---
title: "Sessions & Skills"
canonical: https://trickest.com/docs/developer-tools/cli/sessions-skills
description: "List and manage agent sessions, tasks, and installable skills from the trickest CLI."
---

# Sessions & Skills

The **`sessions`** and **`skill`** (alias **`skills`**) families manage the
conversational agent's runtime: chat sessions, tasks inside them, and the skill
library (markdown playbooks the agent can load).

<Info>
Skills are the vault's instruction library, shared with **Settings > Agent > Skills**. Read [Skills](/docs/key-concepts/agent/skills) for what they are, and [Creating and Importing a Skill](/docs/using-the-app/agent/creating-a-skill) for that screen. This page documents CLI commands only.
</Info>

## `trickest sessions`

| Subcommand | Description |
|---|---|
| `sessions ls` | List sessions |
| `sessions get <id>` | Session details |
| `sessions messages <id>` | Transcript messages, with `--limit` and `--page` |
| `sessions create` | Create a session |
| `sessions rm <id>` | Delete a session |
| `sessions archive <id>` | Archive a session |
| `sessions watch [id]` | Poll until terminal state |
| `sessions tasks` | Manage tasks within sessions |

### `sessions ls`

```bash
trickest sessions ls
trickest sessions ls --status active
```
```json
[{"id":"54cc218a","title":"Investigate DAST findings","status":"active","model":""}]
```

| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| `--status <status>` | Filter: `active`, `archived`, `deleted` |

### `sessions create` / `get` / `archive` / `rm`

Use the full session ID returned by `create` or `ls`; the response above abbreviates it for readability. The following commands illustrate separate operations, including deletion.

```bash
trickest sessions create --title "Investigate DAST findings"
trickest sessions get "<session-id>"
trickest sessions archive "<session-id>"
trickest sessions rm "<session-id>"
```

### `sessions watch`

Watch session metadata, not the completion of an individual agent turn. A single
session watcher exits when the API reports `ARCHIVED` or `DELETED`; the list
watcher keeps polling until you stop it with Ctrl+C:

```bash
trickest sessions watch              # watch the session list
trickest sessions watch "<session-id>"     # watch one session
```

### `sessions tasks`

These are tasks inside a conversation, separate from scheduled agent tasks:

```bash
trickest sessions tasks ls <session-id>
trickest sessions tasks create <session-id> --title "Review results"
trickest sessions tasks update <task-id> --status in_progress
trickest sessions tasks update <task-id> --status completed
```

Statuses are `pending`, `in_progress`, `completed`, and `cancelled`.
Use `sessions messages <id> --limit 20 --page 1` to read a transcript page;
the message limit accepts 1 to 500.

## `trickest skill`

| Subcommand | Description |
|---|---|
| `skill ls` | List installed skills |
| `skill get <id>` | Skill details (includes full markdown body) |
| `skill install <key>` | Install a skill by key |
| `skill rm <id>` | Remove a skill |

### `skill ls`

```bash
trickest skill ls
```

Returns an array of skill summaries. Content is omitted by default. Add
`--full` to include bodies, or use `skill get <id>` for one skill.

<Tip>
Filter with `jq` instead of dumping everything:
`trickest skill ls | jq '[.[] | {key, name, description}]'`
</Tip>

### `skill install`

This stores supplied instructions under a key; it does not fetch a catalog skill
just because you pass its name. A key and description alone fail with a missing
content error. Save this illustrative document as `SKILL.md` first:

```markdown
---
name: review-results
description: Review workflow outputs against the requested result.
---
Inspect the selected run and its output files. Report missing outputs and failed tasks.
```

Skill installation requires account access to skill management. Standard accounts
can list available skills but cannot use these management routes.

```bash
trickest skill install review-results --content "$(cat SKILL.md)"
# Equivalent: trickest skill install review-results < SKILL.md
```

| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| `--from-url <url>` | Fetch a skill document and parse its frontmatter; omit the positional key in this mode |
| `--name <name>` | Display name |
| `--content <content>` | Markdown with YAML frontmatter |
| `--description <desc>` | Short description |
| `--tags <tags>` | Comma-separated tags |

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Agent Memory" icon="brain" href="/docs/developer-tools/cli/memory">
    Persistent notes the agent recalls across sessions.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Skills" icon="book" href="/docs/key-concepts/agent/skills">
    Reusable instructions for a type of task.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Search" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/docs/developer-tools/cli/search">
    Find skills, tools, workflows, and more in one query.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

---
_Markdown source of https://trickest.com/docs/developer-tools/cli/sessions-skills._