BYO skills

BYO skills give Codex and Claude focused operating guidance for common software, firmware, and research work. They do not grant authority beyond your request or the project’s guardrails.

How to use a skill

Use a manual skill by naming it in your request:

/implement-firmware-large Add DMA-based UART receive support.

You can also say “Use implement-firmware-large for this change.” Automatic skills are available for the agent to load when their trigger applies; you can still name them. Manual skills run only when explicitly requested.

Firmware guidance is not hardware authorization. Actual MCP actions remain subject to the live server, permissions, and plan gates.

General skills

Skill	Availability	General purpose	What it does
query-codebase	Automatic	Before assuming how code, types, imports, or call paths are wired.	Deterministically answers structural questions without editing code.
verify	Automatic	When checking, linting, typechecking, building, or testing.	Runs deterministic repository validation and reports evidence only.
checkpoint	Automatic	Before compaction, /clear, pausing, or ending a milestone.	Records durable handoff state in HANDOFF.md.
spec	Manual	Before a material feature, API, migration, experiment, or behavior change.	Creates or revises the change contract.
plan	Manual	After a specification and before substantial implementation.	Produces the active, reviewable implementation plan.
test-first	Manual	For features, bug fixes, reproductions, regressions, or experiments.	Applies evidence-first/TDD discipline.
implement-low	Manual	A narrow, contained implementation.	Runs query, specification, plan, implementation, verification, and review as one loop.
implement-high	Manual	A substantial or high-risk implementation.	Uses a manager-led workflow, persistent test-first doer, independent verification, and two reviews.
saver-implement-high	Manual	A substantial implementation where lower model cost is appropriate.	Keeps implement-high gates while using the lower-cost doer and critics.
bug-fix-simple	Manual	A contained defect with a bounded fix.	Diagnoses, fixes, verifies, and reviews the change until the diff is green.
bug-fix-complex	Manual	A complex or high-risk defect.	Runs the complete diagnosis-to-verification loop with a reviewed final diff.
adversarial	Manual	An independent review of a plan or code diff.	Acts as a read-only red-team critic and returns SHIP, REVISE, or BLOCK.

Firmware skills

Skill	Availability	General purpose	What it does
mcp-help	Automatic	Before firmware MCP use or when a live response requests routing, validation, permissions, refresh, recovery, or retry guidance.	Interprets the live server contract and routes the next step; it does not call hardware.
server-help	Automatic	Questions about the firmware server, board names, setup lifecycle, or guarded actions.	Explains the MCP server without connecting to or touching a board.
board-setup	Automatic	First-time board setup, reconnection, or repaired-board validation.	Provides safe starting-state and routing guidance for one physical board.
memory-map-safety	Automatic	Linker/ELF/map analysis, memory budgets, reserved regions, boot boundaries, or fault addresses.	Guides read-only placement and safety-envelope analysis.
rtos-patterns	Automatic	Tasks, threads, ISRs, queues, locks, priorities, timers, watchdogs, or concurrency bugs.	Applies FreeRTOS, Zephyr, and bare-metal concurrency-correctness conventions.
hard-fault-triage	Manual	Hard faults, resets, lockups, fault handlers, or unexpected stops.	Bounds the failure with CPU, memory, ELF, and map evidence before proposing a fix.
peripheral-contract	Manual	Register-controlled drivers: ADC, SPI, I2C, DMA, PWM, GPIO interrupts, radios, or timers.	Defines and verifies a datasheet-backed driver contract before registers change.
implement-hil	Manual	A contained firmware change that must be proven on a real board.	Runs a specification, plan, host-test, target-build, and HIL evidence loop.
implement-firmware-large	Manual	A large firmware feature.	Uses a manager, fake-HAL/code/test doer, two critics, and last-step gated hardware confirmation.
saver-implement-firmware-large	Manual	A large firmware feature where lower model cost is appropriate.	Preserves fake-HAL, manager verification, critics, and gated HIL with a lower-cost doer route.
bug-fix-firmware-hil	Manual	A firmware defect requiring UART, SWD, memory, or board evidence.	Combines host regressions with bounded board observations to diagnose and prove the fix.
bug-fix-firmware-large	Manual	A large firmware defect.	Manages diagnosis, specification, planning, fake-HAL regressions, critics, and last-step HIL confirmation.
saver-bug-fix-firmware-large	Manual	A large firmware defect where lower model cost is appropriate.	Keeps the large-fix proof bar while using lower-cost doer and critic routes.
verify-firmware-hil	Manual	Verifying a completed feature or fix on real hardware.	Collects host-check and plan-gated MCP evidence, including observed UART/SWD results.
verify-firmware-large	Manual	Assessing an existing large firmware change.	Evaluates host, target, static, linker, HIL, SWD, and manual evidence without repairing code.

Research skills

Skill	Availability	General purpose	What it does
experiment-harness	Manual	A research experiment that must be reproducible.	Structures config-driven runs with logged inputs, metrics, artifacts, and a smoke path.
repro-guard	Manual	Before trusting or sharing research code/results.	Checks seed control, determinism, portable paths, secret hygiene, locked dependencies, and data versioning.
research-claim-review	Manual	Reviewing whether an experiment supports a stated conclusion.	Runs an independent, read-only evidence review of the claim.

Software interface skill

Skill	Availability	General purpose	What it does
api-design	Automatic	Public functions, endpoints, schemas, contracts, compatibility, REST, RPC, or versioning.	Applies interface-design and compatibility guidance without starting implementation work.

Choosing a workflow

• Use automatic skills for routing, safe analysis, and deterministic checks.
• Use a manual implementation or bug-fix skill when you want its full process and evidence gates.
• Choose an HIL skill only when real-board evidence is required and the project is ready.
• Use a saver-* skill only when you want the same gates with a lower-cost model route.

For firmware work, start with Bench bring-up and MCP server & tools if the board or server is not ready.