Build Project Memory with Skills

A useful project Skill is an on-demand operating guide, not an ever-growing encyclopedia. DeepSeek Harness initially exposes names and descriptions, then loads the complete body and explicit resources only when selected.

Discovery and Precedence

Local providers scan project .dsh/skills and .agents/skills, configured custom roots, user roots, and optional bundled roots. Project entries can override a same-name user Skill. Names use kebab-case; supported layouts are <name>/SKILL.md or a flat <name>.md, not arbitrary recursive discovery.

Minimal Shape

---
name: release-check
description: Verify version, changelog, build, and artifacts before release.
---

# Release Check
## Entry conditions
- Target version and branch are confirmed.
## Flow
1. Read package metadata and release notes.
2. Run project checks.
3. Show version and artifact differences.
4. Stop for explicit approval before publishing.
## Done
- Commands, exit codes, and skipped checks are reported.

Put routing, flow, stop conditions, and output shape in SKILL.md; long stable material in references/; deterministic helpers in scripts/. Do not duplicate entire upstream manuals.

Failure-Driven Maintenance

1. Record one reproducible failure.
2. Decide whether it lacks instruction, capability, permission, or feedback.
3. Add the shortest rule that prevents it.
4. replay the failure case.
5. remove stale text or rules now enforced by tools.

Text must not carry a hard security guarantee. Pair “do not publish” with approval policy and express machine-checkable formats through Schema.

Test tasks that should trigger, should not trigger, and sit on the boundary. Verify model and user invocation policy explicitly rather than describing access in prose.

Next: Permissions, Sandbox, and Runtime Invariants.