Agent skills

Agent skills are reusable sets of instructions that give your agent specialized capabilities. Think of them as ready-made solutions, such as drafting emails, summarizing meetings, or organizing documents that your agent can load on demand during a conversation. Skills keep your agent's core instructions focused while allowing it to handle a wide range of tasks.

Unlike putting everything in your agent's main instructions, skills load only when they are needed. Your agent stays efficient and responsive, pulling in the right expertise at the right moment.

Key benefits

• On-demand loading—Skills activate only when the conversation calls for them, so your agent stays fast and focused.
• Reusable—You can link a single skill to multiple agents across your organization.
• Easy to create—Write skills yourself, import them from a file, or let an agent generate them for you.
• Manageable—Enable, disable, edit, or delete skills at any time without affecting the rest of your agent's configuration.

Getting started

1. Open your agent in the agent editor.
2. Click on the Skills tab in the editor tool bar.

You will see every skill linked to your agent, along with options to create, import, search, and manage them.

Each skill card shows the skill name, a status badge (Enabled or Disabled), a short description, and when it was last modified. Use the search bar at the top to filter skills by name, description, or content.

Creating a skill

You can create a new skill in three ways:

AI-assisted creation (recommended)

The Skill Wizard helps you generate a complete skill from a short description.

1. On the Skills page, click New.
2. In the Skill Wizard, describe what you want the skill to do (for example, "Help users write professional follow-up emails after meetings").
3. Click Generate.
4. Review the suggested name, description, and instructions.
5. Refine the generated content as needed.
6. Click Save.

Manual creation

1. On the Skills page, click New.
2. Click Skip, enter details manually to bypass the wizard.
3. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name—A short identifier using lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores (for example, email-drafter). Maximum 100 characters.
   • Description—A brief summary of when the agent should use this skill. Maximum 300 characters.
   • Instructions—The detailed instructions the agent follows when the skill is active. Maximum 10,000 characters. Write these as if you are telling the agent exactly how to perform the task.
4. Click Save.

Import from file

You can import skill definitions from text or Markdown files.

1. On the Skills page, click the dropdown arrow next to New, then select Import from file.
2. Choose a .txt, .md, or .mdc file from your computer.
3. The file content is parsed and used to pre-fill the skill form:
   • Plain text files (.txt)—The entire file becomes the skill instructions. You need to add a name and description yourself.
   • Markdown files (.md, .mdc)—If the file includes frontmatter (the section between --- markers at the top), the name and description fields are taken from it. The rest becomes the instructions. If there is no frontmatter, the first heading is used as the name.
4. Review and adjust the pre-filled form as needed.
5. Click Save.

Example Markdown skill file:

---
name: email-drafter
description: Helps compose professional emails
---

# Email Drafting Instructions

When asked to write an email, follow these guidelines:

1. Start with an appropriate greeting
2. Keep the tone professional but friendly
3. Be concise and clear
4. End with a clear call to action
5. Include a professional sign-off

Managing skills

Editing a skill

1. Click the skill card you want to edit.
2. Update any of the fields (name, description, or instructions).
3. Click Save to apply your changes, or Revert to undo your edits and restore the last saved version.

You can also use the Wizard while editing by clicking Show AI Wizard to regenerate any of the fields.

Enabling and disabling skills

You can turn skills on or off without deleting them. A disabled skill stays linked to your agent but is not available during conversations.

1. Find the skill you want to toggle.
2. Click the menu icon (three dots) on the skill card.
3. Select Enable or Disable.

The status badge on the skill card updates immediately.

Deleting a skill

1. Click the menu icon on the skill card.
2. Select Delete.
3. Confirm deletion.

Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

How skills work during conversations

Once you have set up and enabled skills, they run automatically. You do not need to do anything extra when you chat with your agent.

1. Your agent sees available skills—When a conversation starts, your agent knows about every enabled skill (names and descriptions).
2. Your agent chooses when to use a skill—From the conversation, your agent decides whether a skill applies. For example, if someone asks, "Can you help me draft a follow-up email?", your agent can match the email-drafter skill.
3. The skill loads on demand—Your agent loads the full instructions from the relevant skill and follows them.
4. The reply follows the skill—Whoever is chatting gets a reply shaped by that skill's instructions, which improves quality for specialized tasks.

All of this happens in the background: the person chatting asks a question, and your agent applies the right skill automatically.

Example

Say your agent has two skills enabled: email-drafter and meeting-summarizer.

• Someone asks: "Summarize the key points from today's standup." → Your agent loads the meeting-summarizer skill and structures the summary accordingly.
• They then ask: "Draft a follow-up email to the team about the action items." → Your agent loads the email-drafter skill and follows its guidelines for composing the email.

Tips for writing effective skills

• Be specific in descriptions. Your agent uses the description to decide when to load a skill. A clear description such as "Helps compose professional follow-up emails after meetings" works better than "Email help."
• Write detailed instructions. Include specific steps, formatting guidelines, tone requirements, and examples of good output.
• Keep skills focused. Each skill should do one thing well. Instead of one large skill for "all communication tasks," create separate skills for email drafting, meeting summaries, and status reports.
• Use the AI wizard as a starting point. Let the wizard generate an initial draft, then refine the instructions to match what you need.
• Test and iterate. After you create a skill, try it in a conversation. If the results are not what you expect, adjust the instructions.

Frequently asked questions

• Can I use the same skill across multiple agents?

  Skills are linked to individual agents. You can export a skill as a file and import it into other agents.

• What happens if I disable a skill?

  Your agent stops using that skill in conversations. It stays in your list and you can turn it back on at any time.

• Is there a limit to how many skills an agent can have?

  There is no hard limit. For best performance, keep skills focused and enable only the ones your agent needs.

• Do users need to know about skills to use the agent?

  No. Skills run behind the scenes. People chat with your agent as usual, and your agent decides when to use each skill.

• What file formats can I use for importing skills?

  You can import .txt, .md, and .mdc files. Markdown files with frontmatter provide the best import experience.