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Hi HN,

I built an open-source AI assistant that can autonomously discover, install, and execute Skills to actually complete tasks for you.

The Problem:

Most AI chatbots today are stuck in "read-only" mode. They can tell you how to do something, but they can't do it. Want to convert a PPTX to PDF? The AI will explain how, but you still have to run the commands yourself.

The Solution:

Next-Chat-Skills is a self-hosted AI assistant with a plugin system called Skills. When you ask the AI to do something it can't handle natively, it:

1. Searches for a relevant Skill (like an app store for AI capabilities) 2. Installs it automatically (npx skills add ...) 3. Executes the Skill's scripts (Python, Node.js, Shell) 4. Streams real-time output back to you in a terminal UI 5. Recovers from errors by installing missing dependencies and retrying

For example:

  User: "Summarize this YouTube video for me"
  AI:   -> Searches for a video-summarizer Skill
        -> Installs it (yt-dlp + Whisper)
        -> Downloads the video, transcribes audio
        -> Returns a structured summary

What is a Skill?

A Skill is just a folder with a SKILL.md descriptor and some scripts:

  ~/.agents/skills/video-summarizer/
  ├── SKILL.md              # Metadata + description
  ├── scripts/
  │   ├── download.py       # Download video
  │   ├── transcribe.py     # Whisper transcription
  │   └── summarize.js      # Generate summary
  └── rules/                # Usage guidelines for the AI

Key Features:

- Autonomous Skill discovery & installation — AI finds and installs what it needs - Real-time script execution — streams terminal output via SSE, supports Python/Node.js/Shell - File generation & download — scripts can generate files (PPTX, PDF, images) that users can download directly from chat - Multi-file upload & parsing — supports images, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX - Dual database — SQLite (zero-config) or PostgreSQL (production) - Optional auth — Google OAuth or fingerprint-based, works without login too - Docker-ready — pre-built image with Python, FFmpeg, LibreOffice, and popular Skills pre-installed - Works with any OpenAI-compatible API — GPT-4o, Claude (via proxy), local models, etc.

Tech Stack: Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Vercel AI SDK, Tailwind CSS 4, shadcn/ui, Drizzle ORM (SQLite / PostgreSQL), Docker (Node.js 20 + Python 3)

Quick Start:

  # Docker (fastest)
  docker run -p 3000:3000 \
    -e OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxx \
    -e OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1 \
    twwch/next-chat-skills:latest

  # Or from source
  git clone https://github.com/twwch/next-chat-skills
  cd next-chat-skills
  npm install && npm run dev

I got tired of AI assistants that stop at "here's a code snippet." I wanted an AI that could actually run the code, handle failures, install dependencies, and deliver the final result — like having a junior developer who can use any Skill you point them at.

The Skills system makes this extensible without modifying the core app. Anyone can package a workflow as a Skill and share it.

What's Next:

- Skill marketplace / registry for community sharing - Multi-step workflow chaining (Skill A output -> Skill B input) - Better sandboxing for script execution - MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration

I'd love to hear your feedback. What Skills would you want to see? What's missing?

GitHub: https://github.com/twwch/next-chat-skills License: Apache 2.0