https://dfinity.github.io/icskills
Under active development — Skill files are being reviewed and signed off by DFINITY engineers. Content may change. Feedback and PRs are welcome.
Agent-readable instructions for every IC need.
Structured, versioned, agent-readable skill files for every Internet Computer capability. Your AI reads the skill. It builds correctly. No hallucinations.
AI agents building on the Internet Computer hallucinate canister IDs, use deprecated APIs, and miss critical pitfalls. Traditional documentation is written for humans to browse — not for agents to consume programmatically.
Each skill is a single markdown file containing everything an agent needs to build correctly:
skills/ckbtc/SKILL.md
skills/internet-identity/SKILL.md
skills/stable-memory/SKILL.md
...
Every skill follows the same structure:
| Section | Purpose |
|---|---|
| What This Is | One paragraph. What the technology does. |
| Prerequisites | Exact versions. icp-cli >= 0.1.0, ic-cdk >= 0.19. |
| Canister IDs (optional) | External canister principals for mainnet/testnet. |
| How It Works (optional) | Flow descriptions for multi-step processes. |
| Mistakes That Break Your Build | Numbered pitfalls that prevent hallucinations. |
| Implementation | Tested, copy-paste-correct code blocks. |
| Deploy & Test | Step-by-step commands for local and mainnet. |
| Verify It Works | Concrete commands to confirm it works. |
The pitfalls section is the highest-value part. Every pitfall documented is a hallucination prevented.
| Skill | Category | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Asset Canister & Frontend | Frontend | Deploy frontend assets to the IC. Certified assets, custom domains, SPA routing, and content encoding. |
| Certified Variables | Security | Serve verified responses from query calls. Merkle tree construction, certificate validation, and certified asset patterns. |
| ckBTC Integration | DeFi | Accept, send, and manage ckBTC in your canister. Covers minting, transfers, balance checks, and UTXO management. |
| Cycles Wallet Management | Infrastructure | Create, fund, and manage cycles wallets. Top-up canisters, check balances, and automate cycle management. |
| EVM RPC Integration | Integration | Call Ethereum and EVM chains from IC canisters. JSON-RPC, transaction signing, and cross-chain workflows. |
| HTTPS Outcalls | Integration | Make HTTP requests from canisters to external APIs. Consensus-safe request patterns, transform functions, and cost management. |
| IC Dashboard APIs | Integration | Use the public REST APIs that power dashboard.internetcomputer.org. Get data for canisters, ledgers, SNS, and metrics. |
| ICRC Ledger Standard | Tokens | Deploy and interact with ICRC-1/ICRC-2 token ledgers. Minting, approvals, transfers, and metadata. |
| Internet Identity Auth | Auth | Integrate Internet Identity authentication into frontend and backend canisters. Delegation, session management, and anchor handling. |
| Multi-Canister Architecture | Architecture | Design and deploy multi-canister dapps with inter-canister calls, shared state patterns, and upgrade strategies. |
| SNS DAO Launch | Governance | Configure and launch an SNS DAO. Token economics, proposal types, nervous system parameters, and decentralization swap. |
| Stable Memory & Upgrades | Architecture | Manage canister state across upgrades. Stable structures, pre/post upgrade hooks, and memory-mapped data. |
| vetKeys | Security | Implement on-chain privacy using vetKeys. Key derivation, encryption/decryption flows, and access control patterns. |
The simplest way — paste the raw skill file into your agent's system prompt or context window:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/ckbtc/SKILL.md
Fetch the raw skill and paste it into context, or use it as a custom slash command:
# Fetch directly in conversation
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/ckbtc/SKILL.mdAdd skills as remote instructions in opencode.json:
{
"instructions": [
"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/ckbtc/SKILL.md",
"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/internet-identity/SKILL.md"
]
}Or copy into .opencode/rules/ for automatic discovery:
mkdir -p .opencode/rules
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/ckbtc/SKILL.md \
> .opencode/rules/ckbtc.mdInstall as a skill or paste into your assistant's context during conversation. OpenClaw can also fetch skills directly from URLs when asked.
Add to .cursor/rules/:
mkdir -p .cursor/rules
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/ckbtc/SKILL.md \
> .cursor/rules/ckbtc.mdAdd to .windsurfrules or paste into Windsurf's custom instructions.
Add to .github/copilot-instructions.md:
mkdir -p .github
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/ckbtc/SKILL.md \
>> .github/copilot-instructions.mdThe files are plain markdown. Copy the content into whatever instructions, rules, or context file your tool supports.
| Resource | URL | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Skill index | llms.txt |
Short index with links to each skill |
| All skills | llms-full.txt |
All skills concatenated for direct context injection |
| Single skill | https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dfinity/icskills/main/skills/{name}/SKILL.md |
Raw markdown for one skill |
| Agent discovery | .well-known/agent.json |
Machine-readable skill manifest |
| Skill page (HTML) | /skills/{name}/ |
Pre-rendered skill page with full SEO |
| Skill page (MD) | /skills/{name}.md |
Raw markdown served with text/markdown content type |
| CLI | npx skills add dfinity/icskills |
Browse and install skills via skills.sh |
See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to add or update skills.
All PRs require repo admin approval. One skill per PR. Code examples must be tested.
- Site: Astro — static site generator, zero JS by default. Interactive islands with Preact (~18kb gzipped total)
- Hosting: GitHub Pages via Actions
- Skills: Plain markdown files in
skills/*/SKILL.md - Validation: Structural linter for frontmatter, sections, and dependency graph (
npm run validate) - Schema: JSON Schema for frontmatter at
skills/skill.schema.json - SEO: Per-skill meta tags, JSON-LD (TechArticle), sitemap, canonical URLs
- AI Agent Discovery:
llms.txt,llms-full.txt,.well-known/agent.json,.well-known/ai-plugin.json, per-skill.mdendpoints
MIT