AI Server

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Working with files in opentrons-ai-server/
• Discussing the AI server API

Example prompts

• “Use the ai-server skill to convention for the opentrons-ai-server FastAPI service — project structure, uv dependency management, settings, testing…”
• “/ai-server”

Requirements

• Python 3
• Docker

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Add the field to the Settings class in api/settings.py (use SecretStr for secrets)
2. 2Add the value to your local .env file
3. 3Before deploying: add the value in AWS Secrets Manager under the environment's secret name
4. 4Re-deploy — the deploy script maps Settings fields to ECS container env vars automatically

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit a14fef9. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • make
  • uv
  • pytest
  • uvicorn

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use uv, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

AI Server loads about 2.5k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 60 tokens; SKILL.md has 816 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~60

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~2.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:81

  - **Locally**: values come from a `.env` file (gitignored)

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:85

  ttings()` directly) to avoid re-parsing `.env` on every import

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:93

  Generate a template `.env` from defaults: `make gen-env`

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:128

  | Run the Docker container (requires `.env` file)               |

• NoteMentions a .env fileSKILL.md:188

  2. Add the value to your local `.env` file

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Opentrons/opentrons at commit a14fef9, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© Opentrons). 816 words, ~2,499 tokens.

name

ai-server

description

Conventions for the opentrons-ai-server FastAPI service — project structure, uv dependency management, settings, testing, Docker, and deployment. Use when working with files in opentrons-ai-server/ or discussing the AI server API.

make setup                    # Install all deps (uv sync --frozen)
uv add <package>              # Add production dep
uv add --dev <package>        # Add dev-only dep
uv remove <package>           # Remove dep
uv lock                       # Re-resolve after manual pyproject.toml edits
uv run <command>              # Run inside the managed venv

opentrons-ai-server/
├── api/ # Application source code
│ ├── handler/ # FastAPI app, routes, middleware (fast.py entrypoint)
│ ├── domain/ # Business logic — LLM prediction (Anthropic, OpenAI)
│ ├── models/ # Pydantic request/response models
│ ├── services/ # File processing and other services
│ ├── integration/ # External integrations (Auth0, Google Sheets, AWS)
│ ├── constants/ # Shared constants
│ ├── data/ # Static data files
│ ├── storage/ # Stored API docs, indexes
│ ├── utils/ # API docs sync, curation, metadata helpers
│ └── settings.py # Pydantic Settings — all env vars and secrets
├── tests/
│ ├── conftest.py # Pytest fixtures and --env option
│ ├── helpers/ # Client, token helpers for live testing
│ └── test\_\*.py # Unit and live tests
├── deploy.py # ECS Fargate deployment script
├── Dockerfile
├── Makefile
├── pyproject.toml
└── uv.lock

make sync-api-docs              # regenerate api_docs_struct.md from curated about file
make check-api-docs-curation    # fail if curated entries and synced docs diverge

© Opentrons, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in .cursor/skills/ai-server of Opentrons/opentrons.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit a14fef9