Add a skill

A skill is a saved set of instructions. Write it once, then hand it to any agent that needs it. It is a good way to avoid copying the same guidance into every agent.

Make a skill

A skill has a name, a short description, and its instructions:

skills.nt

skill estimation
  description: A checklist for guessing someone's age.
  instructions: |
    When guessing an age:
    1. Turn each clue into an approximate year.
    2. Match each year to a life stage, like school or retirement.
    3. Measure from those years to today.
    4. Settle any conflicts and pick one number.

Use a skill

List it under skills on an agent. Its instructions get added to the agent's own instructions:

agent age
  model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5
  skills:
    - estimation
  instructions: |
    Guess the person's age. Follow the estimation checklist.

What a skill needs

Setting	What it does
`description`	A short note about what the skill is for.
`instructions`	The reusable guidance, written in plain words.

Skills vs instructions

An agent's own instructions are personal to that agent. A skill is shared, so several agents can use the same one. Put agent-specific direction in instructions, and shared steps in a skill.

Give your agent tools

Add real powers like running commands.

Build a workflow

Run several steps in order.