# General Skills

> General guidelines for OpenHands to work more effectively with the repository.

## Usage

These skills are always loaded as part of the context.

## Frontmatter Syntax

The frontmatter for this type of skill is optional.

Frontmatter should be enclosed in triple dashes (---) and may include the following fields:

| Field   | Description                     | Required | Default        |
| ------- | ------------------------------- | -------- | -------------- |
| `agent` | The agent this skill applies to | No       | 'CodeActAgent' |

## Creating a Repository Agent

To create an effective repository agent, you can ask OpenHands to analyze your repository with a prompt like:

```
Please browse the repository, look at the documentation and relevant code, and understand the purpose of this repository.

Specifically, I want you to create an `AGENTS.md` file at the repository root. This file should contain succinct information that summarizes:
1. The purpose of this repository
2. The general setup of this repo
3. A brief description of the structure of this repo

Read all the GitHub workflows under .github/ of the repository (if this folder exists) to understand the CI checks (e.g., linter, pre-commit), and include those in the `AGENTS.md` file.
```

This approach helps OpenHands capture repository context efficiently, reducing the need for repeated searches during conversations and ensuring more accurate solutions.

## Example Content

An `AGENTS.md` file should include:

```
# Repository Purpose
This project is a TODO application that allows users to track TODO items.

# Setup Instructions
To set it up, you can run `npm run build`.

# Repository Structure
- `/src`: Core application code
- `/tests`: Test suite
- `/docs`: Documentation
- `/.github`: CI/CD workflows

# CI/CD Workflows
- `lint.yml`: Runs ESLint on all JavaScript files
- `test.yml`: Runs the test suite on pull requests

# Development Guidelines
Always make sure the tests are passing before committing changes. You can run the tests by running `npm run test`.
```

[See more examples of general skills at OpenHands Skills registry.](https://github.com/OpenHands/skills)


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> To find navigation and other pages in this documentation, fetch the llms.txt file at: https://docs.openhands.dev/llms.txt