Skills for AI agents¶

The MCP layer opens up new possibilities, and the Rhizome skills turn them into specific use cases. A skill is a set of instructions an AI agent loads when it fits the task – for example when you ask: “May I do this?”

All skills work through the MCP layer, so they need a connection between your AI tool and Rhizome. Each one shows its draft first and writes only after your yes.

Installing¶

The skills are on GitHub: rhizome-app/rhizome-skills.

Claude Code – the plugin brings the skills and connects the Rhizome MCP server in one step:

/plugin marketplace add rhizome-app/rhizome-skills
/plugin install rhizome@rhizome

Then open /mcp, choose plugin:rhizome:rhizome and select Authenticate.

Other tools (Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot …) – the skills follow the open Agent Skills format:

npx skills add rhizome-app/rhizome-skills

Then connect the MCP server. Afterwards, ask your AI tool whether Rhizome works: the setup skill checks the connection and tells you what to fix.

The skills¶

Skill	What for
`setup`	Check the connection to Rhizome and say what to fix
`create-topic`	Turn a mail, a note or an idea into a topic
`draft-decision`	Prepare a decision in a topic, with the method that fits
`draft-minutes`	Write up a topic’s discussion as minutes
`draft-odr`	Draft an ODR from a decision taken outside Rhizome
`import-to-odrs`	Turn a pile of minutes and exports into ODR drafts
`compliance`	Check a plan against the decisions in force
`mirror`	A private sparring partner before you raise something
`docs`	Answer how Rhizome works, from this documentation

Depending on the tool, they are called rhizome:setup, rhizome:compliance and so on.

import-to-odrs¶

An ODR register is only useful once it is solidly filled – and that takes a while if you start from scratch. With this skill, the AI searches your wikis, protocols and mails for existing decisions and turns them into ODR drafts.

This way, you can instantly continue where you left off.

Beforehand, the AI checks the register for whether the decision exists already or supersedes a valid ODR.
It asks for the date of the decision instead of guessing.
It writes only what the source says and invents no reasons.
You publish each draft yourself, after reading it in the app.

For single decisions, say from a mail or a meeting, there is draft-odr.

compliance¶

“When I’m coming up with something, regardless of my AI usage, I first and foremost want to know if anything speaks against it.”

Activate the skill in an AI session, and the AI answers questions such as “May I do this?”, “Have we already decided something on this?” or “Does this still hold?” from the register. Every statement names the ODR it comes from, with number and link.

It reads only valid ODRs. It names a superseded one only together with the one that superseded it.
If it finds nothing, it says so explicitly – and that this is not a permission.
It has no opinion of its own and offers no general knowledge: it says only what your workspace has settled.
The register has no full-text search. The AI picks ODRs by their titles and says at the end how many it went through.

This way, you can check your thoughts against your ODRs or use them as a context layer for your AI.

mirror¶

“Good, Rhizome now automates a bunch of stuff, but what about decision quality?”

We did research on the quality of decisions years ago and turned our findings into a deck of cards: The 50 Mirrors of Decision-Making, 50 questions for collective decision-making. mirror makes them your sparring partner.

The AI compares your issue to the cards and asks only what is still open and matters – at most three cards at a time.
You are interviewed in text or speech form until you are ready to publish the issue as a topic in a group.
At the end there is a filled-in decision canvas, which becomes a draft for a topic or a decision.
The conversation is private. What you say about yourself, your doubts or colleagues doesn’t reach Rhizome unless you release it – and then rephrased for the group.

When you create topics and decisions, the AI offers you mirror as a sparring partner.

Writing with confirmation¶

Skills that write to Rhizome always show the draft first – title, text, mentions, group – and write only after your yes. They vote, raise objections or publish ODRs only when you ask for exactly that.