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Skills

Skills are the foundation of the Pawz extensibility system — the first of three tiers that make Pawz infinitely customizable. Skills (this page) are prompt-only — they inject expert knowledge into your agent’s system prompt with zero configuration. For credential-based API/CLI connections, see Integrations. For custom sidebar views and persistent data, see Extensions.

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Built-In Skills

Pawz ships with 40 built-in skills that are compiled into the binary. These include credential-based vault skills, CLI tools, and instruction-based API skills.

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How built-in skills work

  1. Enable a skill in the Skills tab (its own sidebar view)
  2. Provide credentials (API keys, tokens) if required
  3. Install binaries (CLI tools) if required
  4. Enabled skills inject their tools and instructions into agent prompts automatically

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Skill architecture

Skills are Rust functions registered in the skills/ module directory that the agent can invoke as tools. The architecture works as follows:
  • Registration: Each skill is defined as a SkillDefinition struct in skills/builtins.rs, specifying its ID, name, category, required credentials, tool names, required binaries, and agent instructions.
  • Per-agent toggle: Every skill is gated by an enable/disable toggle per-agent. When disabled, the skill’s tools and instructions are not injected into the agent’s prompt.
  • Categories: Skills are organized into 9 categories for the UI. Each skill belongs to exactly one category and can be independently toggled on or off.
  • Vault skills have dedicated tool functions (e.g. email_send, coinbase_trade) with encrypted credential storage. The engine executes these tools directly — credentials never appear in the agent prompt.
  • Instruction skills inject CLI/API knowledge into the agent’s system prompt. The agent then uses its built-in exec (shell) and fetch (HTTP) tools to interact with CLIs and APIs.
  • Credential encryption: Credentials are stored encrypted in SQLite. The encryption key lives in the OS keychain, separate from the database.

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Built-in skill categories

Pawz ships with 40 built-in skills across 9 categories:
#CategoryDescriptionSkill count
1VaultCredential-based integrations with dedicated tool functions10
2CLICommand-line tools the agent uses via exec3
3API IntegrationsThird-party APIs the agent calls via fetch/exec4
4ProductivityNotes, reminders, and project management apps5
5MediaAudio, video, image generation, and music7
6Smart HomeIoT devices and home automation4
7CommunicationMessaging platforms (WhatsApp, iMessage)2
8DevelopmentCoding, terminals, and session logs2
9SystemSecurity, UI automation, and password management3

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Vault (Credential-based)

SkillCredentialsTools
EmailSMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASS, IMAP_HOST, IMAP_USER, IMAP_PASSemail_send, email_read
SlackSLACK_BOT_TOKENslack_send, slack_read
Telegram(uses channel bridge token)telegram_send, telegram_read
GitHubGITHUB_TOKEN (+ gh CLI)github_api
REST APIREST_API_BASE_URL, REST_API_KEYrest_api_call
WebhooksWEBHOOK_URL, WEBHOOK_SECRETwebhook_send
DiscordDISCORD_BOT_TOKEN, DISCORD_DEFAULT_CHANNELdiscord_send (via Discord REST API)
CoinbaseCOINBASE_API_KEY, COINBASE_API_SECRETcoinbase_balance, coinbase_price, coinbase_buy, coinbase_sell, coinbase_send
DEX TradingDEX_RPC_URL, DEX_PRIVATE_KEY, DEX_WALLET_ADDRESS13 dex_* tools
Solana DEXJUPITER_API_KEY, SOLANA_RPC_URL, SOLANA_PRIVATE_KEY, SOLANA_WALLET_ADDRESS7 sol_* tools

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API Integrations

SkillCredentialsRequired Binary
NotionNOTION_TOKEN—
TrelloTRELLO_API_KEY, TRELLO_TOKEN—
Google Workspace—gog
Google PlacesGOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEYgoplaces

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Productivity

SkillRequired Binary
Apple Notesmemo
Apple Remindersremindctl
Things 3things-cli
Obsidianobsidian-cli
Bear Notesgrizzly

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Media

SkillCredentialsRequired Binary
Whisper Local—whisper
Whisper APIOPENAI_API_KEY—
Image GenGEMINI_API_KEY—
Video Frames—ffmpeg
ElevenLabs TTSELEVENLABS_API_KEYsag
Spotify—spotify_player
GIF Search—gifgrep
Image Gen uses the image_generate tool to create images from text prompts via Gemini (Google AI). Provide a detailed description including style, lighting, composition, and mood for best results.

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Smart Home

SkillRequired BinaryDescription
Philips HueopenhueControl lights, rooms, and scenes
SonossonoscliControl speakers, playback, and volume
Eight SleepeightctlControl pod temperature and alarms
Camera CapturecamsnapCapture frames from RTSP/ONVIF/webcam cameras for vision analysis
Camera Capture (camsnap) can snap images from IP cameras, discover cameras on your network, and capture timed frame sequences. Use it for security monitoring, pet watching, or any vision-analysis workflow. Commands: camsnap snap <url>, camsnap discover, camsnap stream <url> --frames 10 --interval 1s.

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Communication

SkillRequired Binary
WhatsAppwacli
iMessageimsg

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CLI Tools

SkillDescription
WeatherWeather information
Blog WatcherMonitor blogs for updates
SummarizeText summarization (summarize binary)

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Development

SkillRequired Binary
tmuxtmux
Session Logsrg (ripgrep)

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System

SkillRequired Binary
1Passwordop
Peekaboopeekaboo
Security Audit—

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Community Skills (Tier 1 — skills.sh ecosystem)

Community Skills are the first tier of the Pawz extensibility system — prompt-only knowledge packs that teach your agent new capabilities with zero configuration. They use the open-source skills.sh ecosystem. :::tip Graduating to higher tiers Need credentials, API keys, or dashboard widgets? Create a Tier 2 Integration. Need a custom sidebar view with persistent data? Create a Tier 3 Extension. Community Skills are the starting point — you can upgrade to higher tiers anytime. :::

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How community skills work

Community skills use the SKILL.md format: a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter containing the skill’s name and description, followed by a markdown body with instructions for the agent. When installed, the instructions are injected alongside your built-in skills into every agent prompt — across all channels (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, etc). 
---
name: Python Expert
description: Deep Python knowledge and best practices
---

You are an expert Python developer. When writing Python:
- Use type hints for all function signatures
- Follow PEP 8 naming conventions
- Prefer pathlib over os.path
...

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Searching for skills

The Community Skills section sits at the top of the Skills view with a keyword search bar and popular category tags.
  1. Open the Skills tab in the sidebar — the Community Skills hero section is at the top
  2. Search by keyword: Type any term (e.g. “marketing”, “supabase”, “trading”) into the search bar and press Enter or click Search
  3. Pawz queries the skills.sh directory API (/api/search?q=) and displays matching skills with install counts (e.g. “22.9K”, “151.3K”)
  4. Popular tags: Click any of the quick-tag buttons (Coding, Marketing, DevOps, etc.) to instantly search that category
  5. Each skill card shows the skill name, install count, source repo, and a View on skills.sh link
No authentication is required — the skills.sh API is public.

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Browsing a specific repo

You can also browse a specific GitHub repository directly:
  1. Scroll below the search section to the Browse Repository area
  2. Enter a GitHub repo in owner/repo format (e.g. vercel-labs/agent-skills)
  3. Pawz scans the repo tree for SKILL.md files and shows all available skills
  4. Click Install on individual skills or Install All to grab everything

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Installing skills

  1. Click Install on any skill card — Pawz fetches the SKILL.md from the source GitHub repo
  2. The skill’s instructions are parsed from the Markdown body and stored locally
  3. Installed skills are automatically enabled and included in all agent prompts across every channel

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Agent tools for skills

Agents have three built-in tools for working with community skills during conversations:
ToolDescription
skill_searchSearch the skills.sh directory by keyword (e.g. “find me a marketing skill”)
skill_installInstall a skill by source and path (e.g. after finding one via search)
skill_listList all currently installed community skills with their enabled/disabled status
This means you can ask your agent to find and install skills conversationally — no need to visit the Skills tab.

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Managing community skills

  • Enable/disable: Toggle individual community skills on or off without removing them
  • Remove: Uninstall a community skill entirely (you can reinstall later)
  • Preview: Expand the instructions preview to see exactly what gets injected into the prompt

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Compatible repositories

Any public GitHub repository containing SKILL.md files in the skills.sh format works. Browse the full directory at skills.sh to discover thousands of community-created skills with install counts and categories. You can also create your own skills repository — just add SKILL.md files anywhere in the repo tree.

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Credential security

Credentials are stored in SQLite and encrypted with XOR using a 32-byte random key stored in your OS keychain (service: paw-skill-vault, key: encryption-key). High-risk credentials (Coinbase, DEX) are server-side only — they are never injected into agent prompts. The engine uses them directly when executing trades.

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Custom instructions

Each skill can have custom instructions that override the defaults. These are injected into the agent’s system prompt when the skill is enabled.

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Readiness check

The skill status indicator shows:
  • Ready — all credentials and binaries present
  • Missing credentials — API keys needed
  • Missing binary — CLI tool not installed
  • Disabled — skill is turned off