> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://praison.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Load References • AI Agent SDK

> load_references: Load references from skill's references/ directory (Level 3).

# load\_references

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  <Badge color="purple">Method</Badge>
</div>

> This is a method of the [**SkillLoader**](../classes/SkillLoader) class in the [**loader**](../modules/loader) module.

Load references from skill's references/ directory (Level 3).

## Signature

```python theme={"theme":{"light":"vitesse-light","dark":"vitesse-dark"}}
def load_references(skill: LoadedSkill) -> dict
```

## Parameters

<ParamField query="skill" type="LoadedSkill" required={true}>
  LoadedSkill instance
</ParamField>

### Returns

<ResponseField name="Returns" type="dict">
  Dict mapping reference names to their contents
</ResponseField>

## Uses

* `refs_dir.exists`
* `refs_dir.is_dir`
* `refs_dir.iterdir`
* `ref_file.is_file`
* `ref_file.read_text`

## Used By

* [`SkillLoader.load_all_resources`](../functions/SkillLoader-load_all_resources)

## Source

<Card title="View on GitHub" icon="github" href="https://github.com/MervinPraison/PraisonAI/blob/main/src/praisonai-agents/praisonaiagents/skills/loader.py#L149">
  `praisonaiagents/skills/loader.py` at line 149
</Card>