Skills and plugins¶

A skill gives Colossus instructions for a particular kind of work. A plugin packages skills and may also include resources or MCP server declarations. The CLI includes the colossus plugin with coding, offline-dev, plugin-authoring, and schedule-task, and security-review skills.

Choose a skill for one message¶

Type @ in the terminal composer to open the skill picker. Use Up/Down to choose a qualified name and Tab to insert it. Then write your request and press Enter:

@colossus/coding Review the error handling in this module.

The selected skill applies to this message. The picker shows skills from plugins available in the current workspace; type a qualified @PLUGIN/SKILL name directly if you already know it. Open the full-size screenshot.

Keep a skill selected for the conversation¶

Use /plugin skills to see available qualified skills, then select one for later messages in this conversation:

/plugin skills
/plugin use colossus/coding
/plugin active

The sticky selection stays active until you remove it, clear all selections, or end the conversation. You can still add a skill to a single message with @.

/plugin remove colossus/coding
/plugin clear

Use @colossus/schedule-task to create or control recurring tasks through the scheduling tools. See Workflows and schedules for prompts and timing behavior.

Use /plugin show colossus/coding to read the skill instructions. A plugin can offer several skills; selecting its name in plugin inventory does not select them all.

Inspect plugins¶

Enter /plugins to see installed plugin candidates and their status. Use /plugins show colossus for one plugin. A plugin must be enabled and available in the workspace before its skills can be selected. Installing a plugin and enabling it are separate operations.

Skills guide the agent's behavior; they do not add tool permissions or bypass approvals. An MCP server packaged with a plugin also needs its own explicit server enablement and tool selection. See MCP servers to inspect configured servers.

What's next?¶