Skip to main content

Skills

A skill is a set of instructions you save once so you never have to repeat yourself — your brand style, a report format, a step-by-step guide. Once a skill is in your library, the AI can use it everywhere you work: in regular chats, in App Builder, and on agents you link it to.

Skills load on demand. The AI sees the name and description of every skill available to it, and pulls in the full instructions only when a conversation calls for them, so responses stay fast and focused.

Key benefits​

  • Write once, use everywhere — One library powers chat, App Builder, and your agents.
  • Automatic — The AI discovers and applies the right skill on its own; you can also attach one explicitly.
  • Files included — Skills can bundle files (templates, reference documents, scripts) alongside their instructions.
  • Shareable — Organization admins can promote the best skills to an org-wide catalog that every member benefits from.

Your skills library​

Open My skills from the navigation to see every skill you own. From here you can create, search, and filter skills (by availability, or whether they include files), see which agents a skill is linked to, and edit or delete skills.

Creating a skill​

You can create a skill in four ways:

  • AI-assisted (recommended) — Click New and describe what you want the skill to do. The wizard generates a name, description, and instructions you can refine before saving.
  • Manually — Click New, then Skip, enter details manually, and fill in the fields yourself:
    • Name — a short slug (lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores), up to 100 characters.
    • Description — when the AI should use this skill, up to 300 characters. The AI relies on this to decide when the skill applies, so make it specific.
    • Instructions — what the AI should do when the skill is active, up to 50,000 characters.
  • Import from a file — Use the dropdown next to New to import .txt, .md, or .mdc files. Markdown frontmatter (name, description) pre-fills those fields.
  • From a conversation — While chatting, ask the AI to save what you worked out together as a skill (for example, "save this report format as a skill"). The AI proposes the skill and asks for your confirmation before anything is saved. You can also ask it to fetch a skill you found online and import it — the AI reviews what it imports and flags anything risky.

Skill files​

A skill can bundle up to 20 text files (templates, examples, reference material, small scripts). Add them on the skill's create or edit page.

When the AI loads a file-bundle skill in a chat that has a workspace (see below), the files are placed into the workspace so the AI can open, copy, and run them with its file tools. Without a workspace, file contents are inlined into the conversation with size limits — it works, but large bundles are truncated, so file-heavy skills work best with a workspace available.

Availability (surfaces)​

Each skill declares where it is available: Chat, Agents, App Builder, or any combination (all by default). A skill only appears — to you and to the AI — on the surfaces it's tagged for.

Using skills in chat and App Builder​

Once a skill is in your library and enabled, there is nothing to set up:

  1. The AI sees your skills — every enabled skill's name and description, on the surface you're using.
  2. It loads the right one on demand — when your request matches a skill, the AI pulls in the full instructions (and files) and follows them.

Attaching a skill explicitly​

If you want to be certain a skill is used, open the + menu next to the prompt and pick it from Skills. Attached skills are loaded on your next message — a touch of determinism on top of auto-discovery, and a good way to explore what's available. Skills remain auto-discoverable either way.

In App Builder, the picker is available both on the landing screen (before you create an app) and inside the builder.

The org skills catalog​

Organization admins can curate an org-approved catalog: skills promoted from members' personal libraries and shared with the whole organization.

For members​

Catalog skills appear automatically alongside your own:

  • in the skills picker, marked with an Org badge;
  • in the From your organization section on your My skills page;
  • in the AI's auto-discovery on every surface the skill is tagged for.

You can open any catalog skill to read exactly what it does (instructions and files) — click it from the picker or the My skills section.

If you want your own editable copy, fork it: the fork lands in your library under the same name and, from then on, takes priority over the org version for you (your personal skill always shadows a same-named catalog skill). If you already have a skill with that name, the fork gets a -fork suffix. Admin updates to the original no longer affect your fork.

For admins​

Admins manage the catalog from Org skills in the organization navigation:

  • Review any skill in the organization: filters by owner, availability, files, and catalog status; a read-only (or, with write permission, editable) detail view; and Analyze in chat, which stages the skill's full bundle into a sandboxed chat and pre-fills a security-review prompt covering prompt-injection, data exfiltration, dangerous code, and scope creep.
  • Promote a member's skill to the catalog. The confirmation spells out the consequences, and nudges you to run an analysis first.
  • While a skill is promoted, only admins can edit or delete it. The owner is locked out (they see an explanation and a pointer to their admins) because any edit applies org-wide immediately. Admin edits happen on the org skill detail page.
  • Disable a catalog entry to hide it from the organization without losing the promotion, or Remove it from the catalog to hand it back to its owner (linked agents keep their links).

Skills on agents​

Agents have their own skills tab where you link skills from your library — and, when your organization has a catalog, from the org catalog too (catalog skills must be tagged as available to Agents). Linked catalog skills stay in sync: admin updates flow to the agent automatically; fork the skill instead if you want a frozen, editable copy.

If a skill you're linking includes files and the agent doesn't have the Workspace tool, the link dialog warns you and offers to enable it — without a workspace, the skill's files are inlined with size limits.

See Agent skills for the full agent-side guide.

The Workspace tool​

The Workspace tool (formerly called Code) is the AI's private working area for files: it's what lets an agent create documents, spreadsheets, and reports, run code, and open skill file bundles properly. New agents get it by default (owners can disable it from the agent's tools page). You don't need to be technical to benefit — ask for what you want ("make me a budget spreadsheet", "turn these notes into a PDF report") and the AI builds it in its workspace.

Tips for writing effective skills​

  • Be specific in descriptions. The AI uses the description to decide when to load a skill. "Helps compose professional follow-up emails after meetings" beats "Email help."
  • Keep skills focused. One job per skill — separate skills for email drafting, meeting summaries, and status reports beat one catch-all.
  • Bundle real examples. A template file in the bundle is worth paragraphs of description.
  • Review before promoting. Admins: run Analyze in chat before sharing a skill org-wide, and again after significant edits.

Frequently asked questions​

  • Can I use the same skill across multiple agents? Yes. Skills live in your library and can be linked to any number of your agents. Org catalog skills can be linked by any member (when tagged for Agents).
  • What happens when my personal skill has the same name as a catalog skill? Yours wins — for you. The AI uses your copy, and the catalog entry shows as "In your library" instead of offering a fork.
  • Why can't I edit my skill anymore? An admin promoted it to the org catalog. While promoted, it's admin-managed because edits apply to everyone; ask an admin to make the change or to remove it from the catalog.
  • Do skills work without the Workspace tool? Yes — instructions always load, and file contents are inlined up to a size limit. Skills with large file bundles work best with a workspace.
  • Do people chatting with my agent need to know about skills? No. Skills run behind the scenes; the AI decides when to use each one.
⌘J