robotics-agent-skills

🤖 Robotics Agent Skills

Production-grade robotics knowledge for AI coding agents.

Drop these SKILL.md files into Claude Code, Autohand Code, Cursor, Copilot-style agents, or custom agent frameworks to make them generate better ROS1/ROS2 software: safer nodes, correct QoS, lifecycle patterns, tests, launch files, Docker, bringup, perception, and security.

Why This Exists

General-purpose coding agents know ROS syntax, but they often miss the robotics details that matter in production: QoS compatibility, deterministic startup, bounded callbacks, sensor health checks, safe shutdown, launch ergonomics, and testability.

This repo is the missing robotics engineering layer for AI coding agents.

Evidence: Same Prompt, With and Without Skills

The evals/ directory compares the same ROS2 package prompt run once with no skills and once with the robotics skills loaded as context.

Result	Without Skills	With Skills
Node architecture	Plain rclpy.Node; setup in constructor	Lifecycle node with configure/activate/deactivate/cleanup/shutdown
Sensor QoS	Default depth 10 for everything	Sensor QoS for camera/joints, reliable QoS for status
Sensor handling	Latest-message assignment	Thread-safe bounded buffers, drop counts, watchdogs
Timestamp sync	None	Sync offset checks and dropped-frame accounting
Tests	0 lines	601 lines
Structure	Single node module	Separate writer module and cleaner responsibilities
Config surface	4 parameters	13 parameters

This is a single-task, single-run comparison, self-assessed, and neither package was built against a real ROS2 distribution — treat it as an illustration of the design decisions the skills push toward, not as a benchmark. Caveats and the known build defects in both artifacts are documented in the report.

Full report: evals/EVAL_REPORT.md

Quick Start

Install selected skills into a project:

git clone https://github.com/arpitg1304/robotics-agent-skills.git
cd robotics-agent-skills
./install.sh --target /path/to/your/robot/.claude/skills --skills ros2 robotics-testing robot-bringup

For Autohand Code project skills:

./install.sh --target /path/to/your/robot/.autohand/skills --skills ros2 robotics-testing robot-bringup

Or copy manually:

cp -R skills/ros2 /path/to/your/robot/.claude/skills/
cp -R skills/robotics-testing /path/to/your/robot/.claude/skills/

Recommended Bundles

Bundle	Skills
ROS2 application	ros2, robotics-software-principles, robotics-testing, robot-bringup
Robot perception	ros2, robot-perception, robotics-testing, docker-ros2-development
Production robot	ros2, robot-bringup, robotics-security, robotics-testing
Web dashboard	ros2, ros2-web-integration, robotics-security, robot-bringup
ROS1 maintenance	ros1, robotics-software-principles, robotics-testing

Skills

Skill	Description	Key Topics
robotics-software-principles	Design principles	SOLID for robotics, fail-safe defaults, rate separation, composability, graceful degradation
ros1	ROS1 development	catkin, rospy, roscpp, nodelets, tf, actionlib, launch XML, migration
ros2	ROS2 development	rclpy, rclcpp, DDS, QoS, lifecycle nodes, components, Python launch
robotics-design-patterns	Architecture patterns	Behavior trees, FSMs, HAL, safety systems, sensor fusion, sim-to-real
robot-perception	Perception systems	Cameras, LiDAR, depth, calibration, point clouds, detection, tracking, sensor fusion
robotics-testing	Testing strategies	pytest + ROS, launch_testing, mock hardware, golden files, CI/CD
docker-ros2-development	Docker + ROS2	Multi-stage Dockerfiles, compose, DDS across containers, GPU passthrough, devcontainers
ros2-web-integration	Web integration	rosbridge, FastAPI/Flask bridges, WebSocket streaming, REST APIs, MJPEG/WebRTC, security
robot-bringup	System bringup	systemd services, launch composition, udev rules, watchdogs, log rotation, graceful shutdown
robotics-security	Security and hardening	SROS2, DDS encryption, network segmentation, secrets management, e-stop isolation, secure boot

How Agents Use These Skills

Claude Code

Copy or symlink the skills you need into your project's .claude/skills/ directory. Claude Code auto-discovers SKILL.md files and triggers them based on the YAML description field.

Autohand Code

Copy or symlink the skills you need into your project's .autohand/skills/ directory. User-level skills live under ~/.autohand/skills/; project-level skills live under <project>/.autohand/skills/.

Claude Projects

Place the skill directories in your project's /mnt/skills/user/ directory.

Custom Agent Frameworks

Load the relevant SKILL.md as system-prompt context when a task matches the skill:

from pathlib import Path

SKILLS = {
    "ros2": "skills/ros2/SKILL.md",
    "testing": "skills/robotics-testing/SKILL.md",
    "perception": "skills/robot-perception/SKILL.md",
    "bringup": "skills/robot-bringup/SKILL.md",
    "security": "skills/robotics-security/SKILL.md",
}

def load_skill(task_description: str) -> str:
    text = task_description.lower()
    for trigger, path in SKILLS.items():
        if trigger in text:
            return Path(path).read_text()
    return ""

What Good Skills Contain

• Specific trigger descriptions so agents know when to load them.
• Working examples, not just prose.
• Robotics failure modes: QoS mismatches, stale transforms, unsafe shutdown, blocking callbacks.
• Production defaults: bounded queues, lifecycle management, observability, tests.
• Anti-patterns that show what to avoid.

Coverage Map

Robot System Architecture
├── Design Principles ---- robotics-software-principles/ (SOLID, safety, composability)
├── Middleware ----------- ros1/, ros2/
├── Behaviors ----------- robotics-design-patterns/ (BT, FSM)
├── Perception ---------- robot-perception/ (cameras, LiDAR, depth, calibration, fusion)
├── Planning ------------ robotics-design-patterns/ (motion planning)
├── Control ------------- robotics-design-patterns/ (control loops)
├── Safety -------------- robotics-design-patterns/ (watchdogs, limits)
├── Testing ------------- robotics-testing/ (unit, integration, sim)
├── Containerization ---- docker-ros2-development/ (Dockerfiles, compose, DDS, GPU)
├── Web Interfaces ------ ros2-web-integration/ (REST, WebSocket, streaming, dashboards)
├── System Bringup ------ robot-bringup/ (systemd, udev, watchdogs, boot sequence)
├── Security ------------ robotics-security/ (SROS2, hardening, e-stop isolation)
└── Deployment ---------- ros2/ (production checklist, CI/CD)

Roadmap

High-impact skills to add next:

• robot-navigation/ - Nav2, SLAM, localization, costmaps, planners, recovery behaviors.
• robot-manipulation/ - MoveIt2, grasp planning, planning scenes, TF, pick-and-place.
• ros2-control/ - hardware interfaces, controllers, update loops, real-time pitfalls.
• robot-simulation/ - Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, sim clock, resets, domain randomization.
• robot-description/ - URDF, Xacro, inertials, collision meshes, robot_state_publisher.
• robot-debugging/ - ros2 doctor, rqt, tracing, rosbag replay, diagnostics.
• robotics-data-pipelines/ - RLDS, LeRobot, Zarr, dataset curation, format conversion.
• multi-robot-systems/ - namespaces, fleets, DDS partitions, task allocation.

Contributions are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the skill format and review checklist.