# pi-skills-manager

![Skills Manager overlay](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vanillagreencom/vstack/main/pi-extensions/pi-skills-manager/assets/skills-manager.png)

Dedicated skills manager. Browse, preview, create, edit, rename, delete, and toggle skills from one `/skill` view while keeping Pi's native `/skill:<name>` invocation.

## Highlights

- Project, global, and package skills shown separately.
- Search by name, description, source, scope, and path.
- enter inserts the enabled skill as a native `/skill:<name>` command into the editor.
- tab previews frontmatter and rendered content.
- Create new project or global skills using the current model, including providers authenticated through headers or ambient environment settings. Falls back to a deterministic template when the model is unavailable.
- Edit, rename, and delete your own top-level skills. Package skills stay preview/toggle/insert only.
- Hides Pi's startup `[Skills]` block so skill discovery lives in the manager.

## Install

Via [npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@vanillagreen/pi-skills-manager):

```bash
pi install npm:@vanillagreen/pi-skills-manager
```

Via [vstack](https://github.com/vanillagreencom/vstack):

```bash
cargo install --git https://github.com/vanillagreencom/vstack.git vstack
vstack add vanillagreencom/vstack --pi-extension pi-skills-manager --harness pi -y
```

Restart Pi after installation.

## Commands

| Command | Action |
| --- | --- |
| `/skill` | Open the manager. |
| `/skill disable` | Disable the feature toggle. Run `/reload` to unload. |
| `/skill:enable` | Recovery command when disabled. |
| `/skill:<name>` | Native Pi skill invocation (handled by Pi). |

Each view (browse, preview, edit) documents its own keys in the footer.

Create: name (normalized to a lowercase slug), trigger-focused description, visibility (project `.pi/skills/<name>/SKILL.md` or global `~/.pi/agent/skills/<name>/SKILL.md`).

## Settings

Open `/extensions:settings`; settings appear under the **Skills Manager** tab.

Project settings in `.pi/settings.json` apply only after Pi marks the workspace trusted; before trust, vstack Pi extensions read user/global settings only.

| Setting | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Hide startup skills block | Hide Pi's built-in startup `[Skills]` list. |
| AI skill generation | Use the current model to draft new `SKILL.md` files with Pi-standard transient retries when available. Provider or validation failures show a warning before saving the deterministic fallback template. |
| Default create location | `project` or `global`. |
| Popup width | Number of columns or `82%`-style percentage. |
| Popup max height | Number of rows or percentage. |
| Visible list rows | Maximum rows shown before scrolling; short terminals shrink this so controls remain visible. |

Glyph style: each package exposes `glyphStyle` (`unicode` default, `ascii` for terminal-safe chrome). `@vanillagreen/pi-tool-renderer.globalGlyphStyleOverride=ascii` forces ASCII chrome across vstack Pi extensions while leaving tool/model/user content unchanged.

## Notes

Native `/skill:<name>` registration is controlled by Pi's `enableSkillCommands` setting (`/settings` → **Skill commands**). This manager doesn't change it.

## Attribution

Locally owned by vstack, based on ideas from the MIT-licensed [`@kmiyh/pi-skills-menu`](https://github.com/Kmiyh/pi-skills-menu). See `THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md`.