Skills
Skills are short, ready-made procedures — how to summarise a thread, write a status update, compare options, or plan next steps. Your agents don’t read every skill on every message. They see a list of the skills available and load one only when the conversation or workflow needs it, so a skill costs nothing until it is used.
Open Settings → Skills to see the skills available in your workspace, grouped by category. Each one shows what it does and when an agent will use it.
Where skills are used
Section titled “Where skills are used”A skill reaches an agent when it is attached to a chat template or to a workflow step:
- Chat templates — attach skills from the template’s capabilities. The assistant, and any agent attached to the same template, can use them.
- Workflow steps — attach skills to an AI step’s capabilities. A capability step built around one skill always follows that skill.
Skills your workspace writes itself (in Capabilities) are listed too, under This workspace’s skills, and work the same way.
Who can change them
Section titled “Who can change them”Only the workspace owner can change skills. Other members can open the page and see the skills and what has been changed, but cannot edit them.
What you can change
Section titled “What you can change”| Change | What it does |
|---|---|
| Additional instructions | Text added after the skill’s built-in instructions whenever an agent loads it — for example, “Always name who made each decision.” The built-in instructions stay in place, so improvements to the skill still reach your workspace. Offered on built-in skills that allow it. |
| Hide this skill | The skill is no longer offered to your workspace’s agents. A workflow step built around a hidden skill stops with an error until you show it again. You can hide any skill, including your workspace’s own. |
| Revert to built-in | Removes your additional instructions and shows the skill again. |
You can’t replace a built-in skill’s own instructions. A skill written in your workspace is edited from Capabilities, where it was written; here it can only be hidden.
Your organization may lock some skills. A Locked skill can’t be changed or hidden in your workspace.
Changes apply to chats and workflows in your workspace within about 15 seconds.
History and undo
Section titled “History and undo”Every change is listed in the skill’s History: who made it, when, and whether the instructions were changed, the skill was hidden or shown again, or it was reverted or restored. Restore puts back what that change replaced.
Messages you might see
Section titled “Messages you might see”| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| Additional instructions aren’t allowed for this skill in this workspace. | This skill doesn’t accept additional instructions, or your organization has turned them off. |
| Your organization has locked this skill. | Nothing can be changed on this skill in your workspace, including hiding it. |
| Only the workspace owner can change skills. | Ask the owner of the workspace. |
| This workspace needs an active subscription to make changes. | Changes are paused until the workspace’s subscription is active again. You can still view the skills. |
Loading a skill adds its instructions to that conversation or workflow step, so it counts toward your workspace’s usage like the rest of the message. There is no separate charge for skills.
Developers can manage the same settings through the API reference.