Exo Claude Code Skills — Design Spec

Date: 2026-03-30 Status: Approved (design reviewed in conversation)

Goal

Create 9 Claude Code skills that guide developers through Exo’s advanced features. Each skill uses a hybrid approach: a decision/guidance section (picks the right pattern) + a reference section (exact syntax and gotchas).

Skills

#	Skill ID	Domain	Triggers On
1	`exo:tools`	Tool creation	`@tool`, `FunctionTool`, `Tool` ABC, `injected_tool_args`, `large_output`, structured output, MCP
2	`exo:swarms`	Multi-agent orchestration	`Swarm`, flow DSL, workflow/handoff/team modes, groups
3	`exo:context`	Context management	`ContextConfig`, automation modes, neurons, fork/merge, budget awareness
4	`exo:spawn`	Self-spawning agents	`allow_self_spawn`, `spawn_self()`, depth guards, memory isolation
5	`exo:hooks`	Lifecycle hooks + runtime mutation	`HookPoint`, `HookManager`, `add_tool()`, `inject_message()`
6	`exo:guardrails`	Security guardrails	`BaseGuardrail`, `Rail`, `PatternBackend`, `LLMGuardrailBackend`
7	`exo:streaming`	Streaming execution	`run.stream()`, event types, filtering, `detailed=True`
8	`exo:memory`	Memory system	`AgentMemory`, `ShortTermMemory`, backends, persistence, `conversation_id`
9	`exo:testing`	Test patterns	`MockProvider`, async test config, tool/swarm/streaming test patterns

Skill Structure (each file)

code

---
name: exo:<topic>
description: <when to trigger — includes keyword patterns>
---

# <Title>

## When To Use This Skill
<trigger conditions>

## Decision Guide
<questions that pick the right pattern>

## Reference
<exact API signatures, constructor params, code snippets>

## Patterns
<common usage patterns with complete examples>

## Gotchas
<things that trip people up>

Installation

Skills will be written to a new exo-skills plugin directory, each skill as a SKILL.md file in its own subdirectory.

Source Files Referenced

packages/exo-core/src/exo/agent.py — Agent class, spawn_self, runtime mutation
packages/exo-core/src/exo/tool.py — Tool ABC, FunctionTool, @tool decorator
packages/exo-core/src/exo/swarm.py — Swarm, flow DSL, modes
packages/exo-core/src/exo/hooks.py — HookPoint, HookManager
packages/exo-core/src/exo/rail.py — Rail ABC, RailManager, RailAction
packages/exo-core/src/exo/runner.py — run(), run.stream()
packages/exo-core/src/exo/config.py — AgentConfig, validation
packages/exo-core/src/exo/types.py — StreamEvent hierarchy, message types
packages/exo-context/src/exo/context/ — Context, ContextConfig, Neuron
packages/exo-memory/src/exo/memory/ — Memory stores, persistence, summary
packages/exo-guardrail/src/exo/guardrail/ — BaseGuardrail, backends