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Skills & memory

OrbCode can load reusable instruction sets on demand (skills) and inject project/user instructions into every system prompt (AGENTS.md memory). Both keep the model aligned with your project’s conventions without repeating yourself in every prompt.

MCP servers

Connect external tools through the Model Context Protocol

Configuration

settings.json, env vars, custom models, and sessions

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Skills

Skills are reusable instruction sets the model can load on demand. A skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md file with optional YAML frontmatter and a markdown body of specialized instructions.

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Creating a skill

Place a directory under ~/.orbcode/skills/ (user, applies everywhere) or .orbcode/skills/ (project, checked into the repo): 
~/.orbcode/skills/
  my-skill/
    SKILL.md
SKILL.md format: 
---
description: Write concise, idiomatic Go code following project conventions
when_to_use: the task involves writing or reviewing Go code
---

# Go style skill

When writing Go in this project:
- Use `errors.Join` for multi-error aggregation
- Prefer table-driven tests
  • description (frontmatter or first paragraph) — shown in the skill catalog.
  • when_to_use (frontmatter) — a hint telling the model when to invoke this skill.
  • ${SKILL_DIR} in the body is replaced with the skill’s absolute directory path, so you can reference bundled scripts.

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How skills are used

The skill catalog (names + descriptions + when-to-use) is injected into the system prompt. When a task matches a skill’s when_to_use condition, the model calls the use_skill tool with the skill’s name, which loads the full instructions into context. Project skills override user skills on name collisions (closer-to-cwd wins).

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AGENTS.md memory

AGENTS.md files provide project- and user-level instructions that are injected into every system prompt — build commands, code style, architecture notes, conventions. This is OrbCode’s equivalent of Claude Code’s CLAUDE.md, using the open AGENTS.md filename so it works across tools.

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Discovery

Files are loaded in this order (lowest precedence first; higher-precedence files appear later and get more weight):
  1. User memory — ~/.orbcode/AGENTS.md — personal global instructions.
  2. Project memory — AGENTS.md and .orbcode/AGENTS.md in the cwd and every parent directory (closer-to-cwd wins). Checked into the repo, shared with the team.
  3. Local memory — AGENTS.local.md in the cwd and parents — private per-machine overrides (gitignore this).

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@include directives

An AGENTS.md file can include other files with @path references: 
# Project guide

See the detailed style guide: @./docs/style.md
And the global one: @~/orbcode-global.md
@path (relative to the including file), @./path, @~/path, and @/abs/path are all supported. Includes are resolved recursively (up to 5 levels, with cycle detection). Use /init to have OrbCode generate a starter AGENTS.md by analyzing the codebase.