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Version: v2.0

Manage skills

A skill is a short handbook the agent loads when it needs it. This page covers adding one you already have, writing one from scratch, and writing the description that decides when the agent reaches for it. For how skills are loaded, see Skills.

Open the New skill dialog​

  1. In the playground, set Playground mode to Build.
  2. In the Configuration column, find Skills. Its summary reads None when the agent has no skills yet.
  3. Click Add skill.

Add skill goes straight to an authoring form titled New skill. There is no catalog of existing skills to browse, so a skill comes either from a folder you already have or from what you write here.

Add a skill you already have​

If you have a skill as a folder or an archive, drop it on the target inside the dialog that reads Drag a skill folder, .zip, or .skill here, or click Browse files. Skills are plain folders in a format shared across the agent ecosystem, so a skill written for another tool works here.

The dialog fills itself in from what you dropped:

  • Name and Description come from the YAML frontmatter at the top of SKILL.md.
  • Everything after the frontmatter becomes the SKILL.md body.
  • Any files sitting beside SKILL.md come in as supporting files, keeping their relative paths.

The SKILL.md body is plain text, so you can read exactly what you are handing the agent before you click Create.

If you have the text but not the folder, paste a whole SKILL.md, frontmatter included, anywhere in the dialog. It fills the same fields.

Write a skill from scratch​

Fill in three fields:

FieldWhat to put in it
NameLowercase words joined by hyphens, such as refund-request.
DescriptionWhen the agent should reach for this skill. See the next section.
SKILL.mdThe steps the agent follows. Imperative, numbered where order matters.

A short one, end to end:

# Handling a refund request

1. Look up the account in the billing app and read the plan and the start date.
2. A refund is in scope when the request is within 30 days of the last charge and
   the account has had no prior refund.
3. Up to $200 you can decide. Above that, draft the reply and tell me it needs
   Dana's sign-off before it goes out.
4. Reply in the customer's own language. Lead with the decision, then the reason,
   then the date the money lands.

Click Create, then Commit in the Configuration header to make the skill part of a version.

Write the description​

The description is the only part of the skill the agent sees before it decides to use it, so it decides whether the skill fires. Name the situations the agent can recognize, not the subject the skill is about.

A description that gives the agent something to match against:

Use when a customer asks for a refund, a credit, or to cancel mid-term. Covers the eligibility check, the amount you can approve without a manager, and how to word the reply.

A description that names the subject and nothing else:

Our refund policy.

The second one is accurate and the agent still has no situation to match it to, so the skill sits unused while the agent improvises the task.

Keep the description to a sentence or two, since it is sent on every turn. The body is read only once the skill fires, so it can be as long as the task needs.

Add supporting files​

The Files column on the left of the dialog holds SKILL.md plus anything else the skill needs, such as a template or an example output. Click Add file to add one, and refer to it by name from SKILL.md.

The two toggles​

ToggleEffect
Hide from promptThe skill is not listed to the agent, so it never picks the skill on its own. It runs only when invoked by name.
Allow executable filesBundled files may be executed. The sandbox policy in Advanced must also allow execution.

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