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Skill

A packaged set of instructions an agent host loads when a task matches its description: a directory holding a SKILL.md whose front matter carries a name and a description. magus ships its magus-* skills in the binary and writes them with magus agent install. Each is stamped with its version, so magus doctor reports a hand edit as drift; instructions that belong to one workspace go in a local skill beside them.

Elsewhere

Anthropic's Agent Skills define the format magus writes: a SKILL.md with YAML front matter, loaded in stages so only the name and description cost context until the skill is used. The format is the same; what differs is ownership. A magus skill is generated output of the binary, not a file a person edits, and the next install replaces it.

Example

magus agent install --force

Used in

In the docs:

In the code (magus refs <name> lists every site):

  • types.Skill (Go)

See also

AgentsHow magus equips AI agents (the installable skills, the MAGUS.md routing index, the MCP server, and the guard hook any agent host can wire), with a setup page per host. The guardWhat magus session hook denies, what it only notes, and why: the five deny grounds, how a workspace sets a built-in rule, the file-write rules, the verdict contract a host wires into, and the observations magus records. Jobs and leasesWhat magus gives an agent that fans work out (the working-state checkpoint, the declared job store, the lease a holder takes on a job, the console Jobs view, the recorded spawn, and verifying a result against the diff since the checkpoint). MCPmagus serves its tools as a Model Context Protocol server, over stdio for the agent host that launches magus mcp, or over Streamable HTTP from magus server.
glossaryagents
Last updated (2df714e8)
Glossary

Workspace

The magus root directory that owns a set of projects and shared config; the unit magus operates over. Workspace in full.

Op

A single tool-native command a target composes (long form: operation); the middle of the work hierarchy (Spell to Op to Target). Op in full.

Knowledge graph

The queryable graph of a workspace's spells, targets, docs, and code relationships; query it with magus query/explain/path. Knowledge graph in full.

Ownership

An insight lens for author concentration: the primary author and their share, the distinct-author count (the bus factor), and abandonment. Ownership in full.

Agent

A model working through an agent host such as Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode. magus treats an agent as one more caller of its CLI, MCP tools and console, held to the same checks as a person. Agent in full.

Harness

The deterministic scaffolding around the work on a change, for a person or an agent: compiler errors, formatters, linters, checks, gates, leases and hooks, placed at points a person chose. Around an agent's loop, magus supplies one and keeps it outside. Harness in full.

Skill

A packaged set of instructions an agent host loads when a task matches its description: a directory holding a SKILL.md. magus ships its magus-* skills in the binary and writes them with magus agent install. Skill in full.

Conventions

Placeholders

Angle brackets mark a value you replace with your own; never type the brackets:

magus run <target>
magus completion <shell>    # e.g. bash, zsh, fish

<target>, <path>, <shell>, <name> and the like are stand-ins, not literal text.