pi: prompt template or skill?

Thiago Perrotta explains that a short, stable request like 'commit (only) what you changed' is best implemented as a prompt template in Pi, which turns a Markdown file in ~/.pi/agent/prompts/ into a /slash command, rather than as a skill, which is a self-contained capability package loaded on-demand for complex workflows. He demonstrates creating a /commit template that instructs the agent to commit only changed files without pushing, and notes that a commit flow with checks or project-specific policy would warrant a skill.

♠ Problem statement : I often type commit only what you changed in coding agent harnesses. Can I make an abbreviation out of it? Pi https://pi.dev/ turns a Markdown file in ~/.pi/agent/prompts/ into a /slash command. This one gives me /commit : --- description: Commit files changed in this turn without pushing --- Commit what you changed only . DO NOT push. % find ~/.pi/agent/prompts -maxdepth 1 -type f -print -exec sh -c 'printf "%s\n" "--- $1"; cat "$1"' {} \; /Users/thiago.perrotta/.pi/agent/prompts/commit.md --- /Users/thiago.perrotta/.pi/agent/prompts/commit.md --- description: Commit files changed in this turn without pushing --- Commit what you changed only . DO NOT push. In Pi, a prompt template https://pi.dev/docs/latest/prompt-templates is fixed prompt expansion. It is right for a short, stable request: Prompt templates are Markdown snippets that expand into full prompts. Type /name in the editor to invoke a template, where name is the filename without .md. A skill https://agentskills.io/home is a capability package. Its description is available at startup, but Pi loads its SKILL.md https://pi.dev/docs/latest/skills only when task matches or I run /skill:name . A skill can carry scripts, references, setup, and a workflow that branches on state:Skills are self-contained capability packages that the agent loads on-demand. A skill provides specialized workflows, setup instructions, helper scripts, and reference documentation for specific tasks. A commit flow with checks, generated files, partial staging rules, or project specific policy deserves a skill. This one is a couple of words and one constraint, so I choose to keep it simple. ∎ — § — Reply via email mailto:serendipity@perrotta.dev?subject=Reply to: pi: prompt template or skill?