Finding the Right Skill: Search and Browse Patterns

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Hermes Skills CLI Reference(DOCUMENTATION)

Introduction

Finding the right skill is mostly a search problem. The catalogue across hubs is large and unevenly tagged. Hermes gives you a few different patterns (browse, search, inspect) and a --source filter to narrow scope. Knowing which to reach for shortens the loop from I have a problem to I have a skill that fits.

Key Concepts

  • hermes skills browse: Walk the catalogue without a query. Good for exploration and for surveying what each source has.
  • hermes skills search <query>: Keyword search across hubs. Accepts --source to scope.
  • hermes skills inspect <identifier>: Preview a specific skill, including the full SKILL.md body.
  • --source flag: Restricts a search or browse to one source (official, skills-sh, well-known, github, clawhub, lobehub, claude-marketplace, url).

Real World Context

A developer wants help drafting Kubernetes YAML. They run hermes skills search kubernetes and get hits from multiple sources. The first cut is --source official: any optional skill the Hermes team has curated for k8s. If nothing there fits, widen to --source skills-sh for community options. Inspect the top candidate, read the body, install. Total time: a couple of minutes.

Deep Dive

A workflow that scales as the catalogue grows:

bash
# Step 1: cast a wide net to see what exists
hermes skills search kubernetes

# Step 2: narrow by source, starting with the most trusted
hermes skills search kubernetes --source official
hermes skills search kubernetes --source skills-sh

# Step 3: preview a candidate end-to-end
hermes skills inspect skills-sh/some-author/kubectl-helper

# Step 4: install once you have read the body
hermes skills install skills-sh/some-author/kubectl-helper

The --source flag also takes a URL when searching well-known endpoints. That is useful when you know a vendor publishes skills at their own domain:

bash
hermes skills search https://mintlify.com/docs --source well-known
hermes skills inspect well-known:https://mintlify.com/docs/.well-known/skills/mintlify

For direct GitHub installs you can skip search entirely if you already know the repo and path:

bash
hermes skills install openai/skills/k8s
hermes skills install anthropics/skills/pdf

A few patterns are worth knowing:

  • Browse by source to learn what is there. hermes skills browse --source official is the best way to see the small curated set Hermes maintains.
  • Search the same query across sources. Trust gradient: official first, trusted taps second, skills.sh third, community URLs last.
  • Inspect before you install. Always. Especially for community and url sources.
  • Use taps for sets you trust. If your org publishes a tap, hermes skills tap add my-org/hermes-skills makes its skills searchable like any other source.

Common Pitfalls

  1. Searching only one source: If you only ever run hermes skills search ... --source skills-sh, you will miss skills the Hermes team has curated under official.
  2. Installing without inspecting: A description is a marketing surface. The body is the truth. Take ten seconds to look.

Best Practices

  1. Build a personal sweep: Pick three sources you trust (official, your team tap, and one or two known authors) and browse each periodically.
  2. Save inspect output before installing community skills: Pipe hermes skills inspect ... > inspect.md if you want a paper trail.

Summary

  • browse explores, search filters, inspect previews.
  • --source narrows to a single hub: official, skills-sh, well-known, github, clawhub, lobehub, claude-marketplace, url.
  • Move along the trust gradient (official, trusted tap, skills.sh, community URL) before installing.
  • Always inspect the body before installing a community skill.

Code Examples

bash
# Wide search
hermes skills search postgres

# Trust-gradient sweep
hermes skills search postgres --source official
hermes skills search postgres --source skills-sh
hermes skills search postgres --source github

# Direct URL or well-known endpoint
hermes skills install https://example.com/skill.md --name pg-perf
hermes skills search https://docs.somevendor.com --source well-known
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