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Skills give your agent structured reasoning for complex tasks. Where instructions shape how the agent sounds and what it’s allowed to do, a skill equips it to work through a harder, multi-step request in a consistent, repeatable way. Open Expertise → Skills from the agent sidebar. A new agent starts with No skills yet — you add the ones your agent needs.

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Prerequisites

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Add a skill

1

Open Skills

In the agent sidebar, go to Expertise → Skills.
2

Create a new skill

Select New Skill to open the builder and define the skill.
3

Describe the skill

Fill in the skill’s details (see the field reference below) — at minimum a Title and When to Use so the agent knows when to apply it.
4

Create and test

Select Create New Skill, then try a relevant, multi-step question in the Sandbox to confirm the agent reasons through it the way you expect.
The Create New Skill builder with Basic Information, Knowledge & Logic, and Constraints & Output sections.

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Skill builder reference

A skill is organized into three parts:
FieldWhat it does
TitleA short name for the skill (e.g. “Refund Eligibility Check”).
DescriptionA short summary of what the skill does.
When to UseDefines when the agent should activate this skill — e.g. “When the user asks whether an order qualifies for a refund.” (up to 300 characters)
FieldWhat it does
Domain KnowledgeStructured knowledge the agent needs for this skill. Supports Markdown and is delivered to the agent as one coherent block (not split up).
Reasoning StepsAn ordered list of steps the agent should follow. Use Add step to build the sequence.
FieldWhat it does
GuardrailsRules the agent must respect while using the skill. Use Add guardrail to add them.
Output FormatHow the answer should be structured (e.g. Free Form).
Skills vs. Instructions vs. Knowledge. Instructions set the agent’s overall persona and rules; your knowledge base supplies facts to retrieve; a skill packages a specific, multi-step procedure (when to use it, the knowledge it needs, the steps, and guardrails) so the agent handles that task consistently.

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Tips

  • Reach for a skill when a request needs several reasoning steps — not just a lookup in your knowledge base.
  • Keep each skill focused on one task so it stays predictable, and re-test in the Sandbox after adding or changing it.

Write instructions

Add knowledge

Test your agent