> Mux updated this PR on behalf of Mike.
## Summary
- Add experimental personal skills API helpers and an Agents settings UI
for listing, creating, editing, deleting, and importing SKILL.md
content.
- Add docs, Storybook coverage, and unit tests for backend-compatible
SKILL.md parsing.
- Address review feedback by simplifying frontmatter scalar parsing,
clarifying the UI parser scope, defaulting personal skill queries to
`me`, and patching React Query caches after create, update, and delete.
- Merge latest `main` and resolve the Agents sidebar refactor conflicts.
## Validation
- pre-commit hook
- `go test ./codersdk/workspacesdk -run TestParseSkillFrontmatter
-count=1`
- `go test ./coderd/x/chatd/chattool -run 'Test' -count=1`
- `cd site && pnpm test --
src/pages/AgentsPage/utils/personalSkills.test.ts
src/api/queries/userSkills.test.ts src/utils/fileSize.test.ts
--runInBand`
- `cd site && pnpm lint:types`
- `cd site && pnpm lint:check`
> Mux updated this PR on behalf of Mike.
## Stack Context
This stack splits experimental personal skills into smaller reviewable
PRs. Personal skills are user-owned `SKILL.md` files stored by Coder and
injected into chatd alongside workspace skills.
Stack order:
1. #25362 personal skill resolver
2. #25363 storage, permissions, API, and SDK
3. #25365 API test coverage
4. #25366 chattool and chatd integration
5. #25066 settings UI and docs
6. #25386 personal skills slash menu
## What?
Adds the shared personal skill parser and resolver package, plus
reusable skill-name validation exported from `workspacesdk`.
The parser enforces the full personal skill contract: max raw size,
kebab-case name, max name length, and non-empty body.
## Why?
The rest of the stack needs one source-aware resolver for personal and
workspace skills, including collision handling and qualified aliases.
Keeping personal skill constraints in the parser prevents callers from
accidentally parsing invalid personal skills.
## Validation
- `go test ./coderd/x/skills ./codersdk/workspacesdk`
- pre-commit hooks on this branch
Piggybacks on #23878. Moves instruction file reading and skill discovery
from `chatd` (server-side, via multiple `LS`/`ReadFile` round-trips
through the agent connection) to the agent itself (local filesystem
access).
This intentionally drops backward compatibility with older agents that
don't support the context-config endpoint. Agents and server are
deployed together; there is no rolling-update contract to maintain here.
## What changed
The agent's `GET /api/v0/context-config` response now returns
`[]ChatMessagePart` directly — the same types chatd persists. This
eliminates intermediate type conversions and makes the protocol
extensible.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `parts` | `[]ChatMessagePart` | Context-file and skill parts, ready to
persist |
| `working_dir` | `string` | Agent's resolved working directory |
Removed from the response: `instructions_dirs`, `instructions_file`,
`skills_dirs`, `skill_meta_file`, `mcp_config_files` — the agent reads
files locally and returns their content as parts.
Removed from chatd: all legacy `LS`/`ReadFile` fallback code
(`readHomeInstructionFile`, `readInstructionDirFile`, `DiscoverSkills`
via LS, etc).
## Why
The previous architecture had the agent resolve paths, serve them over
HTTP, then `chatd` make N+1 round-trips back through the agent
connection to read files. The agent has direct filesystem access and
should just read the files.
## Key design decisions
- **Agent returns `ChatMessagePart` directly** — same types chatd
persists. No intermediate `InstructionFileEntry`/`SkillEntry` types
needed.
- **`SkillMeta.MetaFile`** — persisted via `ContextFileSkillMetaFile` on
the skill part, so custom meta file names
(`CODER_AGENT_EXP_SKILL_META_FILE`) survive across chat turns.
- **No pre-read body** — `read_skill` always dials the workspace to
fetch the skill body on demand. Simpler than caching the body in the
response.
- **MCP config paths kept agent-internal** — `MCPConfigFiles()` getter,
not sent over the wire.
- **No backward compat fallback** — old agents that don't support
context-config get no instruction files. This is acceptable since agent
and server deploy together.
Michael Suchacz