nb skill

nb skill lets you inspect the skills loaded into your NimbleBrain workspace. Skills are markdown files with YAML frontmatter that control how the agent’s system prompt is composed and which tools are available for a given request.

Usage

nb skill <action> [args] [flags]

Actions

Action	Description
`list`	List all loaded skills
`info <name>`	Show details for a specific skill

Flags

Flag	Description
`--config <path>`	Config file path
`--json`	Output as JSON (with `list`)

Listing skills

Show all loaded skills — both core (built-in) and user-defined:

nb skill list

NAME              TYPE      PRIORITY  SOURCE
bootstrap         context   100       src/skills/core/bootstrap.md
code-review       skill     50        ~/.nimblebrain/skills/code-review.md
summarize         skill     50        ~/.nimblebrain/skills/summarize.md

Skills are loaded from three sources:

Core skills (src/skills/core/) — always loaded, always injected into the system prompt
Global skills (~/.nimblebrain/skills/) — available to all workspaces
Config skill dirs — directories listed in the skillDirs array of your nimblebrain.json

JSON output

nb skill list --json

[{"name":"bootstrap","type":"context","priority":100,"source":"src/skills/core/bootstrap.md","description":"Teaches the agent about meta-tools and mpak"},{"name":"code-review","type":"skill","priority":50,"source":"~/.nimblebrain/skills/code-review.md","description":"Review code for quality and correctness"}]

Inspecting a skill

Get full details for a named skill:

nb skill info bootstrap

Name: bootstrap
Type: context
Priority: 100
Description: Teaches the agent about meta-tools and mpak
Source: src/skills/core/bootstrap.md

--- Body ---
You have access to system tools that let you manage your own capabilities:

- **nb__discover_tools** — Search across all installed bundle tools by keyword
- **nb__discover_bundles** — Search the mpak registry for bundles to install
- **nb__manage_bundle** — Install, uninstall, or configure a bundle
- **nb__bundle_status** — Get version, health, and tool count for installed bundles

The output includes the skill’s metadata (name, type, priority, description, source path) and the first 500 characters of its body.

If an allowed-tools list is defined, it also appears:

nb skill info code-review

Name: code-review
Type: skill
Priority: 50
Description: Review code for quality and correctness
Source: ~/.nimblebrain/skills/code-review.md
Allowed tools: bash_exec, bash_read

--- Body ---
You are a code reviewer. Analyze the code the user provides for:
- Bugs and logic errors
- Security vulnerabilities
- Performance issues
- Readability and maintainability

If the skill is not found:

nb skill info nonexistent

Skill "nonexistent" not found.

nb status — see skill count alongside bundle info
nb bundle — manage bundles that provide tools to skills
CLI Overview — global flags and config resolution