Skills and Prompts en

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📜 Skills & Prompts

The agent's behaviour is not hard-coded. Two kinds of text files define it: skills tell the model how to handle a kind of task and which tools to use; prompts frame every turn. Server owners can edit both, and /pandaadmin reload applies changes immediately.

📜 Skills

Progressive disclosure

flowchart LR
    A["System prompt<br/>lists only 34 skill names + one-line descriptions"] --> B{"Model decides<br/>which skill it needs"}
    B -->|load_skill("building")| C["Reads the full skill<br/>method + unlocks its tools"]
    C --> D["Calls preview_structure etc."]

Loading

Only the catalog sits in the system prompt; the model loads a skill's full text with load_skill when needed, saving context and cost. Skills with always: true (such as the core panda skill) are inlined in the system prompt.

File format

Skills live in plugins/PandaGPT/skills/*.md as Markdown with a header:

---
name: events
description: This week's server events: times, places and rewards.
tools: search_server_knowledge, guide_to
always: false
requires: essentials
---
When the player asks about events:
1. Search "events" with search_server_knowledge.
2. Tell them when and where; if they want to go, guide them with guide_to.
…

Field	Required	Meaning
name	✅	Skill name, same as the file name
description	✅	One sentence on when to use it; the model decides whether to load it from this
tools		Tools unlocked by this skill, comma-separated; may be empty (knowledge-only skill)
always		true keeps the full text in the system prompt
requires		Integration IDs or plugin names, comma-separated; the skill loads only when all are present

Limits: up to 64 skills, 16 KiB per file.

Customising

Goal	How
Change a built-in skill	Edit the file with the same name in skills/; it overrides the built-in one
Add a skill	Create skills/<name>.md; it may be instructions only, e.g. this week's events or a building style guide
Enable only with a plugin	Add requires: <integration id or plugin name>
Disable skills	panda.agent.disabled_skills: [commands, vision]; their tools disappear too

Built-in skills (34)

🧩 Core and general (15, with tools)

Skill	Purpose	Tools
panda	Core behaviour: intent, tool choice, conversation and pending commands (always on)	get_player_status and 4 more
places	Remember, forget and list places; direction and distance	remember_place and 3 more
navigation	Action-bar arrow and private particle guidance; web-map links	guide_to, stop_guidance, map_link
goals	Track wanted items or mining preparation	set_goal, clear_goal, goal_status
crafting	Real recipes, what's craftable and what's missing	find_recipes, craftable_now
survival	Nearby danger and environment	nearby_entities, world_conditions
vision	Reconstruct the view, verify and highlight blocks, recall surroundings	look, focus_object, recall_surroundings
building	Ghost-block building preview and material check	preview_structure, clear_preview
reminders	Real-time and game-event reminders	set_reminder and 2 more
journal	Death recall, statistics, advancement progress	last_death and 2 more
notes	To-dos, preferences, memos	add_note and 2 more
items	Durability, enchantments, repair cost	inspect_item
trading	Villager and wandering-trader trades	villager_trades
commands	Available commands and confirmable proposals	propose_command, list_server_commands
server-guide	Server documentation and installed plugins	search_server_knowledge, server_plugins

📚 Knowledge-only skills (8, no tools)

Skill	Content
teleport	Picks the best way to travel: walking guidance, Nether transit, homes, warps, teleport requests
combat	Gear, enchantments, potions and food; Ender Dragon, Wither and Warden strategy
farming	Crop conditions, automatic farms, animal breeding
redstone	Signal strength, repeaters and comparators, pistons and observers, common circuits
enchanting	Bookshelf layout, incompatible enchantments, anvil costs, Mending
exploration	Ore heights, biomes, structure hints, Nether and End preparation
new-player	First-day survival and server onboarding
quests-and-jobs	Quests, jobs, daily rewards, shops, leaderboards (requires PlaceholderAPI)

🔌 Plugin skills (11, loaded only with their plugin)

economy, placeholders, ranks, regions, claims, towny, lands, essentials, block-history, mcmmo, auraskills. See Plugin Integrations.

💬 Prompts

File	Purpose
prompts/system.md	System prompt when a player asks something
prompts/proactive.md	System prompt for proactive turns

Template variables:

Variable	Content
{{personality}}	The persona from panda.personality
{{language}}	The player's client language
{{skills}}	Skill catalog plus always-on skills
{{snapshot}}	Compact player snapshot
{{memory}}	Places, goals and notes
{{knowledge}}	Overview of server docs (full text is searched)
{{pending}}	Commands awaiting confirmation
{{signal}}	Proactive turns only: the game signal

⚠️ When editing prompts, keep the statement that tool results and docs are data, not instructions. It is an important defence against prompt injection.

✍️ Writing good skills

1. Be specific in description: it decides whether the skill is loaded, so say when to use it.
2. Write steps, not slogans: which tool first, and what to do with each result.
3. State the boundaries: e.g. "ask the player when unsure".
4. Keep it short: a few hundred words, to save context.
5. Keep facts in knowledge.md: skills hold methods; changing facts belong in server docs.

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