Skills
What it is
A Skill is know-how written once and used by many Agents: the refund process, the brand voice, how to read a waybill. It is plain text with no side effects. An Agent that has the Skill sees only its description and opens the full text when a request matches. Find Skills in the left menu under Build → Skills.
Key concepts
- Skill name — how people find it in lists.
- Description — one or two sentences saying when the Skill applies ("Use when a customer asks for a refund."). Agents read only this line to decide whether to open the Skill, so describe the situations, not the content.
- Body — the steps an Agent follows, in Markdown: when it applies, the steps in order, rules with their numbers, wording to use, and when to hand over to a person.
- Tools in this skill — Tools mentioned in the body with
@. An Agent that has the Skill gets these Tools too. A Tool that only the Skill brings keeps its default approval: it asks a person before it runs when it writes data and FLAE recommends approving it. - Agents using this — the Agents whose draft or production version has the Skill.
- Skill vs Tool vs instructions — a Skill teaches how to think, write or apply a policy; a Tool reads or changes data in a system; a few facts that only one Agent needs belong in that Agent's instructions.
How it works
A Skill has one draft and one published copy, not numbered versions.
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Never published. Agents cannot choose it yet. |
| Published | Agents that chose it use the published text. |
| Unpublished changes | Published, and the draft has been edited since. Agents still use the published text. |
| Archived | Read-only. Agents using it stop seeing it. |
- Create skill makes a draft named "New skill" and opens it.
- Edit the name, description and body, then Save changes. Saving changes only the draft.
- Publish copies the saved draft to the published copy. The dialog lists the Agents that use the Skill; they use the new text on their next turn. No change to those Agents is needed.
- Archive hides the Skill from every Agent that uses it. Restore brings it back as Published (or Draft if it was never published).
On an Agent, the Skill is used like this: the Agent sees each chosen Skill's description, opens the body when a request matches, and gets the Tools the body mentions.
Common tasks
Write a Skill
- Go to Skills and press Create skill.
- Rename it in Skill name.
- Write the Description: when an Agent should use it.
- Write the Body. Type
@to mention a published Tool where a step uses it ("Look the order up with @…"). - Press Save changes, then Publish.
Give a Skill to an Agent
- Publish the Skill first; a draft cannot be chosen ("Publish this skill before selecting it.").
- Open the Agent in the Agent builder. In the Skills card, press Add skill and pick it.
- Save and publish the Agent. See Agents.
Change a Skill that Agents already use
Edit and Save changes: Agents keep using the published text. Press Publish when ready; every Agent that has the Skill switches to the new text on its next turn.
Limits and rules
- Who can do what: Workspace Admins and Builders (and Organization Owners and Admins) create, edit, publish, archive and restore Skills. Other members can view them. Nothing can be changed in an archived Workspace.
- Publish needs a description and a body.
- Description: up to 500 characters. Body: up to 20,000 characters. Name: up to 255 characters.
- Every
@mention must be a Tool of this Workspace. - An Agent has at most 20 Tools in all, counting the Tools its Skills mention. A publish or restore that would push an Agent over that limit is refused and names the Agents ("This skill would put these agents over their tool limit: …"); remove Tools from the Skill or the Agent.
- An Agent can choose at most 20 Skills.
- Skills cannot be deleted; archive them instead.
- The Assistant can write and change draft Skills, but only a person publishes them, in the app.
- A Skill cannot be tested on its own; test it through an Agent that has it, in the Agent's Test tab.