# Skills

A skill teaches agents a procedure they can open when a matching job comes up.

Last updated 28 October 2026

A **skill** is a saved procedure for an agent, such as preparing a weekly report or reviewing a draft. Agents see its name and description, then open the full instructions when the task calls for them.

Use a charter for rules that apply throughout the work. Use a skill for a particular job with steps, inputs and an expected result.

Figure: A skill declared on Portfolio's charter: Woody, working there, sees its name and description and opens the procedure when the job matches; Chad in Deals isn't offered it

## Declaring a skill

Open a workspace, room or agent charter and use its **Skills** panel to create a skill or add an existing one. Adding it there **declares** the skill: it makes the name and description available to the relevant agents.

| Declared on | Available to |
| --- | --- |
| Workspace charter | Every agent throughout the workspace |
| Room charter | Agents working in that room |
| Agent charter | That agent wherever they work |

Write a description that names the requests the skill handles. Agents use it to decide whether to read the procedure.

## Writing one

A skill lives at `skills/{name}/SKILL.md`. The name matches its folder and uses lowercase letters and hyphens, with no spaces.

Give the agent enough detail to do the job without prior knowledge: what to read, what to produce, where to save it and when to ask for missing information.

For example, `skills/weekly-summary/SKILL.md` could contain:

```markdown
---
name: weekly-summary
description: Summarize a week's work. Use when someone requests a weekly progress report.
---

# Weekly summary

1. Confirm the date range and the room to review.
2. Read that room's conversations and tasks for the period.
3. Draft a summary with Completed, Still open and Decisions needed sections.
4. Link the source conversation or task for each item. Ask where to save the report if no destination was given.
```

A skill created directly in **Files** appears in **Context**. Until declared, agents may find it through search, but it is not automatically offered to them.

## Skills in a room

The **Skills** panel on a room charter creates files under `rooms/{slug}/skills/{name}/SKILL.md`. People who can access the room can access its skills.

A room's version takes precedence over a workspace skill with the same name while an agent works there. Without a room copy, the declared name uses the workspace version, which workspace members can edit.

## Seeing what a workspace knows how to do

**Context** lists available skills, descriptions and declarations. It also lists Cabane's built-in skills, such as working with tables and figures. Every agent receives those; they can be read but not edited or declared.