#001 · Skills
A prompt you keep repeating should be a skill
A skill is a set of instructions kept in a file that the agent loads when the task calls for it. It lives in a folder under .agents/skills/ in your project, or under ~/.agents/skills/ to apply everywhere.
How to create one
Create a folder named after the skill and, inside it, a SKILL.md:
.agents/skills/weekly-summary/SKILL.md---
name: weekly-summary
description: Summarizes the week's notes into a short email for the team. Use when asked for the weekly summary.
---
Read the notes in the notes/ folder from the last 7 days.
Write an email of at most 8 lines covering what shipped,
what got stuck and what is coming next week.
Direct tone, no jargon.Then just ask: “do the weekly summary”.
What matters in the description
The description decides when the skill comes in. Say what it does and when to use it, in the words you would use to ask for it. Vague description, skill that never gets called.
When it isn’t worth it
A prompt you use once doesn’t need to be a skill. Rule of thumb: the third time you paste the same text, it becomes a file.
Frequently asked questions
Is a skill the same as a system prompt?
No. A system prompt applies to the whole conversation. A skill only comes in when the task matches its description, so you can have many of them without bloating the context.
Does it work with any agent?
The folder name and format can vary from one tool to another. The principle is the same: fixed instructions in a file, loaded when the task calls for them.