Custom skills
A skill is a plain-text instruction, like one for a person. The brains carry it out with the tools that are already on. Skills are similar to skills in Claude Code, and when you connect they are placed into Claude Code as skills.
Settings → Speaker → Homer brains → Custom skills.
Fields
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Name | Short: “Morning”, “Movie”, “Leaving” |
| When | A phrase or occasion: “good morning”, “I'm up”, “movie mode” |
| What to do | The instruction itself, up to 2000 characters |
You can have up to 30 skills. The speaker and tasks get them in full in their instructions.
Examples
Morning
When: “good morning”, “I'm up”
Bedroom lights at 30 % warm white, kitchen at full. Play jazz quietly (volume 25) on the computer speakers. Say the living room temperature.
Movie
When: “movie mode”, “we're watching a film”
Turn off the main living room light, floor lamp at 10 % orange, stop the music.
Leaving
When: “I'm leaving”, “bye everyone”
Turn off all lights and music, cancel timers. If any window is open, say which one.
New light
When: asked to add a light
Open Zigbee pairing for 2 minutes and ask the person to turn the light on and off five times. Name it “Room What” and check that it turns on.
How to write them well
- Be specific. “Bedroom lights at 30 %” is better than “dim the bedroom”.
- Use people's names for devices, as they are named in the home. The brains find them in the snapshot.
- One idea, one sentence. It's easier for the model to go step by step.
- Conditions are fine: “if a window is open, say so”.
What a skill isn't
A skill doesn't add new abilities. “Open the browser” won't work: there is no such tool. If a tool the skill needs is off, the brains say they can't.
The speaker runs short skills itself. Multi-step ones, especially with Zigbee, it hands to Opus.
Where skills apply
- Speaker: right away, within a minute after saving.
- Tasks: from the next task.
- Claude Code: after the Update skills button in the brains card. Each skill goes to
~/.claude/skills/homer-<name>/SKILL.md.
Adding, changing and deleting skills are written to the log.