Note

Technical preview. Skills are under heavy development and are subject to change.

Camunda Skills

Official AI coding skills for Camunda 8 development. Build working Camunda solutions in minutes with AI guidance.

These skills use the Agent Skills open standard. The package format is a skill directory containing SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter for name and description, plus optional skill-local references, scripts, and assets. The same package can be discovered by Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and other Agent Skills-compatible runtimes; command execution and credentials remain host capabilities.

Available skills

Compatibility contract

The repository follows the Agent Skills specification. The audit baseline is 2026-09-11, recorded as specRevisionOrAuditDate in compatibility/audit.json. The canonical repository contract is compatibility/portability-contract.md; it defines repository policy in addition to the external package format.

Discovery and loading

1. A host discovers skills/<name>/SKILL.md and reads its name and description metadata.
2. The host loads the SKILL.md body when the skill is activated.
3. The host loads files under that skill directory on demand. Skills are self-contained; cross-skill references use the other skill's name rather than a repository path.
4. The host or adapter executes commands such as c8ctl, dmnlint, Maven, or Docker when the activated instructions require them.

portability.json is repository audit metadata, not additional SKILL.md frontmatter. The complete machine-readable inventory is compatibility/skills-index.json. It and the dated audit must agree with every sidecar. Run make compatibility-check after changing a skill or its compatibility declaration; it reports one result per discovered skill and rejects missing or stale inventory paths.

Harness guarantees

No harness guarantee implies a Camunda cluster, credentials, a model provider, or a particular tool name. Those are explicit prerequisites below and in each sidecar.

Skill portability status and local differences

This matrix is intentionally keyed to compatibility/skills-index.json. Each row links to the authoritative sidecar; the linked sidecar contains the complete harness differences and limitations for that skill. Keep one row per inventory entry and update the row when the sidecar path or status changes.

Prerequisites and setup

c8ctl and a Camunda cluster

Install the CLI and its default plugins:

npm install -g @camunda8/cli
c8ctl --version
c8ctl bpmn --help
c8ctl element-template --help
c8ctl feel --help

The c8ctl-based workflows require version 3.0.0 or newer. A local c8run cluster is the simplest credential-free development target:

c8ctl cluster start
c8ctl get topology --profile=local

The local profile uses http://localhost:8080/v2; pass --profile=local on cluster-touching commands. Local c8run also needs a JRE 21+ and enough disk space for the downloaded cluster. For SaaS or Self-Managed clusters, configure a profile once with c8ctl add profile, then use an explicit --profile=<name>. Remote operations require an authorized Camunda 8.8+ cluster and credentials.

For CI or shells where a profile file is unsuitable, c8ctl can resolve standard CAMUNDA_* environment variables, including CAMUNDA_BASE_URL, CAMUNDA_CLIENT_ID, CAMUNDA_CLIENT_SECRET, and CAMUNDA_DEFAULT_TENANT_ID. Do not put real values in prompts, source files, or commits. Local connector secrets use SECRET_<NAME> environment variables loaded before c8ctl cluster start; keep the real secrets file out of version control. See the c8ctl profile reference and local-cluster reference.

Not every operation needs a cluster. Reading or editing SKILL.md, BPMN/XML, DMN, and form files can be done locally. Linting and evaluation need the tool named by the skill; deployment, process operations, live agent workflows, and worker integration need a reachable cluster. camunda-docs needs network access to official documentation unless a current local cache is available. Harness-specific adapters are needed whenever the host does not expose the command, runtime, MCP client, or credential mechanism used by the skill.

GitHub Copilot CLI

Prerequisites are a supported GitHub Copilot CLI installation and GitHub authentication. Workflows that use c8ctl require Node.js 22.18.0+; workflows that touch a Camunda cluster additionally require either a local cluster or an already configured remote profile. Install Copilot CLI using the GitHub installation instructions, then register and install this plugin:

copilot plugin marketplace add camunda/skills
copilot plugin install camunda-skills@camunda
copilot plugin list

Start Copilot from the project directory with copilot. In the session, run /plugin list to verify the plugin, then invoke camunda-bpmn in your prompt. For a small useful example:

Use camunda-bpmn to create a minimal Camunda 8 process in process.bpmn with a start event, one user task named "Review request", and an end event. Then run c8ctl bpmn lint process.bpmn and report the result.

Copilot may ask permission before editing files or running c8ctl; review those requests. The skill supplies the workflow, while Copilot supplies discovery, file editing, and terminal execution. The exact Copilot tool names are not part of the compatibility contract.

Claude Code

The Claude marketplace/plugin path remains supported:

claude plugin marketplace add camunda/skills
claude plugin install camunda-skills@camunda-skills

For a local clone, copy a skill directory into the agent's skill lookup path, or load the full repository for a session:

git clone https://github.com/camunda/skills && cd skills
claude --plugin-dir .
# or, while developing this repository:
make try

Generic installers and manual installation

Use the npm-based Agent Skills installer for a compatible host:

npx skills add camunda/skills --skill '*'

Or use GitHub CLI 2.90+ to install one skill for the current project or user scope:

gh skill install camunda/skills camunda-bpmn --agent <your-agent>
gh skill install camunda/skills camunda-bpmn --agent <your-agent> --scope user

Replace <your-agent> with an identifier supported by the host and run gh skill install --help for its current list. A manual installation is also valid: copy skills/<skill-name>/ as a complete directory into the host's documented skill lookup path. Do not copy only SKILL.md when the skill has references, scripts, or assets. A generic host must translate the documented commands to its own tools and provide any required runtime, network, cluster, and credential adapters.

Compatibility smoke checks

The checks themselves do not call a model, use credentials, or contact a live cluster. A clean checkout still needs the uv executable, and the first uv run may create the environment and download dependencies, so environment bootstrap can require network access:

make compatibility-check

It validates every skill's metadata, sidecar, inventory, audit date, and filesystem paths, then runs the separate mock entry points compatibility/adapters/mock-claude and compatibility/adapters/mock-copilot. Both entry points use the shared contract fixture: each discovers skills/camunda-bpmn/SKILL.md, activates the fixed prompt, emits and validates process.bpmn, and executes the exact command c8ctl bpmn lint process.bpmn. This verifies the repository-defined adapter boundary, not harness-specific Claude or Copilot discovery, permission prompts, or tool mapping; live integration is separate. A deterministic mock pass is required evidence for the shared contract and is not independent product coverage.

Live Copilot smoke testing is not implemented in this repository yet. The compatibility workflow's workflow_dispatch runs deterministic mocks only and is not a live Copilot test. If live integration is added later, document its opt-in entry point and report passed, failed, skipped, or unavailable; skipped and unavailable never count as a deterministic mock pass.

Quick start

1. Install c8ctl and start a local cluster:

   npm install -g @camunda8/cli
   c8ctl cluster start
   

2. Install the skill collection for Copilot CLI, Claude Code, or another compatible host.
3. Ask the agent to create and validate a BPMN process, or use the representative prompt above.
4. For live cluster work, inspect the active profile and pass an explicit profile to mutating commands.

Known limitations are recorded per skill in the portability matrix and its linked sidecar. In particular, MCP availability, model-provider credentials, c8ctl version, Java/Maven/Docker availability, and cluster access vary by host. No live integration is silently treated as available.

Issues

Bug or feature request? Open an issue. General Camunda 8 questions belong on the Camunda Forum.

License

Apache 2.0 - see LICENSE.