Agent Skills

Skills are reusable prompt templates that extend agent capabilities.

Skill Format

Skills are markdown files named SKILL.md:

---
name: cost-review
description: Review SQL queries for cost optimization
---

Analyze the SQL query for cost optimization opportunities:

1. Check for full table scans
2. Evaluate partition pruning
3. Suggest clustering keys
4. Estimate credit impact
5. Recommend cheaper alternatives

Focus on the query: $ARGUMENTS

Frontmatter Fields

Field	Required	Description
name	Yes	Skill name
description	Yes	Short description

Discovery Paths

Skills are loaded from these locations (in priority order):

1. altimate-code directories (project-scoped, highest priority):

   • .altimate-code/skill/
   • .altimate-code/skills/

2. Global user directories:

   • ~/.altimate-code/skills/

3. Custom paths (from config):

   {
     "skills": {
       "paths": ["./my-skills", "~/shared-skills"]
     }
   }
   

4. External directories & remote URLs (if not disabled):

   • ~/.claude/skills/
   • ~/.agents/skills/
   • .claude/skills/ (project, searched up tree)
   • .agents/skills/ (project, searched up tree)

   {
     "skills": {
       "urls": ["https://example.com/skills-registry.json"]
     }
   }
   

Built-in Data Engineering Skills

altimate ships with built-in skills for common data engineering tasks. Type / in the TUI to browse what's available and get autocomplete on skill names.

Skill	Description
/sql-review	SQL quality gate that lints 26 anti-patterns, validates syntax, and checks safety
/sql-translate	Cross-dialect SQL translation
/schema-migration	Schema migration planning and execution
/pii-audit	PII detection and compliance audits
/cost-report	Snowflake FinOps analysis
/lineage-diff	Column-level lineage comparison
/query-optimize	Query optimization suggestions
/data-viz	Interactive data visualization and dashboards
/dbt-develop	dbt model development and scaffolding
/dbt-test	dbt test generation
/dbt-docs	dbt documentation generation
/dbt-analyze	dbt project analysis
/dbt-troubleshoot	dbt issue diagnosis
/teach	Teach patterns from example files
/train	Learn standards from documents/style guides
/training-status	Dashboard of all learned knowledge

Adding Custom Skills

Add your own skills as Markdown files in .altimate-code/skill/:

---
name: cost-review
description: Review SQL queries for cost optimization
---

Analyze the SQL query for cost optimization opportunities.
Focus on: $ARGUMENTS

$ARGUMENTS is replaced with whatever the user types after the skill name (e.g., /cost-review SELECT * FROM orders passes SELECT * FROM orders).

Skills are loaded from these paths (highest priority first):

1. .altimate-code/skill/ (project)
2. ~/.altimate-code/skills/ (global)
3. Custom paths via config:

{
  "skills": {
    "paths": ["./my-skills", "~/shared-skills"]
  }
}

Remote Skills

Host skills at a URL and load them at startup:

{
  "skills": {
    "urls": ["https://example.com/skills-registry.json"]
  }
}

Disabling External Skills

export ALTIMATE_CLI_DISABLE_EXTERNAL_SKILLS=true

This disables skill discovery from ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/ but keeps .altimate-code/skill/ discovery active.

Duplicate Handling

If multiple skills share the same name, project-level skills override global skills. A warning is logged when duplicates are found.