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What is an agent skill?

You explain your business once. The agent remembers it forever.

Skills are how an agent learns your way of doing things: written once, in plain words, loaded only when the job needs them. No code here either.

A skill is a note on a shelf

A skill is a short written document your agent keeps on a shelf. It has two parts: a label saying when to use it, and the actual know-how. The agent reads the shelf labels all the time, but only opens a document when the job matches. That is the whole invention: the agent does not carry everything in its head. It knows where everything is.

Why an agent needs them

Agents forget

A conversation ends and everything you explained in it is gone. A skill survives. The same rules, word for word, tomorrow and next year.

written once, true every day
Attention costs money

An agent that carries everything all the time pays for it on every single task. Shelf labels are almost free; the agent only pays for what it opens.

the label is read always, the body only when needed
The right knowledge at the right moment

A good label means your pricing rules appear when a customer asks about prices, and stay out of the way the rest of the day.

the label decides everything

How to write one

In plain language, like everything else on this site. Most agent tools support some version of this: a folder of small documents the agent can load. The pattern is always the same.

  1. One job per skill. "How I quote kitchen jobs" beats "Everything about my business". Small documents get found; big ones get skimmed.
  2. The label is the trigger. One line: when to use this, and when not to. A vague label means the skill is never found, which is the same as not existing.
  3. Write rules, not essays. Short lines the agent can follow: prices, hours, the exact words you use, the things it must never say.
  4. Point at things that change. "The current price list lives here" stays true forever. A pasted price list goes stale the day you raise prices.
  5. Test it like a new employee. Ask the agent a question the skill should cover. What it gets wrong goes in. What it never uses comes out.

A skill, written out

Here is one for the WhatsApp support agent from the agents page. Fill in the brackets with your own words.

name: answering-my-customers use this when: a customer asks about prices, hours or bookings. not for: complaints. Those go to me, always. - Opening hours: [your hours]. Closed [days]. - A normal job costs [price range]. Never give an exact price in chat. Say it depends on [what it depends on]. - We can usually start within [lead time]. - Always end by offering a booking: [how they book]. - Tone: friendly, short sentences, no emojis. - If someone is upset, stop and hand the chat to me.

A skill is not code

Look at what that example is: a note you could have pinned to the wall for a new hire. That is the point. If you can write down how you want something done, you can teach an agent to do it. The person who knows the business writes the skill. Nobody needs to know how the agent works inside.

The agent itself is the bigger build. Skills are how you make it yours.

What an agent can actually do Back to the start