prowler/docs/developer-guide/ai-skills.mdx

---
title: 'AI Skills System'
---

This guide explains the AI Skills system that provides on-demand context and patterns to AI agents working with the Prowler codebase.

<Info>
**What are AI Skills?** Skills are structured instructions that help AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, etc.) understand Prowler's conventions, patterns, and best practices.
</Info>

Skills live in the [`skills/`](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/tree/master/skills) directory of the Prowler OSS repository. Each skill is a folder containing a `SKILL.md` file with its patterns and metadata.

## Installation

To enable skills for the supported AI coding assistants, run the setup script from the repository root:

```bash
./skills/setup.sh
```

The script creates symlinks so each tool finds the skills in its expected location:

| Tool | Created by setup |
|------|------------------|
| Claude Code | `.claude/skills/` symlink and `CLAUDE.md` |
| Gemini CLI | `.gemini/skills/` symlink and `GEMINI.md` |
| Codex (OpenAI) | `.codex/skills/` symlink (uses `AGENTS.md` natively) |
| GitHub Copilot | `.github/copilot-instructions.md` symlink to `AGENTS.md` |

After running the setup, restart the AI coding assistant to load the skills.

## Using Skills

AI agents discover skills automatically and load them when a request matches a skill trigger. To load a skill manually during a session, point the agent to the skill's `SKILL.md` file:

```text
Read skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md
```

For the full list of available skills, their triggers, and the Auto-invoke mappings, see the [`skills/README.md`](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/blob/master/skills/README.md) and [`AGENTS.md`](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/blob/master/AGENTS.md) in the repository.

## Available Skills

| Type | Skills |
|------|--------|
| **Generic** | typescript, react-19, nextjs-16, tailwind-4, pytest, playwright, django-drf, zod-4, zustand-5, ai-sdk-5, vitest, tdd |
| **Prowler** | prowler, prowler-sdk-check, prowler-api, prowler-ui, prowler-mcp, prowler-provider, prowler-compliance, prowler-compliance-review, prowler-docs, prowler-pr, prowler-ci, prowler-attack-paths-query |
| **Testing** | prowler-test-sdk, prowler-test-api, prowler-test-ui |
| **Meta** | skill-creator, skill-sync |

<Note>
This table is a snapshot. The repository is the source of truth: see [`skills/README.md`](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/blob/master/skills/README.md) for the current, complete list.
</Note>

## Skill Structure

Each skill follows the [Agent Skills spec](https://agentskills.io):

```text
skills/{skill-name}/
├── SKILL.md          # Patterns, rules, decision trees
├── assets/           # Code templates, schemas
└── references/       # Links to local docs (single source of truth)
```

## Key Design Decisions

1. **Self-contained skills** - Critical patterns inline for fast loading
2. **Local doc references** - No web URLs, points to `docs/developer-guide/*.mdx`
3. **Single source of truth** - Skills reference docs, no duplication
4. **On-demand loading** - AI loads only what's needed for the task

## Creating New Skills

Use the `skill-creator` meta-skill to create new skills that follow the Agent Skills spec. See [`AGENTS.md`](https://github.com/prowler-cloud/prowler/blob/master/AGENTS.md) for the full list of available skills and their triggers.

## How Skills Work

The diagrams below explain the internals of the skill system. They are useful for understanding the design, but are not required to install or use skills.

### Architecture Overview

```mermaid
graph LR
    subgraph FLOW["AI Skills Architecture"]
        A["AI Agent"] -->|"1. matches trigger"| B["AGENTS.md"]
        B -->|"2. loads"| C["Skill"]
        C -->|"3. provides"| D["Patterns<br/>Templates<br/>Commands"]
        C -->|"4. references"| E["Local Docs"]
        D --> F["Correct Output"]
        E --> F
    end

    style A fill:#1e3a5f,stroke:#4a9eff,color:#fff
    style B fill:#5c4d1a,stroke:#ffd700,color:#fff
    style C fill:#1a4d1a,stroke:#4caf50,color:#fff
    style E fill:#4a1a4d,stroke:#ba68c8,color:#fff
    style F fill:#1a4d2e,stroke:#66bb6a,color:#fff
```

### Request Lifecycle

```mermaid
sequenceDiagram
    participant U as User
    participant A as AI Agent
    participant R as AGENTS.md
    participant S as Skill
    participant AS as assets/
    participant RF as references/
    participant D as Local Docs

    U->>A: "Create an AWS security check"

    Note over A: Analyze request context

    A->>R: Find matching skill trigger
    R-->>A: prowler-sdk-check matches

    A->>S: Load SKILL.md
    S-->>A: Patterns, rules, templates, commands

    Note over A: Need code template?

    A->>AS: Read assets/aws_check.py
    AS-->>A: Check implementation template

    Note over A: Need more details?

    A->>RF: Read references/metadata-docs.md
    RF-->>A: Points to local docs

    A->>D: Read docs/developer-guide/checks.mdx
    D-->>A: Full documentation

    Note over A: Execute with full context

    A->>U: Creates check with correct patterns
```

### With and Without Skills

```mermaid
graph TD
    subgraph COMPARISON["BEFORE vs AFTER"]
        direction LR

        subgraph BEFORE["Without Skills"]
            B1["AI guesses conventions"]
            B2["Wrong structure"]
            B3["Multiple iterations"]
            B4["Web searches for docs"]
            B5["Inconsistent patterns"]
        end

        subgraph AFTER["With Skills"]
            A1["AI loads exact patterns"]
            A2["Correct structure"]
            A3["First-time right"]
            A4["Local docs referenced"]
            A5["Consistent patterns"]
        end
    end

    style BEFORE fill:#5c1a1a,stroke:#ef5350,color:#fff
    style AFTER fill:#1a4d1a,stroke:#66bb6a,color:#fff
```

### Full Component Map

```mermaid
flowchart TB
    subgraph ENTRY["ENTRY POINT"]
        AGENTS["AGENTS.md<br/>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━<br/>• Available skills registry<br/>• Skill → Trigger mapping<br/>• Component navigation"]
    end

    subgraph SKILLS["SKILLS LIBRARY"]
        direction TB

        subgraph GENERIC["Generic Skills"]
            G1["typescript"]
            G2["react-19"]
            G3["nextjs-16"]
            G4["tailwind-4"]
            G5["pytest"]
            G6["playwright"]
            G7["django-drf"]
            G8["zod-4"]
            G9["zustand-5"]
            G10["ai-sdk-5"]
        end

        subgraph PROWLER["Prowler Skills"]
            P1["prowler"]
            P2["prowler-sdk-check"]
            P3["prowler-api"]
            P4["prowler-ui"]
            P5["prowler-mcp"]
            P6["prowler-provider"]
            P7["prowler-compliance"]
            P8["prowler-compliance-review"]
            P9["prowler-docs"]
            P10["prowler-pr"]
            P11["prowler-ci"]
        end

        subgraph TESTING["Testing Skills"]
            T1["prowler-test-sdk"]
            T2["prowler-test-api"]
            T3["prowler-test-ui"]
        end

        subgraph META["Meta Skills"]
            M1["skill-creator"]
            M2["skill-sync"]
        end
    end

    subgraph STRUCTURE["SKILL STRUCTURE"]
        direction LR

        SKILLMD["SKILL.md<br/>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━<br/>• Frontmatter<br/>• Critical patterns<br/>• Decision trees<br/>• Code examples<br/>• Commands<br/>• Keywords"]

        ASSETS["assets/<br/>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━<br/>• Code templates<br/>• JSON schemas<br/>• Config examples"]

        REFS["references/<br/>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━<br/>• Local doc paths<br/>• No web URLs<br/>• Single source"]
    end

    subgraph DOCS["DOCUMENTATION"]
        direction TB
        DD["docs/developer-guide/"]
        D1["checks.mdx"]
        D2["unit-testing.mdx"]
        D3["provider.mdx"]
        D4["mcp-server.mdx"]
        D5["..."]

        DD --> D1
        DD --> D2
        DD --> D3
        DD --> D4
        DD --> D5
    end

    ENTRY --> SKILLS
    SKILLS --> STRUCTURE
    SKILLMD --> ASSETS
    SKILLMD --> REFS
    REFS -.->|"points to"| DOCS

    style ENTRY fill:#1e3a5f,stroke:#4a9eff,color:#fff
    style GENERIC fill:#5c4d1a,stroke:#ffd700,color:#fff
    style PROWLER fill:#1a4d1a,stroke:#66bb6a,color:#fff
    style TESTING fill:#4d1a3d,stroke:#f06292,color:#fff
    style META fill:#4a1a4d,stroke:#ba68c8,color:#fff
    style STRUCTURE fill:#5c3d1a,stroke:#ffb74d,color:#fff
    style DOCS fill:#1a3d4d,stroke:#4dd0e1,color:#fff
```