basicmachines-co-basic-memory/skills/DEVELOPMENT.md

Development

Repository Structure

basic-memory/skills/
├── memory-tasks/SKILL.md           # Task tracking skill
├── memory-schema/SKILL.md          # Schema lifecycle skill
├── memory-reflect/SKILL.md         # Memory consolidation skill
├── memory-notes/SKILL.md           # Note writing patterns skill
├── memory-defrag/SKILL.md          # Memory cleanup skill
├── memory-metadata-search/SKILL.md # Metadata search skill
├── memory-lifecycle/SKILL.md       # Entity lifecycle skill
├── memory-ingest/SKILL.md          # External input processing skill
├── memory-research/SKILL.md        # Web research skill
├── memory-literary-analysis/SKILL.md # Literary analysis skill
└── README.md

Each skill is a single SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter (name, description) and markdown instructions.

Testing Skills Locally

Copy a skill into your agent's skills directory and start a new session:

# Claude Code — global
cp -r memory-tasks ~/.claude/skills/

# Claude Code — project-scoped
cp -r memory-tasks .claude/skills/

# Any agent that reads SKILL.md files
cp -r memory-tasks <agent-skills-dir>/

Then start a new session and verify the skill is loaded (e.g., ask the agent to create a task).

Run the source validation before committing skill changes:

# From the monorepo root
just package-check-skills

# From skills/
just check

The check validates every memory-*/SKILL.md frontmatter block. Skills are markdown-only, so there is no separate compile step.

Installing via npx

Users can install or update skills with the Skills CLI:

# Install all skills
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills

# Install a specific skill
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills --skill memory-tasks

# Install for a specific agent
npx skills add basicmachines-co/basic-memory/skills --agent claude

Adding a New Skill

1. Create a new directory: memory-<name>/SKILL.md
2. Add YAML frontmatter with name and description
3. Write skill instructions in markdown
4. Update README.md with the new skill's summary
5. Commit and push

OpenClaw Plugin Integration

These skills are also bundled in the @basicmemory/openclaw-basic-memory plugin. When updating skills here, refresh the generated OpenClaw bundle:

# From integrations/openclaw
bun run fetch-skills

Then add any new path to the skills array in integrations/openclaw/openclaw.plugin.json and commit the monorepo change.