strands.vended_plugins.skills.agent_skills

AgentSkills plugin for integrating Agent Skills into Strands agents.

This module provides the AgentSkills class that extends the Plugin base class to add Agent Skills support. The plugin registers a tool for activating skills, and injects skill metadata into the system prompt.

SkillSource

A single skill source: path string, Path object, or Skill instance.

SkillSources

One or more skill sources.

AgentSkills

class AgentSkills(Plugin)

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:44

Plugin that integrates Agent Skills into a Strands agent.

The AgentSkills plugin extends the Plugin base class and provides:

1. A skills tool that allows the agent to activate skills on demand
2. System prompt injection of available skill metadata before each invocation
3. Session persistence of active skill state via agent.state

Skills can be provided as filesystem paths (to individual skill directories or parent directories containing multiple skills) or as pre-built Skill instances.

Example:

from strands import Agent
from strands.vended_plugins.skills import Skill, AgentSkills

# Load from filesystem
plugin = AgentSkills(skills=["./skills/pdf-processing", "./skills/"])

# Or provide Skill instances directly
skill = Skill(name="my-skill", description="A custom skill", instructions="Do the thing")
plugin = AgentSkills(skills=[skill])

agent = Agent(plugins=[plugin])

__init__

def __init__(skills: SkillSources,
             state_key: str = _DEFAULT_STATE_KEY,
             max_resource_files: int = _DEFAULT_MAX_RESOURCE_FILES,
             strict: bool = False) -> None

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:74

Initialize the AgentSkills plugin.

Arguments:

• skills - One or more skill sources. Can be a single value or a list. Each element can be:

  • A str or Path to a skill directory (containing SKILL.md)
  • A str or Path to a parent directory (containing skill subdirectories)
  • A Skill dataclass instance

• state_key - Key used to store plugin state in agent.state.

• max_resource_files - Maximum number of resource files to list in skill responses.

• strict - If True, raise on skill validation issues. If False (default), warn and load anyway.

init_agent

def init_agent(agent: Agent) -> None

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:99

Initialize the plugin with an agent instance.

Decorated hooks and tools are auto-registered by the plugin registry.

Arguments:

• agent - The agent instance to extend with skills support.

skills

@tool(context=True)
def skills(skill_name: str, tool_context: ToolContext) -> str

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:112

Activate a skill to load its full instructions.

Use this tool to load the complete instructions for a skill listed in the available_skills section of your system prompt.

Arguments:

• skill_name - Name of the skill to activate.

get_available_skills

def get_available_skills() -> list[Skill]

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:167

Get the list of available skills.

Returns:

A copy of the current skills list.

set_available_skills

def set_available_skills(skills: SkillSources) -> None

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:175

Set the available skills, replacing any existing ones.

Each element can be a Skill instance, a str or Path to a skill directory (containing SKILL.md), or a str or Path to a parent directory containing skill subdirectories.

Note: this does not persist state or deactivate skills on any agent. Active skill state is managed per-agent and will be reconciled on the next tool call or invocation.

Arguments:

• skills - One or more skill sources to resolve and set.

get_activated_skills

def get_activated_skills(agent: Agent) -> list[str]

Defined in: src/strands/vended_plugins/skills/agent_skills.py:378

Get the list of skills activated by this agent.

Returns skill names in activation order (most recent last).

Arguments:

• agent - The agent to query.

Returns:

List of activated skill names.