Start narrow

Your first skill should be small. "Fetch a specific item from a specific shelf" is a better first skill than "housekeep my whole kitchen". A narrow skill that works reliably teaches you the platform; a broad skill that fails teaches you frustration.

How to read a listing

The important parts of any GeraSkills listing:

What this skill does. Should be one or two sentences.
What this skill doesn’t do. Honest scoping. Absence of a "doesn’t do" section is a yellow flag.
Environment requirements. Lighting, floor type, clutter tolerance, specific fixtures.
Permissions. Actuators, sensors, rooms, internet.
Fail-safes. What happens if a human enters the action zone, if the battery drops, if the network fails.
Compatibility. Specific robots and firmware versions. Outdated compatibility means the skill may not work with recent firmware.
Reviews. Weighted by verified-purchase recency.

Trust badges

Three badges to look for:

Signed. Every legitimate skill has this; absence means the skill failed cryptographic signing and shouldn’t be installed.
Reviewed. The skill passed the GeraSkills safety-review process. Every skill in the public catalogue has this.
Verified Creator. The creator passed identity verification. For skills that touch sharp objects, cooking, pets, or children, we recommend buying only from Verified Creators.

Badges are a floor, not a ceiling. A signed, reviewed, verified skill can still be a bad fit for your home — if it assumes a different floor plan, it doesn’t matter how trusted the creator is.

Start with cheap skills from high-reputation creators

Creators with strong track records (high retention, low refund rate, active support) are worth a small premium. Cheap is not always better; a £0.99 skill by an untested creator is usually worse value than a £4.99 skill by a verified creator with 50+ positive reviews.

How installing works

Buy a skill; it downloads to your robot over Wi-Fi; the robot verifies the signature and installs into a sandbox. Before first run, the robot asks for your explicit confirmation of the permissions. Say no to anything you don’t recognise.

How to revoke

Every installed skill shows in the robot’s skill manager. Tap to revoke, uninstall, or restrict permissions. Revoking is instant; the skill can’t run again without your reauthorisation.

Refunds

14-day refund if the skill doesn’t match its listed behaviour. The process: in the skill manager, tap "Request refund", describe what didn’t work, submit. Creators can respond to try to fix the issue; if that fails, GeraSkills arbitrates. Verified-purchase refunds are approved unless the listing’s scoping was clearly matched.

Safety red flags

A skill asks for broader permissions than the listed task needs.
The listing is vague about environment assumptions.
No fail-safes listed for skills near humans or pets.
Negative reviews mentioning property damage, pet distress, or near-misses with humans — take these very seriously.

Budget guidance

A realistic first-year budget for a home-robot enthusiast is £50-£200 in skills. Expect to buy narrower skills that do specific jobs well rather than one big skill that claims to do everything. The latter is almost always worse value.

Choosing Skills for Your Home Robot: A Beginner’s Guide