Mechanical Engineering Skills: An Open Library of Agent Skills for Design, Analysis and Manufacturing

Abstract

Mechanical engineers use specialized tools for CAD, simulation, manufacturing and research, each with a distinct interface and learning curve. We present Mechanical Engineering Skills, an open library of 33 agent skills that makes these capabilities accessible through a single text or voice conversation. Each skill combines operating instructions, executable tools and verification procedures. A language model interprets the request, selects and coordinates skills, while deterministic tools perform computations and return checked results. Default workflows require no tool-specific interface training, local model execution or model fine-tuning; skills load on demand and install with one command. Nineteen skills adapt published or preprint research from our laboratory, including text-to-CAD, linkage synthesis, CFD setup, stress-field and lattice surrogates, equation discovery, additive-manufacturing planning and in-process monitoring. Fourteen additional skills support core engineering and education. We describe the skill format, design principles and a method for translating research into practical workflows. Five case studies with explicit evidence scopes and independent reruns demonstrate exact analytical agreement for lattice homogenization, rocket apogee predictions within 4% of stored OpenRocket references, an equation fit nine times more accurate than a cubic polynomial at an unseen temperature, and an end-to-end rehearsal of porosity monitoring. Controlled agent comparisons remain future work. The open library is available at https://github.com/BaratiLab/mechanical-engineering-skills.