Add project-local skill discovery

[lonelybeanz]

PR: Add project-local skill discovery

Title

Add project-local skill discovery

Summary

• Discover project-local skills from the current git root before global and external skill directories.
• Support project-scoped skill management with skill_manage(..., scope="project"), writing to <project>/.hermes/skills/.
• Make skills_list, skill_view, and prompt skill snapshots respect project-local precedence while preserving legacy SKILLS_DIR monkeypatch compatibility.
• Treat project-local skill roots as trusted in skill_view security checks.
• Add regression tests for project-local discovery, prompt precedence, and project-scoped skill creation.

Motivation

Project-specific skills should live with the project that owns them instead of permanently polluting the global ~/.hermes/skills/ index and every agent prompt. This change enables repositories to carry their own .hermes/skills/ or .ai/skills/ directories, loaded only when the active working directory belongs to that project.

Implementation Notes

• agent/skill_utils.py
  • Adds CWD resolution from explicit argument, TERMINAL_CWD, HERMES_CWD, then os.getcwd().
  • Finds the project root via git rev-parse --show-toplevel, falling back to walking parent directories for .git.
  • Adds project skill roots: <git-root>/.hermes/skills and <git-root>/.ai/skills.
  • Orders all skill directories as project-local, global, then configured external dirs.
• tools/skills_tool.py
  • Uses get_all_skills_dirs() for discovery and view lookup.
  • Keeps a module-level SKILLS_DIR fallback for older tests/callers that monkeypatch it directly.
  • Updates trusted-root checks so active project-local directories do not trigger false security warnings.
• tools/skill_manager_tool.py
  • Adds scope="global" | "project" for create operations.
  • Allows patch/delete/edit/write-file lookup across both project-local and global roots.
• agent/prompt_builder.py
  • Builds skill prompt snapshots from the highest-priority active skill root instead of assuming only global/external roots.

Test Plan

Passed locally:

venv/bin/python -m pytest -n 0 tests/tools/test_skills_tool.py tests/tools/test_skill_view_path_check.py tests/tools/test_skill_view_traversal.py tests/tools/test_skill_manager_tool.py tests/agent/test_external_skills.py tests/agent/test_prompt_builder.py tests/agent/test_skill_commands.py tests/tools/test_skill_size_limits.py -q
# 331 passed, 2 skipped in 5.22s

venv/bin/python -m py_compile agent/skill_utils.py agent/prompt_builder.py tools/skills_tool.py tools/skill_manager_tool.py

Also passed a smoke test using temporary HERMES_HOME and temporary git project:

{"created": true, "project_skill_exists": true, "prompt_has_skill": true, "scope": "project", "viewed": true}

Known local note:

• Full pytest -q in this environment hit Too many open files from the repository's broad parallel/default test behavior, so the relevant skill/prompt test surface was rerun serially with -n 0 and passed.
• git diff --check returns status 2 with no diagnostic output under this local Git 2.50.1 setup; no whitespace issue was reported.

Commit

5113a4ad2 Add project-local skill discovery

Patch File

/Users/dujiao/.hermes/pr-prep/0001-project-local-skill-discovery.patch

Manual PR Commands

If you have a fork:

cd /Users/dujiao/.hermes/hermes-agent
git remote add fork https://github.com/<your-user>/hermes-agent.git  # if not already added
git push -u fork feat/project-local-skills

Then open:

https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent/compare/main...<your-user>:hermes-agent:feat/project-local-skills?expand=1

If using GitHub CLI after login:

gh auth login
gh repo fork NousResearch/hermes-agent --remote --push --branch feat/project-local-skills
gh pr create --repo NousResearch/hermes-agent --base main --head <your-user>:feat/project-local-skills --title "Add project-local skill discovery" --body-file /Users/dujiao/.hermes/pr-prep/project-local-skills-pr.md

[Marcuss2]

Suggested change

	candidates = [root / ".hermes" / "skills", root / ".ai" / "skills"]
	candidates = [root / ".hermes" / "skills", root / ".ai" / "skills", root / ".agents" / "skills" ]

Since this is what codex supports as well and seems reasonable

[teknium1]

Thanks for the project-local discovery work. The feature is still absent on current main, but this branch needs a cache-aware salvage rather than a direct merge.

Problems

• agent/skill_commands.py:331-341 still scans only the global root plus external_dirs; this PR does not modify it, so project skills will not surface as slash commands.
• The changed skill_view() search set still reaches the duplicate rejection at tools/skills_tool.py:1182-1204; a project/global name collision is ambiguous rather than project-first.
• Current main has newer live-profile and discovery-cache behavior in tools/skills_tool.py:692-713 (not present in this April branch), so the root resolution must be integrated without regressing those fixes.

Suggested changes

• Route every discovery consumer through one ordered, cache-aware root resolver; cover skill_view, slash commands, and gateway menus with project/global collision tests.
• Resolve the existing review request for .agents/skills if cross-agent interoperability is intended, and document the final root/precedence contract.

Automated hermes-sweeper review.