Example: For context-optimization, use:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/context-optimization/SKILL.md

Optional Enhancement (Offline Use): For offline access or faster local reads, you can optionally initialize the git submodule:

git submodule update --init

This will populate the references/context-engineering-skills/ directory locally. When the local directory exists, the skill loader will prefer local files over GitHub fetches.

Sub-Skill Routing Table

Match the user's task to one sub-skill and read its SKILL.md before proceeding. Load additional sub-skills only if the task spans multiple domains.

Task / trigger phrase	Sub-skill directory
"optimize context", reduce token costs, KV-cache, context budgeting	`context-optimization`
"context compression", summarize history, compaction, long sessions	`context-compression`
"design multi-agent", supervisor pattern, swarm architecture, agent handoffs	`multi-agent-patterns`
"implement memory", memory frameworks, Mem0, Zep, Letta, vector RAG	`memory-systems`
"offload context to files", filesystem memory, scratch pads, dynamic discovery	`filesystem-context`
"debug agent failure", lost-in-middle, context poisoning, degradation patterns	`context-degradation`
"build agent tools", tool descriptions, MCP tools, tool consolidation	`tool-design`
"evaluate agent", LLM-as-judge, test framework, quality gates	`evaluation`
Advanced evaluation: rubrics, pairwise comparison, position bias	`advanced-evaluation`
"understand context", context windows, attention mechanics, fundamentals	`context-fundamentals`
"build background agent", sandboxed execution, hosted coding agent	`hosted-agents`
"implement BDI", mental state modeling, belief-desire-intention	`bdi-mental-states`
"start an LLM project", batch pipeline, task-model fit, project structure	`project-development`

How to Load a Sub-Skill

Identify the best-matching row above.

Check if the local sub-skill SKILL.md exists:

references/context-engineering-skills/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md

If the file exists locally: Read it directly.

If the file does NOT exist (e.g., submodule not initialized): Fetch from GitHub:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/muratcankoylan/Agent-Skills-for-Context-Engineering/main/skills/<sub-skill>/SKILL.md

Follow the instructions in that file. Most sub-skills have a references/ directory with detailed patterns — read those files only when the relevant pattern is needed (progressive disclosure).
If the user's task spans two sub-skills (e.g., memory + multi-agent), read both SKILL.md files before responding.

Progressive Disclosure

Sub-skill SKILL.md files are compact routing documents. The deep content lives in each sub-skill's references/ folder. Load reference files only when the specific topic is active — do not bulk-load all references upfront.

Example:

references/context-engineering-skills/skills/context-optimization/references/

Read individual reference files from that directory only when the matching pattern is needed.

context-engineering

Context Engineering Skill

Setup