Skills & templates

byre ships templates for go, node, and python, and agent skills for Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Grok, and OpenCode; the first byre develop asks which you want, and that’s the setup. But the packaging system is yours: everything the bundled packages do, a package you write can do.

What a skill does

A skill is a portable bundle: the packages and files a capability needs baked into the image, the env and network endpoints it uses at runtime, standing instructions for the agent, and any volumes it keeps state in. A template is shape: base image, packages, egress offers – the stack a box is built for. Enable a skill from the Skills section of byre config; pick a template once, at first run.

Agent skills carry the agents themselves. More than one can be enabled in a box – the config’s agent key decides which one launches, and the rest ride along with their own logins (byre’s own box runs Claude with Codex beside it as an independent reviewer).

Enabling a skill is trusting it. Skills ship raw Dockerfile lines and launch hooks; installing one grants nothing, but the moment a box’s config lists it, it builds that box – and everything it reaches is named by byre status. The sharp version: security model.

Make your own

byre skill init my-tools        # scaffold ~/.byre/skills/my-tools/
byre skill validate my-tools    # strict parse + resolve check

Edit the skill.toml, enable it, develop. To start from something that works, fork any bundled or installed package into an editable local copy: byre skill fork byre/go my-go. Templates use the same verbs (byre template init / fork / validate). Two worked examples in the cookbook: launch hooks and a custom stack.

Share it

byre skill pack pete/my-tools -o skill.toml   # distribution manifest
byre skill install https://... --digest sha256:...

pack writes a manifest with every file’s hash; install verifies byte-for-byte and grants nothing until a box enables the result; inspect <uri> shows what you’d be trusting before anything lands. Releasing from another machine’s repo checkout is `byre skill adopt

Skills can also ship MCP servers and Claude Skills – declared once, attributed, and individually switch-off-able.