Skills & Tools

GHOST is skill-driven. Rather than encoding workflows in code, GHOST reads plain-text skill files that teach it how to handle specific tasks — then uses its tools to execute them.

Skills vs Tools

	Skills	Tools
What	Workflow instructions (markdown files)	API functions the model can call
Where	$WORKSPACE/skills/	Built into the binary
Added by	OPERATOR or GHOST itself	Developers
When used	Model reads the skill before responding	Model calls the tool during a turn

The philosophy: add a skill before adding a tool. Skills are cheaper to create, easier to iterate on, and don’t require code changes. Tools are for capabilities that need structured input/output (file I/O, search, web fetch).

How They Work Together

A typical workflow:

1. You ask your GHOST to research something
2. The system prompt lists available skills — GHOST picks research
3. GHOST reads the skill file for step-by-step instructions
4. GHOST executes those steps using tools (web_search, web_fetch, note_write, etc.)

Skills guide what to do. Tools provide how to do it.

Available Tools

GHOST ships with tools for:

• File operations — file_read, file_write, file_edit
• Shell access — shell
• Task tracking — todo
• Web research — web_search, web_fetch (see Web Research)
• Knowledge — knowledge_search, note_write (see Knowledge Tools)
• Agent control — agent (see Agent Control)

See Core Tools for file, shell, and task tracking tool reference.