Vellum Self-Knowledge

Critical Rule

Never answer from memory or general knowledge about Vellum. Always go to a source of truth. This skill contains zero static information — only pointers to where the truth lives.

Sources of Truth

1. The assistant CLI — Live Runtime State

The CLI is the single source of truth for anything about the running assistant's current state.

Question type	Command
Current model, provider, config	assistant config get llm
Full config	assistant config list
Config schema (what's configurable)	assistant config schema [path]
Available/installed skills	assistant skills list --json
Platform connection	assistant platform status --json
Auth/identity	assistant auth info --json
Connected OAuth providers	assistant oauth status <provider>
Connected clients	assistant clients list --json
Trust rules	assistant trust list
Stored credentials	assistant credentials list
API keys	assistant keys list
MCP servers	assistant mcp list
Watchers	assistant watchers list
Token usage/costs	assistant usage totals / assistant usage breakdown --group-by provider
Version	assistant --version

Run assistant --help or assistant <command> --help to discover more.

2. Vellum Docs Site — Conceptual Knowledge

For "what is", "how does", and "why" questions, fetch the relevant page from the docs site. Base URL: https://www.vellum.ai/docs

Topic	Path
What is Vellum	/getting-started/what-is-vellum
Installation	/getting-started/installation
Quick start	/getting-started/quick-start
Your first skill	/getting-started/your-first-skill
How it all fits together	/key-concepts/how-it-all-fits-together
The workspace	/key-concepts/the-workspace
Skills & tools	/key-concepts/skills-and-tools
Memory & context	/key-concepts/memory-and-context
Channels	/key-concepts/channels
Identity	/key-concepts/identity
Scheduling	/key-concepts/scheduling
Glossary	/key-concepts/glossary
Privacy & data	/trust-security/privacy-and-data
The permissions model	/trust-security/the-permissions-model
Security best practices	/trust-security/security-best-practices
Architecture	/developer-guide/architecture
Security (developer)	/developer-guide/security
Features & capabilities	/developer-guide/features
API & communication	/developer-guide/api
Development workflow	/developer-guide/development-workflow
Contributing	/developer-guide/contributing
Local hosting	/hosting-options/local-hosting
Advanced hosting	/hosting-options/advanced-options
Environments	/environments
Pricing	/pricing
Roadmap	/roadmap
FAQ	/help/faq
Common issues	/help/common-issues
Getting help	/help/getting-help
Skills reference index	/skills-reference
Specific skill reference	/skills-reference/<skill-name>

Use web_fetch to pull the page content. If a URL 404s, try fetching the docs homepage and navigating from the sidebar.

3. Source Code — Deep Implementation Details

For questions the docs and CLI can't answer (internal architecture, how a specific feature is implemented, source-level details):

1. Get the current version: assistant --version
2. The open source repo is at https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant
3. The release for version X is at https://github.com/vellum-ai/vellum-assistant/releases/tag/vX.Y.Z
4. Check out the matching tag locally: cd /workspace/vellum-assistant && git fetch --tags && git checkout v<version>
5. Key source locations:
   • assistant/ — Runtime (conversation loop, tool dispatch, memory, scheduling)
   • gateway/ — Ingress boundary (webhooks, Telegram, Twilio, reverse proxy)
   • clients/ — Native macOS client
   • skills/ — Bundled skill definitions
   • ARCHITECTURE.md — Cross-system index
   • assistant/ARCHITECTURE.md — Runtime internals
   • gateway/ARCHITECTURE.md — Gateway internals
   • assistant/docs/architecture/ — Detailed architecture docs (security, memory, etc.)
6. Read the relevant source files to answer the question.

Resolution Order

1. CLI first — if the question is about current state, config, or capabilities, the CLI has it.
2. Docs second — if the question is conceptual ("what is X", "how does Y work"), fetch the docs page.
3. Source code last — only for deep implementation questions that the docs don't cover.