Skill Import Guide

Rotifer can scan your existing AI skills — such as those used by Cursor, Codex, or other AI IDEs — and convert them into genes. This lets you version, compete, and share skills through the Rotifer ecosystem.

Overview

The workflow is four steps:

scan → wrap → compile → publish

Step	Command	What it does
Scan	`rotifer scan --skills`	Discover `SKILL.md` files in a directory
Wrap	`rotifer wrap <name> --from-skill <path>`	Create a gene from a skill file
Compile	`rotifer compile <name>`	Validate the gene’s phenotype
Publish	`rotifer publish <name>`	Upload to the Cloud Registry

Step 1: Scan for skills

Use --skills to discover local SKILL.md files:

# Scan current directory
rotifer scan --skills

# Scan a specific directory
rotifer scan --skills --skills-path .cursor/skills

# Scan Codex skills
rotifer scan --skills --skills-path ~/.codex/skills

The scanner recursively searches for files named SKILL.md with valid YAML frontmatter containing at least a name field:

---
name: my-awesome-skill
description: Does something useful for developers
---

Output example:

╭─ Skill Scanner (SKILL.md → Gene candidates) ─╮

  Scanning for SKILL.md: .cursor/skills
  ✓ Found 3 skill(s):

  debugger        .cursor/skills/debugger/SKILL.md
      Systematic debugging guide for AI and Web3 app…

  api-designer    .cursor/skills/api-designer/SKILL.md
      Design RESTful and tRPC APIs with consistent p…

  testing-strategist  .cursor/skills/testing-strategist/SKILL.md
      Design testing strategies for AI and Web3 appl…

  Wrap and upload: rotifer wrap <name> --from-skill <path> --domain <domain>
    then: rotifer compile <name> && rotifer publish <name>

Step 2: Wrap as a gene

Pick a skill from the scan output and wrap it:

rotifer wrap debugger-skill --from-skill .cursor/skills/debugger/SKILL.md --domain debugging

This creates a gene directory with:

File	Purpose
`genes/debugger-skill/phenotype.json`	Gene metadata (domain, schema, version)
`genes/debugger-skill/SKILL.md`	Original skill content (copied)
`genes/debugger-skill/.gene-manifest.json`	Gene ID and provenance

Options

--domain <domain> — Functional domain (e.g., debugging, testing, api-design). Defaults to general.
--fidelity <level> — Fidelity level. Defaults to Wrapped.

You can also point --from-skill to a directory containing SKILL.md:

rotifer wrap my-gene --from-skill .cursor/skills/debugger/

Step 3: Compile (validate)

rotifer compile debugger-skill

For Wrapped genes (no WASM binary), compile validates the phenotype structure — ensuring domain, inputSchema, outputSchema, version, and fidelity are present and well-formed.

Step 4: Publish to Cloud

rotifer publish debugger-skill

This uploads the gene’s phenotype and metadata to the Rotifer Cloud Registry. Since skill-based genes are Wrapped (metadata-only, no WASM), they are published as metadata packages.

Other developers can then:

rotifer search debugger
rotifer install <gene-id>

Metadata-Only Genes

Skill-wrapped genes differ from Native genes:

	Wrapped (from Skill)	Native (with WASM)
Contains	phenotype.json + SKILL.md	phenotype.json + .wasm binary
Arena fitness	Lower base score (0.45)	Higher base score (0.70)
Executable	No — acts as a reference	Yes — runs in WASM sandbox
Publishable	Yes	Yes
Upgradable	Yes — add WASM later via `rotifer compile --wasm`	Already native

A Wrapped gene can be upgraded to Native by adding a WASM implementation:

rotifer compile debugger-skill --wasm debugger.wasm

Default Skill Paths

Common locations where AI IDE skills are stored:

IDE / Tool	Default Path
Cursor	`.cursor/skills/`
Codex	`~/.codex/skills/`
Custom	Any directory with `SKILL.md` files

Complete Example

# 1. Initialize a Rotifer project
rotifer init my-project && cd my-project

# 2. Scan your Cursor skills
rotifer scan --skills --skills-path ~/.cursor/skills

# 3. Wrap a skill as a gene
rotifer wrap code-reviewer --from-skill ~/.cursor/skills/tech-lead/SKILL.md --domain code-quality

# 4. Validate
rotifer compile code-reviewer

# 5. Login and publish
rotifer login
rotifer publish code-reviewer

# 6. Other developers can now find and install it
rotifer search code-quality