Agent Skills - Genai Toolbox

The skills-generate command allows you to convert a toolset into an Agent Skill. A toolset is a collection of tools, and the generated skill will contain metadata and execution scripts for all tools within that toolset, complying with the Agent Skill specification.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the toolbox executable in your PATH.
Make sure you have Node.js installed on your system.

Generating a Skill from a Toolset

A skill package consists of a SKILL.md file (with required YAML frontmatter) and a set of Node.js scripts. Each tool defined in your toolset maps to a corresponding script in the generated Node.js scripts (.js) that work across different platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows).

Command Usage

The basic syntax for the command is:

bash

toolbox <tool-source> skills-generate \
  --name <skill-name> \
  --toolset <toolset-name> \
  --description <description> \
  --output-dir <output-directory> \
  --license-header <license-header> \
  --additional-notes <additional-notes>

<tool-source>: Can be --config, --configs, --config-folder, and --prebuilt. See the CLI Reference for details.
--name: Name of the generated skill. When multiple toolsets are generated because --toolset is omitted, this name acts as a prefix for each skill folder (e.g., <name>-<toolset>).
--description: Description of the generated skill.
--toolset: (Optional) Name of the toolset to convert into a skill. If not provided, one skill will be generated for every custom toolset defined. If no custom toolsets are defined, it defaults to a single skill containing all tools.
--output-dir: (Optional) Directory to output generated skills (default: "skills").
--license-header: (Optional) Optional license header to prepend to generated node scripts.
--additional-notes: (Optional) Additional notes to add under the Usage section of the generated SKILL.md.
--invocation-mode: (Optional) Invocation mode for the generated scripts: 'binary' or 'npx' (default: "npx").
--toolbox-version: (Optional) Version of @toolbox-sdk/server to use for npx approach (defaults to current toolbox version).

{{< notice note >}} Note: The <skill-name> must follow the Agent Skill naming convention: it must contain only lowercase alphanumeric characters and hyphens, cannot start or end with a hyphen, and cannot contain consecutive hyphens (e.g., my-skill, data-processing). {{< /notice >}}

Example: Custom Tools File

Create a tools.yaml file with a toolset and some tools:

yaml

tools:
  tool_a:
    description: "First tool"
    run:
      command: "echo 'Tool A'"
  tool_b:
    description: "Second tool"
    run:
      command: "echo 'Tool B'"
toolsets:
  my_toolset:
    tools:
      - tool_a
      - tool_b

Generate the skill:

bash

toolbox --config tools.yaml skills-generate \
  --name "my-skill" \
  --toolset "my_toolset" \
  --description "A skill containing multiple tools" \
  --output-dir "generated-skills"

The generated skill directory structure:

text

generated-skills/
└── my-skill/
    ├── SKILL.md
    ├── assets/
    │   └── tools.yaml
    └── scripts/
        ├── tool_a.js
        └── tool_b.js

In this example, the skill contains two Node.js scripts (tool_a.js and tool_b.js), each mapping to a tool in the original toolset.

Example: Prebuilt Configuration

You can also generate skills from prebuilt toolsets:

bash

toolbox --prebuilt alloydb-postgres-admin skills-generate \
  --name "alloydb-postgres-admin" \
  --description "skill for performing administrative operations on alloydb"

Installing the Generated Skill in Gemini CLI

Once you have generated a skill, you can install it into the Gemini CLI using the gemini skills install command.

Installation Command

Provide the path to the directory containing the generated skill:

bash

gemini skills install /path/to/generated-skills/my-skill

Alternatively, use ~/.gemini/skills as the --output-dir to generate the skill straight to the Gemini CLI.