Skills

What skills are

Think of skills as extra pages in an instruction manual. The system prompt tells the agent who it is and how to behave in general. Skills give it detailed knowledge on specific topics — like how to call a particular API, how to handle refunds, or what tone to use when writing marketing copy.

You write a skill once and attach it to any number of agents. When you update the skill, every agent that uses it picks up the change automatically.

How skills work with the system prompt

The system prompt is your agent's core identity — it's sent with every message. Skills provide additional context that the agent can reference when it needs to.

The key pattern: in your system prompt, you tell the agent when to use each skill. The skill itself contains the detailed instructions for that situation.

System prompt:
  "You are a support agent for Acme Inc.
   When the user asks about returns, follow the Returns Policy skill.
   When the user asks about billing, follow the Billing FAQ skill."

Skills attached:
  ├─ Returns Policy    (detailed refund steps, eligibility rules, edge cases)
  └─ Billing FAQ       (plan tiers, upgrade flow, invoice questions)

This way your system prompt stays short and focused, while the agent still has access to deep context whenever a specific topic comes up.

What to put in a skill

Skills can contain any kind of instructions or reference material. Common use cases:

• API documentation — endpoints, parameters, authentication, example requests and responses. Tell the agent how to call your APIs or third-party services.
• Procedures — step-by-step instructions for handling specific situations (e.g. processing a refund, escalating a ticket, onboarding a new user).
• Behavioral rules — tone, formatting, what to say and what to avoid in specific contexts.
• Domain knowledge — product specs, pricing tables, feature comparisons, FAQs — anything the agent might need to reference.
• Tool calling instructions — how to use specific tools, what parameters to pass, when to use which tool, and what to do with the results.

Skills vs system prompts

Both influence how the agent behaves, but they serve different roles:

See System Prompts for more on how to write effective system prompts.

Example

A skill that teaches the agent how to handle order lookups via an API:

# Order Lookup

## When to use
The user asks about their order status, shipment tracking, or delivery date.

## API endpoint
GET https://api.acme.com/v1/orders/{order_id}
Authorization: Bearer {API_KEY}

## Response fields
- status: pending | shipped | delivered | cancelled
- tracking_url: shipment tracking link (null if not shipped)
- estimated_delivery: ISO date string

## How to respond
1. Ask the user for their order number if they haven't provided it
2. Call the API with the order ID
3. If status is "shipped", include the tracking link
4. If status is "pending", tell them the estimated ship date
5. Never share raw API responses — summarize in plain language

Create a skill

Open the Skills page in the dashboard and click New Skill.

Attach skills to agents

Once created, attach a skill to an agent in the agent's configuration page. A single agent can use multiple skills, and a single skill can be shared across multiple agents.

After attaching, reference the skill in your system prompt so the agent knows when to use it. Without a reference, the agent still has access but may not use it at the right time.

Managing skills

All skill management happens in the dashboard:

• Edit — select a skill from the list to update its content, name, or tags
• Delete — requires typing the skill name to confirm (prevents accidental removal)
• Tags — help you organize skills when you have many; filter by tag in the list