A skill is a set of operating instructions organized in an agreed format and loaded for a task. It can include reference materials and programs. Its value is that software can discover, load and reuse a working method. Agent Skills overview
\nThe content can be identical. The difference is where it is placed and when it loads:
\nUnder the Agent Skills specification, create a folder containing SKILL.md. Start the file with name and description, followed by the instructions. The name must match the folder. Here is a minimal example:
return-support/\n└── SKILL.mdContents of SKILL.md:
---\nname: return-support\ndescription: Check a shop's return conditions and draft customer replies. Use for inquiries about return requests.\n---\n\n# Handle a returns inquiry\n\n1. Get the current return policy, the time the customer received the order and details of product use.\n2. Ask for information that affects eligibility; do not guess.\n3. Apply the policy to explain whether a request can be submitted and what review follows.\n4. Distinguish eligibility to apply from a guaranteed refund. Do not add promises absent from the policy.This folder is already a skill resource in the required format. Add references/, scripts/ or other directories when you need supporting rules, examples or programs, and specify which files to read or run. An AGENTS.md file does not automatically become a skill. A SKILL.md without helper programs can still be a skill. Format specification
A skill file does not run itself. Supporting software must discover it, expose its name and description to the model, and place the full instructions in context when selected. The model can select it from the task, or the user can request it explicitly. Integration guide
\nIn Claude Code, for example, put this folder under the project's .claude/skills/, giving .claude/skills/return-support/SKILL.md. Start a message with /return-support, followed by the customer's question and materials, to load it explicitly. Claude Code skill directories and invocation
Appearing in the skill list confirms discovery. An explicit invocation or read record helps confirm loading. Check the actual steps and results to establish whether it was followed correctly.
\nText instructions cannot guarantee perfect compliance. Enforce mandatory restrictions in programs and tools: grant no write permission for read-only work; make the registration interface reject requests without an order number when one is required. The skill explains how to work; the runtime checks which operations may happen.
\nThe basic deliverable is the whole folder. Include referenced materials and programs, preserve relative paths, and share it by copying the directory or publishing a repository.
\nFor upload to Claude on the web, create a ZIP with this structure:
\nreturn-support.zip\n└── return-support/\n ├── SKILL.md\n └── references/ Include supporting materials if the skill uses them.In Windows PowerShell, run this from the skill folder's parent directory:
\nCompress-Archive -LiteralPath .\\return-support -DestinationPath .\\return-support.zipIn Claude, go to Customize → Skills, add a skill, upload the ZIP and enable it. Claude Code can use the folder directly without a ZIP. Packaging requirements, uploading and enabling
A harness is the program that runs an agent, organizing model calls, tool execution, context and execution controls. It runs a loop between the model and its tools. When the model requests an order lookup, the harness passes the request to the query tool and returns the result to the model. Anthropic describes the core as a loop that calls the model and passes on tool requests. Anthropic: runtime structure
\nA harness and a workflow can be the same thing. “Harness” emphasizes the program running the model; “workflow” emphasizes task steps, branches and order.
\nThe core is the execution loop between model and tools. A complete harness may combine these capabilities:
\n| Component | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Model connection | Connect to a model service, send inputs, receive replies or tool requests. |
| Context management | Organize instructions, conversations, skills and tool results; summarize or store content externally when it grows too long. |
| Tool dispatch | Send tool names and arguments to the appropriate program, then return results or errors to the model. |
| Execution control | Check permissions and handle human approval, stop requests and iteration limits. |
| State and records | Save completed steps, tool results and remaining work; use persistent storage to resume tasks. |
File access, skill loading, task decomposition and subagents can be added to this foundation. Deep Agents provides several of these capabilities. Other systems may supply model services, file systems and databases; the harness organizes them. Deep Agents: components and capabilities
" }, { "id": "course-agent-discovery-topic-2", "title": "2. How to find agents", "url": "https://ai-knowledge-map.com/en/software/agents-automation/agent-discovery/#course-agent-discovery-topic-2", "html": "| Resource | URL | What makes it useful |
|---|---|---|
| AI Agents Directory | aiagentsdirectory.com | A cross-platform directory of agents and related products, useful for finding offerings by purpose, industry and open-source availability. |
| Agentverse | agentverse.ai | A discovery and interaction marketplace for registered agents, with status and communication protocols for services that interact with programs or other agents. |
| Relevance AI Marketplace | marketplace.relevanceai.com | Research, sales, content and operations agents that you can install and configure in your own platform environment. |
| Character.AI | character.ai | Character and story-based interaction, useful for finding personas with particular personalities, backgrounds and speaking styles. |
| Poe | poe.com | Search user-created bots by topic in Explore to find conversational assistants for a specific task or persona. |
| AI Agent Store | aiagentstore.ai/ai-agents-directory | Product purposes, pricing models, source availability and official links for comparing candidates before visiting their providers. |
| Resource | URL | What makes it useful |
|---|---|---|
| AGICamp | agicamp.com | A community where developers and users share and discuss AI applications; new releases, rankings and comments help you find specific functions. |
| AI Bot: AI agents | ai-bot.cn/favorites/ai-agents | Chinese introductions and categories for agents, platforms and related tools, with links to their official sites. |
| Tencent Yuanqi | yuanqi.tencent.com | Try published agents in the public gallery, or follow links shared by WeChat public account authors to knowledge and service assistants. |
| Baidu Agent Experience Center | agents.baidu.com/center | A hub for publicly available agents; offerings distributed through search can also appear directly in Baidu results. |
| Xingye | xingyeai.com | Original characters, personas and story interaction; download the app from the official site to browse its character community. |
| ModelScope Studios | modelscope.cn/studios | Developer-built AI applications and online demos that you can try before reviewing implementation and usage instructions. |
| Resource | URL | What makes it useful |
|---|---|---|
| skills.sh | skills.sh | Vercel's skill directory includes install rankings, trends, categories and installation commands for discovering commonly used skills. |
| SkillsMP | skillsmp.com | Aggregates skills from public GitHub repositories, searchable by task, category and profession, with links to the original source. |
| ClawHub | clawhub.ai | The OpenClaw ecosystem's public skill registry and marketplace; use the Skills category to search descriptions and versions. |
| Smithery Skills | smithery.ai/skills | Browse and search research, writing, coding and data analysis skills by work purpose. |
| Anthropic's official skills repository | github.com/anthropics/skills | Document, design and development examples with full instructions, scripts and resource structures. |
| Awesome Claude Skills | github.com/ComposioHQ/awesome-claude-skills | Community skills organized by documents, development, data, marketing and other purposes, with links to individual projects. |
| Tencent SkillHub | skillhub.cn | Globally synchronized and locally published skills for users in China, with Chinese descriptions, categories, download rankings and enterprise listings. |
| ModelScope Skills | modelscope.cn/skills | A skill hub with descriptions and developer projects, useful for Chinese-language tasks and open-source model ecosystems. |
| Resource | URL | What makes it useful |
|---|---|---|
| Harness List | harness-list.com | A dedicated agent harness and CLI agent directory with descriptions, installation commands and side-by-side comparisons. |
| harnesses.sh | harnesses.sh | A cross-vendor directory filterable by coding, computer use, runtime libraries, cloud services and deployment form. |
| Harness X | harness-x.dev | A Chinese open-source directory whose Harness/Framework category includes relevant projects alongside orchestrators and infrastructure. |
| OpenHarness directory | openharnessai.app/harnesses | Describes harness capabilities and integrations, distinguishing projects usable within OpenHarness from informational listings. |
| OpenLM.ai: Agent Harnesses | openlm.ai/agent-harnesses | Organizes harnesses, orchestration frameworks and related technologies by name, tag and open-source availability. |
| Awesome Agent Harness | github.com/AutoJunjie/awesome-agent-harness | Links to runtimes, task executors, orchestrators and coding agents, plus methods and development resources. |
| Resource | URL | What makes it useful |
|---|---|---|
| n8n workflow templates | n8n.io/workflows | Official and community templates searchable by application, task and AI category, connecting models, data and business software. |
| Make templates | make.com/templates | Visual templates for content generation, customer management, notifications and other work spanning multiple applications. |
| Zapier templates | zapier.com/templates | Event-to-action templates for automations connecting email, forms, spreadsheets and CRM systems. |
| Dify Marketplace: Templates | marketplace.dify.ai/templates | Reusable AI application templates for retrieval, summarization, content generation and related workflows. |
| RunningHub | runninghub.cn | Community ComfyUI workflows and a cloud runtime for image, video and multimodal content creation. |
| LiblibAI | liblib.art | A model and ComfyUI workflow community where output examples, node previews and downloads help you find creative processes. |
| Official ComfyUI workflow templates | github.com/Comfy-Org/workflow_templates | Official basic workflows for supported models, also available through ComfyUI's Templates panel. |
| Awesome Dify Workflow | github.com/svcvit/Awesome-Dify-Workflow | A community collection with importable DSL files for studying task-specific node connections and processing logic. |