THV-0029: Skills Support in ToolHive Registry Server (MVP)

[JAORMX]

Summary

This RFC proposes adding Agent Skills support to the ToolHive Registry Server, enabling discovery and cataloging of Agent Skills through the existing registry infrastructure.

Key Decisions

• Skills integrated into subregistries alongside MCP servers, leveraging existing abstractions
• Upstream spec-compliant extension API using /v0.1/x/dev.toolhive/skills pattern
• Support for both OCI and Git distribution methods with equal priority
• Database schema with 4 new tables (skill, skill_package, skill_icon, latest_skill_version)
• MVP scope focused on basic discovery; dependencies, metrics, and advanced search deferred

What's Included in MVP

• Data model following the skills.json specification
• 6 API endpoints for skill CRUD operations
• Registry file format extension with optional skills array
• Basic search (name/description substring matching)
• System administrator curation

What's Explicitly Out of Scope

• Skill-to-MCP server dependencies
• Most-used/popularity metrics
• Recommended skills per MCP server
• Full-text search
• Community curation
• Namespace ownership verification

References

• Agent Skills Specification

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Note: After this PR is assigned a number, the RFC file should be renamed from THV-XXXX-skills-support-registry-server.md to THV-{PR_NUMBER}-skills-support-registry-server.md.

[blkt]

This proposal looks great, but it made me wonder if we want to have a "unified", per-registry endpoint that exposes minimal information for both MCP servers and Skills. It could be useful to expose or discover the complete set of tools available to the User without invoking multiple APIs separately.

[JAORMX]

This proposal looks great, but it made me wonder if we want to have a "unified", per-registry endpoint that exposes minimal information for both MCP servers and Skills. It could be useful to expose or discover the complete set of tools available to the User without invoking multiple APIs separately.

@blkt I think you raised a really good point. A Unified endpoint would be an ideal UX/DevEX since it's only one thing to care about that gives you all the data you might need.

[blkt]

This proposal looks great, but it made me wonder if we want to have a "unified", per-registry endpoint that exposes minimal information for both MCP servers and Skills. It could be useful to expose or discover the complete set of tools available to the User without invoking multiple APIs separately.

@blkt I think you raised a really good point. A Unified endpoint would be an ideal UX/DevEX since it's only one thing to care about that gives you all the data you might need.

I'd say we put this additional endpoint as well as a stretch goal, with the main caveat that changes to DB layer might take that into account as a desirable thing to achieve.