@skills: An Open Protocol for Agent Skill Delivery

@skills, an open protocol designed to revolutionize how AI agents access and manage procedural knowledge. Current systems rely on a restrictive installation model that forces skill descriptions into a permanent "resident" prompt, leading to token waste, decreased model attention, and a "trigger lottery" where skills often fail to activate. To solve this, @skills separates the content of a skill from its persistence and its ability to auto-trigger, offering a three-tier delivery system that ranges from on-demand references to permanent residency. This protocol utilizes a simple @syntax and a file-tree architecture, allowing users to invoke thousands of skills by name without overtaxing the AI's limited attention budget. Furthermore, it integrates with a central skills hub for discovery while maintaining local-first resolution and compatibility with existing agent workflows. Ultimately, the protocol aims to make the vast "long tail" of specialized AI skills reachable, manageable, and effective for both individual developers and collaborative teams.