:

@~/.cleo/skills/ct-epic-architect/SKILL.md

Outdated Skills

Update from git:

cd ~/.cleo
git fetch origin
git pull origin main

Next Steps

Epic Architect

Create comprehensive project epics

Orchestrator

Multi-agent coordination