Backend Skills

Backend agents execute the actual tasks, so standard Agent Skills (SKILL.md folders in the open format) are installed for backends. qwenaudio skill is a branded entry point for the community-standard skills.sh installer (npx skills): every command is a 1:1 passthrough, with one addition — installs target the backends that actually exist on this machine (CLI detected) plus the currently configured backend, instead of relying on skills.sh's own agent detection.

qwenaudio skill install <source> --skill <name>   # install to every backend
qwenaudio skill install <source> --list           # list skills in a source
qwenaudio skill list                              # list installed skills
qwenaudio skill remove <name>                     # remove a skill
qwenaudio skill update                            # update installed skills

Supported sources are whatever skills.sh supports:

Source form	Example
GitHub shorthand	qwenaudio skill install vercel-labs/agent-skills --skill web-design-guidelines
Repository URL (GitHub/GitLab/any git)	qwenaudio skill install https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill skill-security-auditor
Tree URL (skill subdirectory)	qwenaudio skill install https://github.com/o/r/tree/main/skills/x --skill x
Hub skill page URL	qwenaudio skill install https://clawhub.ai/thcjp/skills/excel-formula-tool-free --skill excel-formula-tool-free
Local directory	qwenaudio skill install ./my-skill --skill my-skill

For multi-skill repositories --skill is required (repeat it to install several); run --list first to see what a source provides. Installing an entire large catalog at once is intentionally not supported — every skill description is injected into backend system prompts.

Skills land in the backend CLI's own user-level directory when that backend declares a skills.sh installer (~/.claude/skills/, ~/.qwen/skills/, ~/.openclaw/skills/, ~/.agents/skills/, …), so they also work when you use those CLIs directly, and the desktop app and CLI share the same skills. MiniMax Code manages its own Skill/Plugin storage; qwenaudio skill does not write to that private store.

When you switch to — or newly install — a backend that is missing previously installed skills, the gateway backfills them synchronously at startup: a millisecond-level local check against the skills.sh lockfile (~/.agents/.skill-lock.json), and only when something is actually missing a one-off skills.sh run (a few seconds) before the backend process starts, so the backend always sees a complete skill set on its first scan. Failures (for example offline) are logged and never block the voice gateway.

The pinned skills.sh version can be overridden with QWEN_AUDIO_AGENT_SKILLS_CLI_PACKAGE (for example skills@latest). If a newly added backend is not yet supported by skills.sh, contribute an agent definition to its src/agents.ts — that is the official extension point.

When skills take effect

Files are synced immediately, but each backend discovers new skills on its own schedule:

Backend	Discovery	New skill visible
Claude Code, Qwen Code, Hermes, DeepSeek	Hot reload (watcher or on-demand read)	Immediately, no action needed
Qoder	On session start; /skills reload inside a native session	Next backend session
OpenCode, OpenClaw, Kimi Code, CodeBuddy, Codex	Snapshot at process or session start	After the backend process restarts

If a newly installed skill is not discovered, restart the Gateway for your run mode so the backend reloads its skills.

Shared backend workspace

All backends now share one default working directory, <data-dir>/workspace, so switching backends continues the same files seamlessly. Per-backend overrides (for example OPENCODE_WORKSPACE) still isolate a specific backend when set explicitly.