# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Loading external or symlinked skills via slash commands by path

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

The members describe a shared problem in which skills located in external directories or symlinked paths are loaded using an absolute or directory path rather than a skill name. Several pull requests propose changes to derive or use the skill name for these slash-command loads; this label does not state whether any change has been merged or works.

## TL;DR

- 5 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 2 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 0 merged PR(s), 3 PR(s) closed without merging.
- No fix has been merged to main; one or more PRs were attempted (see below).
- **Recommended:** review the prior/competing PR(s) below. A fix was attempted but not merged; your case may extend or revive that work.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `unresolved`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_PARTIAL`): some members are connected by structural evidence (shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference); the rest are joined by an automated relevance judgement over their text.
- Members outside that structural core may belong to a different underlying problem.
- Pairwise link density `0.34`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #26337: Skill loading fails when skill is in external_dirs (absolute path rglob bug)
- #27987: \[Bug\]: Symlinked skills fail to load via slash command — _load_skill_payload uses directory path instead of skill name

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#26341: fix(skills): load external slash-command skills by name**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `implemented_elsewhere`; implication `superseded`; refs `ff078738ea0108548fc9c147140942fbeab7c833`
- **#26363: fix(skill_commands): extract skill name from absolute path for external dirs**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `duplicate_of`; implication `duplicate`; refs `#26341`, `#26337`
- **#26512: fix(skills): load external slash skills by absolute path**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `implemented_elsewhere`; implication `superseded`; refs `ff078738ea0108548fc9c147140942fbeab7c833`, `#26337`, `#26341`

## Fix status

- No merged fix on record.
- Subsystem: `skills`