Skills System

Composable Markdown instructions for AI agents

Camel-Kit’s skills are composable Markdown instructions that guide AI agents through complex integration tasks. Built on progressive disclosure — only load what you need, when you need it.

11 Skills in Three Categories

SkillCommandPurpose
brainstorm/camel-brainstormDesign interview → Design Specification
plan/camel-planTask decomposition → Implementation Plan
execute/camel-executeWave-based code generation with two-stage review
verify/camel-verify5-phase runtime verification loop
flow/camel-flowGreenfield shortcut into brainstorm
migrate/camel-migrateMigration shortcut into brainstorm
validate/camel-validateStandalone route validation
knowledge/camel-knowledgeApache Camel documentation queries

Loaded automatically by /camel-execute — not user-invocable:

SkillPurpose
implementGenerate Camel YAML routes and DataMapper transformations
testGenerate Citrus integration tests with Testcontainers
designComponent selection, EIP catalog, interview guides

These are composition primitives — building blocks that the execute orchestrator assembles.

2,412 lines of shared utilities under skills/shared/:

GuidePurpose
iron-laws.md4 non-negotiable pipeline rules
mcp-setup.mdMCP version mapping and fallback policy
graph-availability.mdGraph CLI detection and fallback
datamapper-canonicalize.mdPre-compute XPaths for XSLT
flow-test-data.mdTest data generation patterns
yaml-structure.mdYAML DSL structure rules
yaml-examples.mdComponent-specific YAML examples

One guide, many skills — reusability without duplication.

Skill Structure

Directory Layout

Each skill is a directory under camel-kit-core/src/main/resources/skills/:

📁 camel-brainstorm/
📄 SKILL.md Main logic + YAML frontmatter
📁 guides/ Skill-specific guides
📝 greenfield-interview.md
📝 migration-discovery.md
📝 design-assembly.md
📝 version-selection.md
SKILL.md Frontmatter

Each SKILL.md starts with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: camel-brainstorm
description: Use when the user wants to create a new Camel integration
user_invocable: true
---

This is always loaded (~50 tokens) to help agents decide which skill to invoke.

SKILL.md Body

Step-by-step instructions for the agent:

# Camel Brainstorm — Phase 1 Orchestrator

## Step 1: Detect Project Type
Determine if greenfield or migration...

## Step 2: Run Interview
Read guides/greenfield-interview.md...

## Step 3: MCP Verification
For each component, call camel_catalog_component...

Loaded only when invoked (~500-2000 tokens).

Progressive Disclosure

Tier 1: Frontmatter (Always Loaded)

~550 tokens (50 tokens × 11 skills)

The agent always sees skill names and descriptions — enough to route user requests to the right skill.

Skills Available:
- /camel-brainstorm — Design interview
- /camel-plan — Task decomposition
- /camel-execute — Code generation
...
Tier 2: SKILL.md (On Trigger)

~500-2000 tokens per skill

Loaded only when the user invokes the skill or the agent matches intent:

User: "Design a Kafka-to-PostgreSQL integration"
  → Agent matches "design" → loads /camel-brainstorm/SKILL.md
  → Follows step-by-step instructions
Tier 3: Guides (As Needed)

~100-500 tokens per guide

Loaded only when referenced during execution:

SKILL.md says: "Read guides/greenfield-interview.md"
  → Agent loads the interview guide
  → Conducts the 6-area Socratic interview

Total for a typical invocation: 1,000-3,000 tokens.

Multi-Agent Parity

One set of skills works across 5 AI agents via agent-specific generators:

Same Skill Source

Markdown instructions written once:

# /camel-brainstorm
## Step 1: Detect project type
## Step 2: Run interview
## Step 3: Verify components via MCP

Stored in camel-kit-core/src/main/resources/skills/

Agent-Specific Output

5 generators produce agent-specific formats:

GeneratorAgentOutput
ClaudeGeneratorClaude Code.claude/commands/ + subagent dispatch
BobGeneratorIBM Bob.bob/gates/ + mode switching
GeminiGeneratorGemini CLIGEMINI.md + TOML policies
QwenGeneratorQwen.qwen/agents/ + auto-delegation
OpenCodeGeneratorOpenCodeAGENTS.md + permission profiles

Next Steps