Adding Skills

Adding Skills

Summary: Add skills to your agents with add_skill(). Pass configuration parameters to customize behavior.

Basic Usage

Add a skill with no configuration:

from signalwire_agents import AgentBase


class MyAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="my-agent")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore")

        # Add skill with default settings
        self.add_skill("datetime")

With Configuration

Pass parameters as a dictionary:

from signalwire_agents import AgentBase


class MyAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="my-agent")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore")

        # Add skill with configuration
        self.add_skill("web_search", {
            "api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
            "search_engine_id": "YOUR_ENGINE_ID",
            "num_results": 5
        })

Method Chaining

add_skill() returns self for chaining:

from signalwire_agents import AgentBase


class MyAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="my-agent")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore")

        # Chain multiple skills
        (self
            .add_skill("datetime")
            .add_skill("math")
            .add_skill("joke"))

Multiple Skills

Add as many skills as needed:

from signalwire_agents import AgentBase


class AssistantAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="assistant")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore")

        # Add multiple capabilities
        self.add_skill("datetime")
        self.add_skill("math")
        self.add_skill("wikipedia_search")

        self.prompt_add_section(
            "Role",
            "You are a helpful assistant."
        )

        self.prompt_add_section(
            "Capabilities",
            body="You can help with:",
            bullets=[
                "Date and time information",
                "Math calculations",
                "Wikipedia lookups"
            ]
        )

Checking Loaded Skills

## Check if skill is loaded
if agent.has_skill("datetime"):
    print("Datetime skill is active")

## List all loaded skills
skills = agent.list_skills()
print(f"Loaded skills: {skills}")

Removing Skills

## Remove a skill
agent.remove_skill("datetime")

Multi-Instance Skills

Some skills support multiple instances:

from signalwire_agents import AgentBase


class MultiSearchAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="multi-search")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore")

        # First search instance for news
        self.add_skill("web_search", {
            "tool_name": "search_news",
            "api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
            "search_engine_id": "NEWS_ENGINE_ID"
        })

        # Second search instance for documentation
        self.add_skill("web_search", {
            "tool_name": "search_docs",
            "api_key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
            "search_engine_id": "DOCS_ENGINE_ID"
        })

        self.prompt_add_section(
            "Role",
            "You can search news and documentation separately."
        )

SWAIG Fields

Add extra SWAIG metadata to skill functions:

self.add_skill("datetime", {
    "swaig_fields": {
        "fillers": {
            "en-US": ["Let me check the time..."]
        }
    }
})

Error Handling

Skills may fail to load:

try:
    agent.add_skill("web_search", {
        "api_key": "invalid"
    })
except ValueError as e:
    print(f"Skill failed to load: {e}")

Common errors:

Error	Cause	Solution
Skill not found	Invalid skill name	Check spelling
Missing parameters	Required config not provided	Add required params
Package not installed	Missing Python dependency	Install with pip
Env var missing	Required environment variable	Set the variable

Skills with Environment Variables

Some skills read from environment variables:

import os

## Set API key via environment
os.environ["GOOGLE_SEARCH_API_KEY"] = "your-key"

## Skill can read from env
self.add_skill("web_search", {
    "api_key": os.environ["GOOGLE_SEARCH_API_KEY"],
    "search_engine_id": "your-engine-id"
})

Complete Example

#!/usr/bin/env python3
## full_featured_agent.py - Agent with multiple configured skills
from signalwire_agents import AgentBase


class FullFeaturedAgent(AgentBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(name="full-featured")
        self.add_language("English", "en-US", "rime.spore")

        # Simple skills (no config needed)
        self.add_skill("datetime")
        self.add_skill("math")

        self.prompt_add_section(
            "Role",
            "You are a versatile assistant named Alex."
        )

        self.prompt_add_section(
            "Capabilities",
            body="You can help with:",
            bullets=[
                "Current date and time",
                "Math calculations"
            ]
        )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    agent = FullFeaturedAgent()
    agent.run()

Note: Skills like web_search and joke require additional configuration or API keys. See the Built-in Skills section for details on each skill's requirements.

Best Practices

DO:

• Add skills in init before prompt configuration
• Use environment variables for API keys
• Check skill availability with has_skill() if conditional
• Update prompts to mention skill capabilities

DON'T:

• Hardcode API keys in source code
• Add duplicate skills (unless multi-instance)
• Assume skills are available without checking
• Forget to handle skill loading errors