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Agent Skills

Agent Skills are reusable sets of instructions that give your AI agent specialized capabilities. Think of them as ready-made talents — like 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 adding everything to an agent's main instructions, skills are loaded only when needed. This means your agent stays efficient and responsive, pulling in the right expertise at the right moment.

Key Benefits​

  • On-demand loading — Skills are activated only when the conversation calls for them, keeping your agent fast and focused.
  • Reusable — A single skill can be linked to multiple agents across your organization.
  • Easy to create — Write skills manually, import them from a file, or let AI 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 the Skills tab in the editor navigation bar.

You will see a list of all skills currently associated with 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 brief 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​

There are three ways to create a new skill:

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

  1. On the Skills page, click New.
  2. In the Skill Creation Wizard, describe what you want the skill to do (e.g., "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 AI wizard.
  3. Fill in the required fields:
    • Name — A short identifier using lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores (e.g., 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 activated. 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 will need to add a name and description manually.
    • Markdown files (.md, .mdc) — If the file includes frontmatter (the section between --- markers at the top), the name and description fields are extracted 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 on 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 AI Wizard while editing by clicking Show AI Wizard to regenerate any of the fields.

Enabling and Disabling Skills​

Skills can be toggled on or off without deleting them. A disabled skill remains linked to the agent but will not be 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 the deletion in the dialog.

Deleting a skill removes it permanently and cannot be undone.

How Skills Work During Conversations​

Once skills are set up and enabled, they work automatically — no extra effort from the person chatting with the agent.

  1. The agent sees available skills — When a conversation starts, your agent is aware of all enabled skills (their names and descriptions).
  2. The agent decides when to use a skill — Based on the conversation context, the agent determines if a skill is relevant. For example, if a user asks "Can you help me draft a follow-up email?", the agent recognizes that the email-drafter skill matches.
  3. The skill is loaded on demand — The agent loads the full instructions from the relevant skill and follows them.
  4. The response reflects the skill — The user receives a response guided by the skill's detailed instructions, resulting in higher-quality output for specialized tasks.

This all happens seamlessly — the user simply asks their question, and the agent applies the right skill automatically.

Example​

Imagine you have an agent with two skills enabled: email-drafter and meeting-summarizer.

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

Tips for Writing Effective Skills​

  • Be specific in descriptions. The agent uses the description to decide when to load a skill. A clear description like "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 AI generate an initial draft, then refine the instructions based on your needs.
  • Test and iterate. After creating a skill, try it out in a conversation. If the results aren't what you expect, adjust the instructions.

Frequently Asked Questions​

Can I use the same skill across multiple agents? Skills are linked to individual agents. However, you can export a skill as a file and import it into other agents.

What happens if I disable a skill? The agent will no longer use that skill during conversations. It remains in your list and can be re-enabled 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 only enable the ones your agent actively needs.

Do users need to know about skills to use the agent? No. Skills work behind the scenes. Users interact with the agent normally, and the 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.

⌘J