Skills

Retornatus does not ship a giant library of preloaded skills that rot.

When work needs specialization, you create one Skill for that need, research current sources, then activate under a gate.

Two worlds

Path	When	Control
Analyzed intake	Freeform chat prompt may need specialization	`intake analyze` → human answers → `--create-skill`
Manual	Human explicitly asks for a Skill	`skill create --need "…"`

Agents must not auto-create Skills from a prompt without human CREATE=yes.

retornatus intake analyze --prompt "Add Stripe webhook signature verification"
# ask Focused questions in chat, then:
retornatus intake analyze --prompt "…" \
  --answer "SPECIALIZATION=yes — create a Skill" \
  --answer "NEED=Stripe webhook signatures (current API)" \
  --answer "CREATE=yes — create DRAFT now" \
  --create-skill

Lifecycle

intake analyze? / skill need? → (human confirm) → create → research → activate

# Early signal only (no create):
retornatus skill need --prompt "Add Stripe webhook signature verification"

# Bound to an Action when one exists:
retornatus skill need --action C-0001/A-001
retornatus skill create --need "Stripe webhook signatures (current API)" --action C-0001/A-001

Storage vs projection

Location	Role
`.retornatus/adaptation/skills/S-xxxx/SKILL.md`	Canonical Skill
`.cursor/skills/…` (or host equivalent)	Native projection via `export` / hub

Subagents should consume the same snapshot — do not rewrite Skill mid-execution.

Complexity-sensitive need

skill need skips ceremony for trivial work (e.g. typo fixes) and flags specialization when complexity or novelty warrants it. Use --prompt / --demand / --what so agents can offer Skills without waiting for an Action.

Bypass

retornatus skill activate S-0001 --force --reason "…"

Records Bypass + Decision. Prefer research; bypass is governed exception, not the default path.

See also: hub skill text under src/retornatus/infrastructure/environment/hub/SKILL.md (installed by integrate).

← Docs hub Product site →