> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developer.watson-orchestrate.ibm.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bob skills for ADK

Bob skills provide specialized, high-signal instruction sets that teach Bob (and other compatible AI coding assistants) how to design, build, evaluate, and maintain IBM watsonx Orchestrate solutions.

> [!NOTE]
>
> **Bob skills vs. watsonx Orchestrate Agent skills:**
>
> * **Bob skills** (documented here) run inside **Bob** or other developer tools on your local machine. They assist engineers with authoring architectures, SOPs, agents, tools, workflows, and analyzing artifacts. They do **not** run inside the watsonx Orchestrate runtime.
> * **Agent skills** (documented under [Build → Agent skills](/agent_skills/overview)) run inside **watsonx Orchestrate agents** at runtime to provide modular capabilities to end-user agents.

All Bob skills are maintained in the [ibm-watsonx-orchestrate-adk repository](https://github.com/IBM/ibm-watsonx-orchestrate-adk/tree/main/skills).

***

## Available Bob skills

| Skill | Purpose | Key capabilities | Documentation |
| - | - | - | - |
| **Agentic Workflow Advisor** | Analyzes agentic workflow JSON artifacts and returns prioritized architecture recommendations | Runs 6 static detection checks (parallelization, unmapped inputs, deterministic routing, schema size, tool efficiency, prompt node substitution) | [Agentic Workflow Advisor](/bob_skills/agentic_workflow_advisor) |
| **solution-architect** | Transforms business problem statements into structured solution architectures | Generates executive summaries, technical design patterns, and implementation roadmaps | [solution-architect](/bob_skills/solution_architect) |
| **sop-builder** | Converts technical procedures and workflows (BPMN, Langflow, n8n) into Standard Operating Procedures | Produces business-readable SOPs with plain-language steps, Mermaid diagrams, and exception rules | [sop-builder](/bob_skills/sop_builder) |
| **wxo-builder** | Implements production-ready watsonx Orchestrate solutions from SOPs or prompts | Generates agents, tools, flows, and knowledge bases following ADK project conventions | [wxo-builder](/bob_skills/wxo_builder) |
| **wxo-analyzer** | Reverse-engineers and documents existing watsonx Orchestrate projects | Produces 3-report documentation sets, component relationship diagrams, and anti-pattern analysis | [wxo-analyzer](/bob_skills/wxo_analyzer) |
| **agent-instructions-evaluator** | Evaluates a specific agent's instructions for operational achievability and production viability | Scores across 5 dimensions, detects reliability risks (hidden state, brittle phrasing), outputs structured JSON | [agent-instructions-evaluator](/bob_skills/agent_instructions_evaluator) |

***

## Solution lifecycle workflow

Together, these skills form a closed-loop system for designing, building, validating, and maintaining watsonx Orchestrate solutions:

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart TD
    A[Business Problem] --> B[solution-architect]
    B -->|Solution Architecture| C[sop-builder]
    C -->|Standard Operating Procedures| D[wxo-builder]
    D -->|watsonx Orchestrate Project| E[wxo-analyzer]
    E -->|Documentation & Architecture Audit| F[Agentic Workflow Advisor]
    D -->|Agent Definitions| G[agent-instructions-evaluator]
    F -->|Optimization Recommendations| D
    G -->|Instruction Quality Findings| D
```

1. **[solution-architect](/bob_skills/solution_architect)** establishes high-level architecture, component selection, and integration design.
2. **[sop-builder](/bob_skills/sop_builder)** elaborates business and technical flows into detailed, validated Standard Operating Procedures.
3. **[wxo-builder](/bob_skills/wxo_builder)** generates production-grade ADK agents, tools, workflows, and knowledge bases.
4. **[wxo-analyzer](/bob_skills/wxo_analyzer)** maps component relationships, generates documentation, and checks for project-level anti-patterns.
5. **[Agentic Workflow Advisor](/bob_skills/agentic_workflow_advisor)** performs static analysis on workflow JSON artifacts to catch latency and routing issues.
6. **[agent-instructions-evaluator](/bob_skills/agent_instructions_evaluator)** inspects agent instructions to verify operational reliability and eliminate runtime failure modes.

***

## Setting up skills in Bob

Skills are distributed as directories containing a `SKILL.md` file (along with optional supporting reference documents and scripts).

### 1. Add skill files to your project or user profile

Bob discovers skills from two standard locations:

| Location | Scope | Recommended for |
| - | - | - |
| `<project>/.bob/skills/` | Project-specific | Team repositories — commit skills alongside your project code |
| `~/.bob/skills/` | Global | Personal workspace — available across all projects on your machine |

Create a folder for each skill under `.bob/skills/` and copy the `SKILL.md` file from the [ADK skills repository](https://github.com/IBM/ibm-watsonx-orchestrate-adk/tree/main/skills):

```text theme={null}
your-project/
└── .bob/
    └── skills/
        ├── agentic-workflow-advisor/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        ├── solution-architect/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        ├── sop-builder/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        ├── wxo-builder/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        ├── wxo-analyzer/
        │   └── SKILL.md
        └── agent-instructions-evaluator/
            └── SKILL.md
```

### 2. Verify discovery in Bob

1. Open **Bob Settings → Skills**.
2. Confirm that the installed skills appear in the list with their names and source paths.
3. If a skill does not appear, verify that the directory contains a valid `SKILL.md` file with a YAML frontmatter block containing `name` and `description`.

### 3. Activating skills in conversation

Bob uses progressive disclosure to activate skills:

* **Automatic activation**: Bob matches your prompt against skill descriptions and loads the appropriate skill instructions into context when relevant.
* **Explicit activation**: You can invoke a skill directly by name in your prompt (for example, `"Use the Agentic Workflow Advisor to review this flow"`).

***

## Resources

* [ADK Skills Repository](https://github.com/IBM/ibm-watsonx-orchestrate-adk/tree/main/skills) — Source files for all ADK Bob skills
* [Bob Skills Documentation](https://bob.ibm.com/docs/ide/features/skills) — Complete guide to authoring and configuring skills in Bob
* [Agent Skills in watsonx Orchestrate](/agent_skills/overview) — Guide to runtime skills for watsonx Orchestrate agents