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Skills are structured knowledge packages that give Strix agents deep expertise in specific vulnerability types, technologies, and testing methodologies.

The Idea

LLMs have broad but shallow security knowledge. They know about SQL injection, but lack the nuanced techniques that experienced pentesters use—parser quirks, bypass methods, validation tricks, and chain attacks. Skills inject this deep, specialized knowledge directly into the agent’s context, transforming it from a generalist into a specialist for the task at hand.

How They Work

When Strix spawns an agent for a specific task, it selects up to 5 relevant skills based on the context:
The skills are injected into the agent’s system prompt, giving it access to:
  • Advanced techniques — Non-obvious methods beyond standard testing
  • Working payloads — Practical examples with variations
  • Validation methods — How to confirm findings and avoid false positives

Skill Categories

Vulnerabilities

Core vulnerability classes with deep exploitation techniques.

Frameworks

Framework-specific testing patterns.

Technologies

Third-party service and platform security.

Protocols

Protocol-specific testing techniques.

Reconnaissance

Passive discovery and attack-surface mapping techniques.

Tooling

Sandbox CLI playbooks for core recon and scanning tools.

Skill Structure

Each skill is a Markdown file with YAML frontmatter for metadata:

Contributing Skills

Community contributions are welcome. Create a .md file in the appropriate category with YAML frontmatter (name and description fields). Good skills include:
  1. Real-world techniques — Methods that work in practice
  2. Practical payloads — Working examples with variations
  3. Validation steps — How to confirm without false positives
  4. Context awareness — Version/environment-specific behavior