Deep Links

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Asking about deep link features (toolhive-gui:// protocol)
• Adding new deep link intents
• Understanding the deep link architecture
• Platform/packaging support

Example prompts

• “/deep-links”

Requirements

• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

Workflow steps

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

1. 1Protocol registration: On app start, app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient('toolhive-gui') registers the protocol. On Windows with Squirrel…
2. 2URL extraction: On Windows/Linux, the URL arrives in process.argv. extractDeepLinkFromArgs() scans for the first toolhive-gui:// argument…
3. 3Parse + validate: parseDeepLinkUrl() parses the URL and runs it through the Zod discriminated union schema defined in…
4. 4Window ready: waitForMainWindowReady() polls until the window is visible and not loading before dispatching.
5. 5Dispatch: resolveDeepLinkTarget() converts the validated intent to a NavigateTarget, which is sent to the renderer via the…
6. 6Renderer: The renderer listens for deep-link-navigation and calls navigate(target).

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 87f7a55. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Grep
  • Glob
  • Bash

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are typescript and bash).

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

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  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

Deep Links loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~8.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 63 tokens; SKILL.md has 546 words of instructions outside code blocks.

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

~63

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

~1.6k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~8.8k

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

• NotePre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: Bash)SKILL.md

  allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

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 stacklok/toolhive-studio at commit 87f7a55, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© stacklok). 546 words, ~1,613 tokens.

name

deep-links

description

Deep links in ToolHive Studio. Use when implementing, debugging, or asking about deep link features (toolhive-gui:// protocol), adding new deep link intents, understanding the deep link architecture, IPC model, or platform/packaging support.

allowed-tools

Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

toolhive-gui://v1/<intent>[?<query>]

// 1. Define the new intent using v1DeepLink()
export const myNewIntent = v1DeepLink({
  intent: 'my-new-intent', // kebab-case, matches URL path segment
  params: z.object({
    someParam: safeIdentifier, // use safeIdentifier for user-supplied strings
  }),
  navigate: (params) => ({
    to: '/some-route/$id', // TanStack Router route
    params: { id: params.someParam },
  }),
})

// 2. Add to allDeepLinks array
const allDeepLinks = [
  openRegistryServerDetail,
  showNotFound,
  myNewIntent,
] as const

// 3. Add to deepLinkSchema discriminated union
export const deepLinkSchema = z.discriminatedUnion('intent', [
  openRegistryServerDetail.schema,
  showNotFound.schema,
  myNewIntent.schema, // ← add here
])

./node_modules/.bin/electron . "toolhive-gui://v1/my-new-intent?someParam=value"

© stacklok, 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

SKILL.md and 3 other files (references) in .codex/skills/deep-links of stacklok/toolhive-studio.

• SKILL.md
• references/design.md
• references/os-and-packaging.md
• references/patterns.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 87f7a55