opensquilla--opensquilla/docs/features/meta-skills.md

Meta-Skills

Meta-skills package repeatable multi-step work as reusable, inspectable workflows. Use them when a request needs more than one normal skill, tool, checkpoint, or final synthesis pass.

For the full user-facing guide, read meta-skill-user-guide.md. For authoring rules, read ../authoring/meta-skills.md.

Skills vs Meta-Skills

Capability	Use it for
Skill	One focused task pattern, instruction set, script, or tool helper.
Meta-skill	A reusable workflow made of multiple steps, skills, checks, or outputs.

For example, "summarize this document" is skill-shaped. "Plan a safe child science project with materials, adult setup, child steps, presentation notes, and final safety review" is meta-skill-shaped.

Stable Built-In MetaSkills

The retained stable catalog is intentionally small:

MetaSkill	Positioning
meta-kid-project-planner	Produces safe, age-appropriate plans for school projects, show-and-tell, or science activities.
meta-paper-write	Supports academic drafts, manuscript structure, citation planning, experiment placeholders, and LaTeX/PDF paths.
meta-short-drama	Produces short-drama scripts, visual prompts, subtitles, and local video artifacts.
meta-skill-creator	Turns repeated multi-skill collaboration patterns into new MetaSkill proposals.

Experimental meta-skills may exist under development trees, but this page lists only bundled built-ins that should be presented as retained product capabilities.

Requirements

Use the Skill page detail dialog before running a MetaSkill. Its Requirements section shows the MetaSkill's own requirements plus one-hop requirements from child skills.

• meta-paper-write needs xelatex and bibtex for PDF compilation.
• meta-short-drama needs ffmpeg and ffprobe for local video rendering, merge, and subtitle steps.
• MetaSkills inherit readiness from their child skills; for example, meta-paper-write surfaces LaTeX/PDF requirements and meta-short-drama surfaces local video-tool requirements.

Run MetaSkills

MetaSkills are manual-only by default. They do not auto-trigger from message keywords or appear in the runtime prompt unless you explicitly opt into the old automatic behavior.

In Web chat and the CLI gateway TUI:

/meta
/meta meta-kid-project-planner

/meta lists available MetaSkills. /meta <name> starts the selected workflow. Channel surfaces can list MetaSkills with /meta, but they do not run MetaSkills from chat text. Standalone CLI chat requires gateway mode for /meta.

To restore automatic model-triggered behavior, set:

[meta_skill]
auto_trigger = true

Use this compatibility mode only when you want MetaSkills to be considered by the model during ordinary chat turns.

How to Prepare the Request

Ask for the outcome and the standard:

Plan a safe 20-minute balcony plant science project for a 7-year-old. Include
materials, adult setup, child steps, safety notes, and a presentation outline.

When you start a workflow, include the task after the command:

/meta meta-kid-project-planner

Plan a safe 20-minute balcony plant science project for a 7-year-old. Include
materials, adult setup, child steps, safety notes, and a presentation outline.

A strong request usually includes:

• outcome;
• context;
• decision standard;
• expected output;
• constraints;
• actions the agent must not take.

Discover Meta-Skills

Use chat slash commands for the runtime list:

/meta

Use the CLI for inventory and inspection:

opensquilla skills list
opensquilla skills search meta

Inspect a meta-skill composition:

opensquilla skills inspect <meta-skill-name>

The inspect command shows the compiled step shape before you rely on a workflow.

Inspect Run History

List recent runs:

opensquilla skills meta runs list

Inspect one run:

opensquilla skills meta runs show <run-id>
opensquilla skills meta runs steps <run-id>
opensquilla skills meta runs failures --since 24h

Preview replay shape without executing live work:

opensquilla skills meta runs replay <run-id> --dry-run

Proposals

Meta-skill creation workflows may write proposals before they become managed skills. Inspect proposals:

opensquilla skills meta proposals list
opensquilla skills meta proposals show <proposal-id>

Accept a proposal only after review:

opensquilla skills meta proposals accept <proposal-id>

Safety Model

MetaSkill outputs are reviewable work products and decision-support drafts. They are not final professional advice in legal, medical, financial, hiring, academic, security, or other high-stakes contexts.

Actions such as publishing, applying, installing, paying, signing, messaging, or modifying production systems require explicit user authorization.

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