fix(skills): instruct agent to use exact absolute path for skill files

[buidackim]

Problem

The system prompt contains conflicting guidance that causes weaker models to mangle skill file paths:

1. Skills section says: read its SKILL.md at the location path with read_file
2. Workspace section says: Use relative paths — do not guess absolute paths

Models like MiniMax-M2.7 try to reconcile both instructions by stripping the absolute prefix from the skill path (e.g. /app/data/skills-store/gpt-image-2-pro-max/1/SKILL.md → skills/gpt-image-2-pro-max-main/SKILL.md), causing file not found errors.

Fix

Resolves the contradiction by clarifying the boundary:

• Workspace section: relative paths for user files, exact absolute paths for skills
• Skills section (inline + search modes): adds (use the EXACT absolute path provided)
• skill_search result: adds the same emphasis in the ACTION REQUIRED instruction

Files Changed

• internal/agent/systemprompt.go — 3 string changes in prompt guidance
• internal/tools/skill_search.go — 1 string change in search result instruction

Impact

Minimal prompt size increase (~30 tokens). Helps weaker models follow skill paths correctly without affecting stronger models.

[mrgoonie]

Summary: This is the right problem to fix, but the patch currently breaks the prompt-size test budget in internal/agent.

Risk level: Low

Mandatory gates:

• Duplicate/prior implementation: clear; I only found this PR for the exact skill absolute-path prompt guidance.
• Project standards: issue found — prompt wording changes need to stay within the tested mode size budgets.
• Strategic necessity: clear value; the workspace-vs-skill path ambiguity is real and worth removing.
• CI/checks: missing on GitHub; local targeted test failed.

Findings:

• Important: go test ./internal/agent ./internal/tools fails on this branch with TestNoneModeSections: none mode too large: 3112 chars. The added wording is small, but it still pushes an existing prompt-size guard over its limit. Please either tighten the new wording enough to keep the none-mode budget under the test threshold, or update the test budget only if that larger prompt is an intentional product decision.

Verdict: REQUEST_CHANGES

Next step: make the wording more compact (for example, avoid repeating the full “use the EXACT absolute path provided” phrase in multiple emitted sections) and rerun go test ./internal/agent ./internal/tools before re-review.

Posted by /github-maintain at 2026-06-22T21:09:30Z