feat(gateway): skill-aware slash commands, paginated /commands, Telegram 100-cap (#3934)

* feat(gateway): skill-aware slash commands, paginated /commands, Telegram 100-cap

Map active skills to Telegram's slash command menu so users can
discover and invoke skills directly. Three changes:

1. Telegram menu now includes active skill commands alongside built-in
   commands, capped at 100 entries (Telegram Bot API limit). Overflow
   commands remain callable but hidden from the picker. Logged at
   startup when cap is hit.

2. New /commands [page] gateway command for paginated browsing of all
   commands + skills. /help now shows first 10 skill commands and
   points to /commands for the full list.

3. When a user types a slash command that matches a disabled or
   uninstalled skill, they get actionable guidance:
   - Disabled: 'Enable it with: hermes skills config'
   - Optional (not installed): 'Install with: hermes skills install official/<path>'

Built on ideas from PR #3921 by @kshitijk4poor.

* chore: move 21 niche skills to optional-skills

Move specialized/niche skills from built-in (skills/) to optional
(optional-skills/) to reduce the default skill count. Users can
install them with: hermes skills install official/<category>/<name>

Moved skills (21):
- mlops: accelerate, chroma, faiss, flash-attention,
  hermes-atropos-environments, huggingface-tokenizers, instructor,
  lambda-labs, llava, nemo-curator, pinecone, pytorch-lightning,
  qdrant, saelens, simpo, slime, tensorrt-llm, torchtitan
- research: domain-intel, duckduckgo-search
- devops: inference-sh cli

Built-in skills: 96 → 75
Optional skills: 22 → 43

* fix: only include repo built-in skills in Telegram menu, not user-installed

User-installed skills (from hub or manually added) stay accessible via
/skills and by typing the command directly, but don't get registered
in the Telegram slash command picker. Only skills whose SKILL.md is
under the repo's skills/ directory are included in the menu.

This keeps the Telegram menu focused on the curated built-in set while
user-installed skills remain discoverable through /skills and /commands.

gateway/platforms/telegram.py

@@ -622,10 +622,16 @@ class TelegramAdapter(BasePlatformAdapter):
             # gateway command there automatically adds it to the Telegram menu.
             try:
                 from telegram import BotCommand
-                from hermes_cli.commands import telegram_bot_commands
+                from hermes_cli.commands import telegram_menu_commands
+                menu_commands, hidden_count = telegram_menu_commands(max_commands=100)
                 await self._bot.set_my_commands([
-                    BotCommand(name, desc) for name, desc in telegram_bot_commands()
+                    BotCommand(name, desc) for name, desc in menu_commands
                 ])
+                if hidden_count:
+                    logger.info(
+                        "[%s] Telegram menu: %d commands registered, %d hidden (over 100 limit). Use /commands for full list.",
+                        self.name, len(menu_commands), hidden_count,
+                    )
             except Exception as e:
                 logger.warning(
                     "[%s] Could not register Telegram command menu: %s",

gateway/run.py

@@ -301,6 +301,50 @@ def _resolve_runtime_agent_kwargs() -> dict:
     }
 
 
+def _check_unavailable_skill(command_name: str) -> str | None:
+    """Check if a command matches a known-but-inactive skill.
+
+    Returns a helpful message if the skill exists but is disabled or only
+    available as an optional install. Returns None if no match found.
+    """
+    # Normalize: command uses hyphens, skill names may use hyphens or underscores
+    normalized = command_name.lower().replace("_", "-")
+    try:
+        from tools.skills_tool import SKILLS_DIR, _get_disabled_skill_names
+        disabled = _get_disabled_skill_names()
+
+        # Check disabled built-in skills
+        for skill_md in SKILLS_DIR.rglob("SKILL.md"):
+            if any(part in ('.git', '.github', '.hub') for part in skill_md.parts):
+                continue
+            name = skill_md.parent.name.lower().replace("_", "-")
+            if name == normalized and name in disabled:
+                return (
+                    f"The **{command_name}** skill is installed but disabled.\n"
+                    f"Enable it with: `hermes skills config`"
+                )
+
+        # Check optional skills (shipped with repo but not installed)
+        from hermes_constants import get_hermes_home
+        repo_root = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
+        optional_dir = repo_root / "optional-skills"
+        if optional_dir.exists():
+            for skill_md in optional_dir.rglob("SKILL.md"):
+                name = skill_md.parent.name.lower().replace("_", "-")
+                if name == normalized:
+                    # Build install path: official/<category>/<name>
+                    rel = skill_md.parent.relative_to(optional_dir)
+                    parts = list(rel.parts)
+                    install_path = f"official/{'/'.join(parts)}"
+                    return (
+                        f"The **{command_name}** skill is available but not installed.\n"
+                        f"Install it with: `hermes skills install {install_path}`"
+                    )
+    except Exception:
+        pass
+    return None
+
+
 def _platform_config_key(platform: "Platform") -> str:
     """Map a Platform enum to its config.yaml key (LOCAL→"cli", rest→enum value)."""
     return "cli" if platform == Platform.LOCAL else platform.value
@@ -1818,6 +1862,9 @@ class GatewayRunner:
         if canonical == "help":
             return await self._handle_help_command(event)
 
+        if canonical == "commands":
+            return await self._handle_commands_command(event)
+        
         if canonical == "status":
             return await self._handle_status_command(event)
         
@@ -1974,6 +2021,12 @@ class GatewayRunner:
                     if msg:
                         event.text = msg
                         # Fall through to normal message processing with skill content
+                else:
+                    # Not an active skill — check if it's a known-but-disabled or
+                    # uninstalled skill and give actionable guidance.
+                    _unavail_msg = _check_unavailable_skill(command)
+                    if _unavail_msg:
+                        return _unavail_msg
             except Exception as e:
                 logger.debug("Skill command check failed (non-fatal): %s", e)
         
@@ -3065,13 +3118,70 @@ class GatewayRunner:
             from agent.skill_commands import get_skill_commands
             skill_cmds = get_skill_commands()
             if skill_cmds:
-                lines.append(f"\n⚡ **Skill Commands** ({len(skill_cmds)} installed):")
+                lines.append(f"\n⚡ **Skill Commands** ({len(skill_cmds)} active):")
-                for cmd in sorted(skill_cmds):
+                # Show first 10, then point to /commands for the rest
+                sorted_cmds = sorted(skill_cmds)
+                for cmd in sorted_cmds[:10]:
                     lines.append(f"`{cmd}` — {skill_cmds[cmd]['description']}")
+                if len(sorted_cmds) > 10:
+                    lines.append(f"\n... and {len(sorted_cmds) - 10} more. Use `/commands` for the full paginated list.")
         except Exception:
             pass
         return "\n".join(lines)
 
+    async def _handle_commands_command(self, event: MessageEvent) -> str:
+        """Handle /commands [page] - paginated list of all commands and skills."""
+        from hermes_cli.commands import gateway_help_lines
+
+        raw_args = event.get_command_args().strip()
+        if raw_args:
+            try:
+                requested_page = int(raw_args)
+            except ValueError:
+                return "Usage: `/commands [page]`"
+        else:
+            requested_page = 1
+
+        # Build combined entry list: built-in commands + skill commands
+        entries = list(gateway_help_lines())
+        try:
+            from agent.skill_commands import get_skill_commands
+            skill_cmds = get_skill_commands()
+            if skill_cmds:
+                entries.append("")
+                entries.append("⚡ **Skill Commands**:")
+                for cmd in sorted(skill_cmds):
+                    desc = skill_cmds[cmd].get("description", "").strip() or "Skill command"
+                    entries.append(f"`{cmd}` — {desc}")
+        except Exception:
+            pass
+
+        if not entries:
+            return "No commands available."
+
+        from gateway.config import Platform
+        page_size = 15 if event.source.platform == Platform.TELEGRAM else 20
+        total_pages = max(1, (len(entries) + page_size - 1) // page_size)
+        page = max(1, min(requested_page, total_pages))
+        start = (page - 1) * page_size
+        page_entries = entries[start:start + page_size]
+
+        lines = [
+            f"📚 **Commands** ({len(entries)} total, page {page}/{total_pages})",
+            "",
+            *page_entries,
+        ]
+        if total_pages > 1:
+            nav_parts = []
+            if page > 1:
+                nav_parts.append(f"`/commands {page - 1}` ← prev")
+            if page < total_pages:
+                nav_parts.append(f"next → `/commands {page + 1}`")
+            lines.extend(["", " | ".join(nav_parts)])
+        if page != requested_page:
+            lines.append(f"_(Requested page {requested_page} was out of range, showing page {page}.)_")
+        return "\n".join(lines)
+    
     async def _handle_provider_command(self, event: MessageEvent) -> str:
         """Handle /provider command - show available providers."""
         import yaml

hermes_cli/commands.py

@@ -118,6 +118,8 @@ COMMAND_REGISTRY: list[CommandDef] = [
                "Tools & Skills", cli_only=True),
 
     # Info
+    CommandDef("commands", "Browse all commands and skills (paginated)", "Info",
+               gateway_only=True, args_hint="[page]"),
     CommandDef("help", "Show available commands", "Info"),
     CommandDef("usage", "Show token usage for the current session", "Info"),
     CommandDef("insights", "Show usage insights and analytics", "Info",
@@ -361,6 +363,47 @@ def telegram_bot_commands() -> list[tuple[str, str]]:
     return result
 
 
+def telegram_menu_commands(max_commands: int = 100) -> tuple[list[tuple[str, str]], int]:
+    """Return Telegram menu commands (built-in + active skills), capped to the Bot API limit.
+
+    Built-in commands come first, then active skill commands.  Commands beyond
+    ``max_commands`` remain callable in the gateway; they are just omitted from
+    Telegram's native slash-command picker.
+
+    Returns:
+        (menu_commands, hidden_count) where hidden_count is the number of
+        commands omitted due to the cap.
+    """
+    all_commands = list(telegram_bot_commands())
+
+    # Append active BUILT-IN skill commands only (not user-installed hub skills).
+    # User-installed skills stay accessible via /skills and by typing the command
+    # directly, but don't clutter the Telegram menu.
+    try:
+        from agent.skill_commands import get_skill_commands
+        from pathlib import Path
+        # The repo's built-in skills live under <repo>/skills/
+        _repo_skills_dir = str(Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent / "skills")
+        skill_cmds = get_skill_commands()
+        for cmd_key in sorted(skill_cmds):
+            info = skill_cmds[cmd_key]
+            # Only include skills whose SKILL.md is in the repo's skills/ dir
+            skill_path = info.get("skill_md_path", "")
+            if not skill_path.startswith(_repo_skills_dir):
+                continue
+            name = cmd_key.lstrip("/").replace("-", "_")
+            desc = info.get("description", "")
+            # Telegram descriptions max 256 chars
+            if len(desc) > 256:
+                desc = desc[:253] + "..."
+            all_commands.append((name, desc))
+    except Exception:
+        pass
+
+    hidden_count = max(0, len(all_commands) - max_commands)
+    return all_commands[:max_commands], hidden_count
+
+
 def slack_subcommand_map() -> dict[str, str]:
     """Return subcommand -> /command mapping for Slack /hermes handler.