VM0 Agent Self-Management

Use this skill to inspect and update the current agent's own configuration — its skills, instructions, and environment variables — by cloning, editing, and redeploying via vm0 compose.

Official docs: https://docs.vm0.ai

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Understand the current agent's vm0.yaml configuration
• Add or remove skills from the current agent
• Update the agent's instructions file
• Change environment variables or secrets references
• Redeploy the agent after configuration changes

vm0.yaml Format

Every agent is defined by a vm0.yaml file:

version: "1.0"

agents:
  my-agent:
    framework: claude-code
    instructions: AGENTS.md
    skills:
      - https://github.com/vm0-ai/vm0-skills/tree/main/github
      - https://github.com/vm0-ai/vm0-skills/tree/main/slack
    environment:
      SOME_VAR: "literal-value"
      API_KEY: "${{ secrets.API_KEY }}"
      DEBUG: "${{ vars.DEBUG }}"

Fields

Variable Syntax

Important: Each skill's SKILL.md declares its own required secrets and vars in the frontmatter (vm0_secrets / vm0_vars). These are automatically injected when the skill is loaded — do not redeclare them in environment. Only put entries in environment that are specific to this agent and not already covered by a skill's frontmatter.

Finding Skills

Skills come from two marketplaces. Search both when looking for new capabilities.

1. skills.sh (33,700+ community skills)

curl -s "https://skills.sh/api/search?q={keyword}"

2. vm0-ai/vm0-skills (70+ curated integrations)

Browse at: https://github.com/vm0-ai/vm0-skills

Priority rule: If a skill exists in both marketplaces, prefer the vm0-ai/vm0-skills version — it is optimized for VM0 agent workflows and has consistent quality.

Converting search results to vm0.yaml URLs

Skills are referenced in vm0.yaml as GitHub tree URLs:

Checking required credentials

After picking a skill, read its SKILL.md to see what secrets or vars it needs:

curl -s "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vm0-ai/vm0-skills/main/{skill-name}/SKILL.md" | head -20

Look for vm0_secrets and vm0_vars in the frontmatter. Store any missing values before deploying:

vm0 secret set SKILL_TOKEN --body "value"

CLI: clone & compose

Clone — download current agent config

vm0 agent clone downloads a deployed agent's configuration to the local filesystem. It writes vm0.yaml and the instructions file (e.g. AGENTS.md) to a local directory.

# Clone into a new subdirectory (directory must not already exist)
vm0 agent clone {agent-name} ./agent-config

# Clone into current directory
vm0 agent clone {agent-name} .

What it downloads:

• vm0.yaml — the compose configuration
• The instructions file referenced in vm0.yaml (e.g. AGENTS.md)

Note: Secret values are preserved as ${{ secrets.NAME }} placeholders — the actual values are never written to disk.

Compose — deploy updated config

vm0 compose deploys a vm0.yaml to the platform, creating or updating the agent.

# Deploy with confirmation prompt
vm0 compose vm0.yaml

# Deploy non-interactively (skip confirmation)
vm0 compose vm0.yaml -y

If the yaml references secrets that don't yet exist on the platform, compose will prompt to set them (use -y to skip in automated contexts).

Self-Update Pattern

An agent can modify its own configuration by combining clone → edit → compose. This lets the agent update itself — adding new skills, changing instructions, or updating env vars — without any human intervention.

1. Clone own config

vm0 agent clone {current-agent-name} /tmp/self-config

2. Inspect current state

cat /tmp/self-config/vm0.yaml
cat /tmp/self-config/AGENTS.md

3. Edit vm0.yaml

For example, add a new skill:

# Edit /tmp/self-config/vm0.yaml to add a skill entry under skills:
#   - https://github.com/vm0-ai/vm0-skills/tree/main/notion

Or update the instructions file:

# Edit /tmp/self-config/AGENTS.md to refine the system prompt

4. Redeploy

cd /tmp/self-config
vm0 compose vm0.yaml -y

The agent is now updated. The next run will use the new configuration.

Guidelines

1. Agent name: When self-updating, the agent name comes from the agents: key in vm0.yaml. The current agent name is available in the VM0_AGENT_NAME environment variable if set.
2. Clone target must not exist: vm0 agent clone fails if the destination directory already exists. Use a fresh path like /tmp/self-config or add a timestamp.
3. compose -y for automation: Always pass -y when running compose non-interactively to skip confirmation prompts.
4. Instructions file: The instructions file path in vm0.yaml is relative to the directory where vm0 compose is run. Keep both files in the same directory.
5. Secrets are not cloned: Secret values are never downloaded — only the ${{ secrets.NAME }} reference is preserved. Don't try to read secret values from the cloned config.