Skills

Skills are per-folder SKILL.md files with a YAML frontmatter header. For normal skills, zot surfaces names and descriptions in the system prompt and exposes a built-in skill tool the model uses to load the full body on demand. The agent pulls in exactly the instructions it needs, nothing more.

Force a specific skill

Invoke a skill with /skill:<name> to bypass model-side selection. Typing /skill: opens a filtered list of discovered user skills. Use the arrow keys to select one, tab to complete its name, or enter to invoke the highlighted skill. zot expands the command into a user message containing the complete skill instructions and its directory for resolving relative references. Text after the command becomes the request to perform.

/skill:code-review
/skill:code-review focus on security issues

User-invoked skills

Set disable-model-invocation: true when a skill should run only after explicit user invocation. It remains available through /skills and /skill:<name>, but zot omits its name and description from the model's startup context.

---
name: deploy-release
description: Prepare and deploy a release after explicit user approval.
disable-model-invocation: true
---

# Deploy release

Follow the release checklist in order.

Discovery and inspection

Built-in and user-installed skills load by default from .zot/skills/, $ZOT_HOME/skills/, .claude/skills/, or .agents/skills/. Use --no-skill to disable all skill discovery.

Run /skills to inspect discovered user skills. Skills hidden from model invocation are labeled manual. Enable show loaded resources at startup in /settings to list user-installed skill names in the compact Skills startup section. Built-in skills stay hidden.