Reference

Agent skills

Install GNO as a progressive agent skill for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and compatible clients.

GNO skills teach coding agents how to use the gno CLI without permanently loading a large tool schema into their context. They are ideal for quick, explicit knowledge lookups from Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and other clients that support agent skills.

What this is

• Progressive instructions — the agent discovers the GNO workflow only when you invoke the skill or ask for local knowledge retrieval.
• CLI-backed — skill commands call the installed gno binary, so results match the terminal.
• Good for humans and agents — ask the agent to search a personal knowledge base, project docs, PDFs, meeting notes, or saved research before it answers.
• Second-brain recipes — installed playbooks route agents through lookup, capture, meetings, email context, source summaries, ideas, and citation/provenance workflows.

Install

gno skill install --scope user # Claude Code default
gno skill install --target codex --scope user
gno skill install --target opencode --scope user
gno skill install --target openclaw --scope user
gno skill install --target hermes --scope user
gno skill install --target all --scope user --force

• --target — claude, codex, opencode, openclaw, hermes, or all.
• --scope — user for every project or project for the current repo.
• --force — overwrite an existing installed copy after upgrading GNO.

Skill management commands

• gno skill install — copy the bundled skill into the selected target.
• gno skill uninstall — remove it.
• gno skill show — preview the generated skill files.
• gno skill show --file recipes/brain-first-lookup.md — preview a nested recipe playbook.
• gno skill paths — show target install locations.

Using the skill

/gno search "deployment checklist"
/gno query "what did I save about spaced repetition?"
/gno ask "summarize my notes on local-first software"
/gno graph --neighbors gno://notes/llm-memory.md

Natural language works too: “search my notes for the latest pricing decision,” “find related docs before you edit this file,” or “use GNO to retrieve my notes about this client.”

Second-brain recipes

Recipes are agent-facing guidance files, not native connectors. Email, calendar, chat, and web material must be user-supplied or exported unless a separate tool provides it.

gno skill show --file recipes/brain-first-lookup.md
gno skill show --file recipes/capture-and-file.md
gno skill show --file recipes/meeting-ingestion.md
gno skill show --file recipes/email-context.md
gno skill show --file recipes/source-summary.md
gno skill show --file recipes/idea-capture.md
gno skill show --file recipes/citation-and-provenance.md

Write-flavored recipes include provenance, privacy, prompt-injection handling, and post-write verification with gno index, gno embed, gno search, gno query, or gno get.

Skills vs MCP

• Use skills for explicit slash-command lookups and low context overhead.
• Use MCP when you want the AI client to automatically call tools during conversation.
• Installing both is normal: skills for direct control, MCP for deeper agent integration.