Agent skill · operations · sickn33
nika
Runs repeatable AI work as checked, budgeted workflow files.
Why this skill is useful
Adds executable YAML workflow files for repeatable AI tasks with auditing and cost control that the AI cannot generate on its own.
What it needs
Requires nika installed locally. About 6k tokens when loaded. Last updated 2026-08-07. 44,571 stars on the source repository.
What this skill does
Nika Skill Use Nika as a deterministic workflow worker orchestrated by the Hermes terminal tool. Nika is an open-source (AGPL) Rust engine that captures a repeatable AI task as a plain-text .nika.yaml file, audits it before a single token is spent (plan, cost floor, secret flows, types), executes it against local or cloud providers (Ollama/llama.cpp/vLLM included), and records a tamper-evident trace. Division of labor: Hermes orchestrates · Nika captures repeatable work as a checkable file and runs it with receipts. Nika is NOT another coding agent — for autonomous coding, use the opencode skill. Delegate to Nika when the work should be repeatable, budgeted, and auditable. When to Use The user asks to run, check, or author a .nika.yaml workflow A task will be repeated (daily digest, triage, ETL, report, multi-step LLM pipeline) — capture it as a workflow instead of re-prompting The user wants a hard cost cap, a cost estimate before running, or receipts/audit of what ran A pipeline mixes models/providers (local + cloud) or mixes LLM steps with shell/HTTP/file steps The user wants a run they can replay, verify, or reproduce later When NOT to use One-off questions or single tool calls — just answer or use a tool Autonomous code implementation/refactoring/PR review — use the opencode skill Interactive back-and-forth tasks — workflows are non-interactive by design Prerequisites Nika installed: brew install supernovae-st/tap/nika — other install paths (script, manual download) are documented at https://nika.sh: installing is a human step, not something this skill runs Verify: terminal(command="nika --version") Zero keys needed for local/offline work: --model mock/echo (offline) and --model ollama/... …
How to use it
Reference it in AdaL, Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent — nothing to install:
@skills sickn33/nika