When the same workflow needs explaining again and again, package it as a skill.
What a skill is
A skill is reusable instructions that tell the agent how to handle a particular kind of task. It turns “explain it every time” into “invoke it once”.
Using a skill
Invoke it by name in the conversation. The agent follows the workflow defined in the skill, so you do not have to restate it.
Good fits:
- Recurring tasks, such as producing a kind of report or running a fixed code review
- A standard practice shared by a team
- A long instruction set where only part is relevant each time
Subdirectories and skill packs
Skills can be grouped in subdirectories. The skill name is the relative /-separated path: copy/brand.md is the skill copy/brand.
When a directory contains SKILL.md, the whole directory counts as one skill pack. The skill name is the directory name; invoking it injects only SKILL.md, while sibling files stay available as companion files that the agent reads on demand. The picker shows a pack as one entry (with a directory icon); companions are not listed, but searching a companion name still finds the pack, and [skill:pack/companion] mounts a single file manually. This suits long workflows: keep the entry point small and load detail only when needed.
Always-on skills
A skill invoked with / applies to the current turn only. To keep one across turns, pin it:
- Session level: the always-on skill bar above the input. Skills declaring
pin: true appear there; clicking one enables it for this session and injects it every turn until you turn it off or switch sessions.
- Project level: the “Skills” tab in project settings. Pinning there applies to every session under that project and is shared by everyone using that project directory.
The three layers coexist: a one-off [skill:xxx] marker, session pins and project pins are merged and de-duplicated each turn. The context panel’s “skill content” section shows exactly what was injected and how many tokens it used.
To appear in the always-on bar, a skill declares pin: true in frontmatter (declaring it does not enable it; you still turn it on):
---
name: soil-conservation
description: …
pin: true
---
Encrypted skills (.skl) under the skills directory are decrypted when read, so companion files work in encrypted deliveries too.